The Telecom Italia Group is a major Italian enterprise and a key European strategic ICT player. Driven by technological innovation and a commitment to service excellence, Group companies operate in fixed-line and mobile telecommunications, Internet & Media, Information Technologies. Most of the R&D activities of the Group are performed inside the Innovation and R&D Departments of Telecom Italia and involve around 4500 researchers and technicians with an average investment of 650 M€ per year. The "Innovation" department ensures the supervision of technological innovation for the Group, scouting for new technologies and engineering operations for services and network platforms.

The work carried out by the Innovation Department is the outcome of a strategic partnership with the main manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and systems, and with centres of excellence in research at the most highly qualified national and international academic institutions. On the international level Telecom Italia has pledged a substantial commitment to the task of standardisation and has been involved from the beginning in the European Union Framework Programmes starting with the first pilot projects of the ESPRIT programme in 1983 and continuing as one of the primary European collaborators in terms of both finance and the number of projects. In Horizon 2020 and FP7 Telecom Italia is at present involved in more than 50 Projects.