Thirty years of Internet evolution, from the first dial-up connections to cloud services, streaming, and artificial intelligence. This is the story of Seabone, the Sparkle's global IP transit backbone, which in 2026 celebrates the thirtieth anniversary since his birth.
Released in September 1996, when the Internet was just starting to enter homes through analog modems, Seabone debuted with 45 Mbps connections between Milan, Palermo, Miami e Montreal. Since then the network has expanded progressively coverage, capacity and performance, to become one of the main Tier-1 Internet networks globally and a reference backbone in the Mediterranean, in Africa, Medium Nibujon e Latin america.
Seabone, a 600 km global network
Today Seabone relies on a proprietary fiber optic network completely redundant with about 600 thousand kilometers, which extends across Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia. The infrastructure reaches over 600 customers in 126 PoPs and Telehouses worldwide and offers direct access to the main Over The Top (OTT), Content Delivery Networks (CDN), and global cloud ecosystems. Continuous network monitoring is ensured by a Global Network Operations Center, operational 24/24, monitoring infrastructure performance, managing faults and providing customer support.
The evolution of the network has followed that of Internet traffic and digital services, moving from the connections of the 1990s to an ecosystem increasingly based on the cloud, video streaming, video games, and artificial intelligence applications. This growth has also led to an increase in capacity and speed requirements: today, Seabone supports access interfaces up to 400 Gbps across the entire edge infrastructure, allowing customers to scale connectivity as traffic and digital services grow.
Seabone: More speed and security features
As part of its evolution, Seabone has also introduced Fast Delivery, A provisioning option available at major global hubs that allows service activation within 24 hours, reducing delivery times and offering greater flexibility for urgent connectivity needs. The offering is rounded out by services dedicated to security and access to Internet ecosystems, such as DDoS protection, to protect networks from cyber attacks, and Virtual Nap, which allows access to the main Internet Exchange Point (Ixp) without the need to invest in proprietary infrastructure.
“When Seabone was born thirty years ago, the Internet was still in its infancy. Since then, it has continued to evolve to accompany and anticipate the transformation of the digital landscape,” said Enrico Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle, highlighting the expansion of coverage, improved performance and the introduction of new features.
To celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, Sparkle has launched a communication campaign in the international press and on its digital and social channels, accompanied by initiatives aimed at new customers interested in Seabone services.
