Sparkle, Telekom Slovenije Launch Cross-Border Link Connecting Ljubljana with Milan

Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top ten global operators, and Telekom Slovenije, leading comprehensive communications service provider in Slovenia, have launched a new cross border optical fiber link directly connecting Ljubljana with Milan.

Fully interconnected with Sparkle’s and Telekom Slovenije’s backbones, the new link provides a short and alternative route from the Balkans - with access options from Ljubljana, Sofia and Istanbul - to Milan and other major hubs in Western Europe, catering the needs of Balkan and Middle Eastern operators as well as of international OTTs, ISPs and Content Providers looking for diversified and reliable capacity solutions.

The new route is natively integrated with Sparkle’s global Tier-1 IP Transit backbone Seabone, among the top ten Internet networks worldwide, allowing Sparkle to offer a complete range of IP and Data services including City2City connectivity, IP Transit, DDos attack mitigation and Virtual NAP solutions.

“We are proud of collaborating with Telekom Slovenije on this unique terrestrial route from Turkey to the major Western European ecosystems across the Balkans”, says Mario Di Mauro, CEO of Sparkle. “The Balkan region is today an interesting greenfield for international cables and we expect that the new route will attract Balkan and Middle Eastern providers looking for a fast and reliable access to Europe”.

Simon Furlan, Telekom Slovenije Wholesale director adds: “In the wholesale field cooperation with Sparkle has traditionally been very close and mutually satisfactory. However, with our latest project of connecting Sofia and Milano via Ljubljana, the synergy of cooperation has been put on a completely new level. We feel privileged to co-create bridge between East and West for all of our existing and potential customers”.

Sparkle is TIM Group’s fully owned Global Operator, first international service provider in Italy and among the top ten worldwide, with a proprietary backbone of around 530,000 km of fiber spanning from Europe to Africa, the Americas and Asia.

Leveraging its global IP, Data, Cloud, Data Center, Mobile Data and Voice Platforms, Sparkle offers a full range of ICT solutions to Internet Service Providers, OTTs, Media and Content Players, Application Service Providers, Fixed and Mobile operators as well as Multinational Enterprises. Its sales force is active worldwide and distributed over 33 countries.