Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, has signed an agreement with Unitirreno - a partnership between Unidata, Italian TLC operator and ISP, and industry experts - for the landing of its new subsea cable system in Sparkle’s Genoa Landing Platform.
The Unitirreno Submarine Cable System will cross the Tyrrhenian Sea from Genoa to Mazara del Vallo (Sicily) with branches to Olbia (Sardinia), Rome and more in the future. Designed with an “open cable system” architecture and with a total capacity of 480 Tbps (Terabits per second), the cable will cover around 1,030km and is currently expected to be ready for service by Q2 of 2025.
Under the agreement, Unitirreno will use Sparkle's Genoa Landing Platform, a scalable infrastructure designed to offer a turnkey, highly resilient and secure submarine cable landing on the Western European coastline. Through this infrastructure, already used by the BlueMed and BlueRaman systems, Unitirreno will reach the Genoa Digital Hub in Lagaccio, an open and neutral colocation facility and interconnection point with other submarine cables and European terrestrial networks, as well as Internet Exchange Points like Ge-DIX which is already operational in the facility.
By landing in Genoa, Unitirreno gains quick access to major European hubs without impacting the city and the environment and saving the cost, time and administrative complexities typically needed to set up a proprietary landing infrastructure.
"We are proud to have been chosen by Unitirreno as their landing partner on the Western European coast”, said Enrico Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle. “This agreement further enriches the Ligurian digital ecosystem and confirms our Genoa Landing Platform as a reference alternative for more submarine cables seeking diversified entry into Europe.”
“We are very pleased with the agreement with Sparkle, which represents not only a guarantee in terms of reliability and security but also an opportunity to explore further collaborations in the future. We are convinced that this agreement will make a significant contribution to the development of an increasingly advanced interconnection system, improving the quality of services and paving the way for new innovations” said Renato Brunetti, President and CEO of Unidata.
About Sparkle
Sparkle is TIM Group’s Global Operator, first international service provider in Italy and among the top worldwide, offering a full range of infrastructure and global connectivity services – capacity, IP, SD-WAN, colocation, IoT connectivity, roaming and voice - to national and international Carriers, OTTs, ISPs, Media/Content Providers, and multinational enterprises. A major player in the submarine cable industry, Sparkle owns and manages a network of more than 600,000 km of fiber spanning from Europe to Africa and the Middle East, the Americas and Asia. Its sales force is active worldwide and distributed over 33 countries.
Find out more about Sparkle following its X and LinkedIn profiles or visiting the website tisparkle.com
About Unitirreno Submarine Network, S.p.A (Unitirreno)
Unitirreno is a partnership between the fund “Infrastrutture per la Crescita – Esg” established and managed by Azimut Libera Impresa Sgr, Unidata and industry experts to focus on enhancing Italy’s digital infrastructure foundation through deployment of a new subsea cable system in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The approximately 1,030 kilometer system will connect Mazara del Vallo with Genoa and a junction point near Rome-Fiumicino. Unitirreno will offer a secure, low latency alternative to Marseille as a cable landing hub in the Mediterranean and deliver strategic landing points for intercontinental cables from Asia, the Middle East and Africa in addition to a new route to major digital infrastructure hubs across Europe. www.unitirreno.com
About Unidata
Unidata S.p.A., a Telecommunications, Cloud and IoT Operator, was founded in 1985 by three partners still in the Company. With a fiber optic network of over 6,800 km in continuous expansion, a wireless network and a proprietary data center, the Unidata Group supplies over 23,000 business, wholesale and residential customers with ultra-broadband connectivity services with FTTH (Fiber to the Home) network architectures, wireless connectivity, VoIP services, Cloud services and other dedicated solutions, with a high level of reliability and security. The company is also active in the Internet of Things (IoT), with the development and supply of solutions for the home automation and Smart City market. Unidata S.p.A. ISIN CODE: IT0005573065 (Reuters UD MI - Bloomberg UD IM) is listed on Euronext Milan – STAR segment of Borsa Italiana.
Rome, 24 July 2024
