The completion of its BlueMed undersea internet cable terminating at Chania was announced on 22nd May by Sparkle – Italy’s top international provider of telecommunications infrastructure and among the top ten in the world – at a press conference held in the residence of the Italian Ambassador in Athens.
BlueMed is Sparkle’s new cable which links Italy with France, Greece and other countries with a Mediterranean shoreline. The cable is part of the wider Blue & Raman Submarine Cable Systems network, which is being built in cooperation with Google and other providers, and stretches into the Middle East and as far as Mumbai in India.
Cable laying began in 2023, in the Tyrrhenian Sea from Genoa to Palermo, with branches to Marseilles and Bastia (Corsica), Golfo Aranci (Sardinia) and Pomezia (Rome). From Palermo, the cable passes through the Strait of Messina to reach Crete, from where it will continue with further branches in the Mediterranean as far as Aqaba in Jordan. The terrestrial sections in the Tyrrhenian and the Middle East are already in full operation, while the further extensions in the Mediterranean as well as the full operation of the section from Genoa to Aqaba are expected within the year.
In Crete, BlueMed terminates at Sparkle’s 0.8MW data centre in Chania, which is interconnected with the island’s terrestrial networks and Sparkle’s MedNautilus network, which has connections to mainland Greece, Turkey and Italy.
The reception at the Italian Embassy in Athens was attended by the Italian Ambassador Paolo Cuculi, the Greek minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou, Sparkle CEO Enrico Bagnasco and CEO of Sparkle Greece Daniele Mancuso. Speaking to the media, Mr Papastergiou declared:
“This is an important milestone that marks a new era in connectivity and highlights the central role of Greece in the Mediterranean Sea, placing Greece at the heart of a digital route that bridges Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It is a critical infrastructure, which will significantly enhance the capacity and resilience of digital data traffic, while underlining our commitment to the European Union’s objective of strategic autonomy.”
“With the landing of BlueMed in Crete, Greece is enabling a new digital route for Internet traffic between Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia,” said Sparkle CEO Enrico Bagnasco. “We have been operating in Greece for more than 20 years and here we have the skills and infrastructures needed to develop it as a new Internet hub of the Mediterranean, a role destined to grow further in the future thanks to the landing of new submarine cables.”
(Haniotika Nea 23/05/24, Sparkle press release 22/05/24)