BlueMed: Sparkle Investing in Submarine Cable Connecting Palermo, Genoa and Milan

Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top ten global operators, announces a long-term investment for the deployment of BlueMed, a submarine multi-fiber cable linking Palermo with Genoa.

The new cable – planned to be operational by 2020 - will cross the Tyrrhenian Sea connecting Sparkle’s Sicily Hub open data center in Palermo, which serves eighteen international cables, with Genoa’s new open landing station, directly connected to Milan’s rich digital ecosystem. BlueMed will also include multiple branches within the Tyrrhenian Sea and is set to support further extensions southbound of Sicily.

With a capacity up to 240 Tbps and about 1,000 km long, BlueMed will provide advanced connectivity between Middle East, Africa, Asia and the European mainland hubs with up to 50% latency reduction than existing terrestrial cables connecting Sicily with Milan.

In addition, Sparkle’s new open landing station in Genoa is set to become the alternative priority access for other upcoming submarine cables looking for a diversified entry way to Europe, thus strengthening Italy's role as digital gateway between Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe.

“The investment on the deployment of BlueMed and of the landing station in Genoa represents the first phase of a wider plan aimed at consolidating Sparkle’s leadership in the Mediterranean basin through the extension and enhancement of its regional backbone”, says Mario Di Mauro, CEO of Sparkle.