Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, has joined the European research project ECSTATIC to develop innovative solutions aimed at enhancing the detection capabilities of submarine cable systems for identifying seismic phenomena.
Recent experiments suggest that integrating high-speed optical communication with sensing could turn submarine fiber-optic cables into a global distributed sensing system for earthquake and tsunami detection and infrastructure monitoring. With over five billion km of optical fiber cables already installed – many of these traversing undersea regions and areas beyond the reach of conventional sensors - there is a unique opportunity to repurpose the existing network for large-scale sensing without additional deployment. However, unlocking this potential will require redefining communication techniques, signal characteristics, and network architectures.
Thanks to a €4 million grant from the European Union, the ECSTATIC project - a consortium of 14 academic and industrial partners - seeks to leverage digital subsea infrastructures by developing a groundbreaking interferometry and polarization-based methodology for vibration and acoustic fiber-optic sensing. This ground-breaking approach will significantly improve sensitivity, distance range and localization. Moreover, the integration of advanced data processing and artificial intelligence/machine learning will ensure real-time sensing of events and network condition with high accuracy. Finally, the project will test these innovations in real-world telecom environments, paving the way for their standardization and widespread adoption.
Research activities are employing the Tyrrhenian segment of Sparkle's BlueMed submarine cable system, from Genoa to Palermo, to validate the use of these new technologies for seismic early warning, predictive maintenance, and network integrity, while also leveraging Sparkle’s Network Operation Center (NOC) in Catania for data storage.
The participation in this research project is part of a broader effort by Sparkle to experiment with the accessory use of submarine fiber optic cables for scientific and civil protection purposes. Over the past two years, the global operator has conducted several experiments on its “Mednautilus” cable system in collaboration with the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), gaining profound experience and a vast historical data base.
“Our involvement in the ECSTATIC project is a clear example of Sparkle’s vision to push the boundaries of what digital networks can achieve,” commented Enrico Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle. “By using our existing global fiber infrastructure, we demonstrate how the telecommunication industry can play a critical role in seismic monitoring and network protection.”
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 ECSTATIC
ECSTATIC is a unique initiative that seeks to evaluate the most important fibre-optic sensing techniques in real-life telecommunication infrastructures, integrating high-speed optical communication with distributed sensing, offering real-time data acquisition, monitoring, and analysis.
The Ecstatic project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 101189595, will be delivered by a consortium of 14 European partners: Aston University, Chalmers University of Technology, Enlightra, Modus Research and Innovation, National Observatory Athens, NetworkRail, Nokia, OTE Group of Companies, Sparkle, Universidad de Alcalà, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, Università degli Studi di Padova, Universitat Jaume I, University of West Attika.
For more information follow the LinkedIn profile and visit the website https://ecstatic-project.eu/
Rome, 17 April 2025
