Sparkle has announced the laying of the BlueMed submarine cable in Chania during a press conference hosted at the Residence of the Italian Ambassador in Athens.
BlueMed is Sparkle’s new cable connecting Italy to France, Greece and several countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the Blue & Raman submarine cable systems, as built in collaboration with Google and other operators that extend across the Middle East to Mumbai, India.
With four fibre pairs and an initial capacity of more than 25 Terabits per second (TBPS) per pair, BlueMed offers high-speed Internet connections and high-performance solutions to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), carriers, telecom operators, content providers, enterprises and institutions to support the growing needs and digital evolution of connected countries.
Laying began in 2023 with the main Tyrrhenian section from Genoa to Palermo and branches to Marseille and Bastia (France), Golfo Aranci (Sardinia) and Pomezia (Rome). From Palermo, the cable crossed the Strait of Messina to the Greek island of Crete, from where it will continue with further branches in the Mediterranean to Aqaba in Jordan. The Tyrrhenian and Middle Eastern land sections are already operational, while further layings in the Mediterranean and full operation from Genoa to Aqaba are expected within this year.
In Crete, BlueMed has reached Sparkle’s Data Centre in Chania, a cable landing station interconnected with the island’s land networks and Sparkle’s MedNautilus network (with connections to mainland Greece, Turkey and Italy). Sparkle is further developing the hub to accommodate other submarine cable projects, including GreenMed, which will cross the Adriatic Sea connecting Italy to Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Turkey, thereby creating a diversified, low latency route between Central Europe, the Balkans and the Central and Eastern Mediterranean countries.
