Announced earlier today during a press conference in the presence of Marco Bucci the mayor of Genoa; Giovanni Toti, president of the Liguria region; Sparkle CEO Enrico Bagnasco, and Jayne Stowell, strategic negotiator, global infrastructure at Google.
“BlueMed is a fundamental infrastructure to continue and accelerate the path of growth and digital transformation of our territory from an economic, social and cultural point of view," said Toti.
"Thanks to BlueMed it will also become so for Internet traffic and data, which, circulating at very high speed, will help our enterprises to increase their competitiveness and attractiveness with respect to investments from abroad, with important benefits also for the daily life of Ligurian citizens. Liguria.”
BlueMed will connect Italy with France, Greece and Israel, with several other branches in the Mediterranean. It will feature four fibre pairs and an initial design capacity of more than 25Tbps per pair, delivering high-speed Internet connections and high-performance connectivity solutions to Internet Service Providers, carriers, telecom operators, content providers, enterprises and institutions.
"We are proud to have realised with BlueMed and the Genoa Landing Platform a state-of-the-art infrastructure that reinforces the role of Italy, and Genoa in particular, in the global internet by creating a new digital corridor between Europe and the African and Asian continents," said Bagnasco.
Deployment began on 31 January with the laying of the branch in Golfo Aranci, Sardinia, before landing in Pomezia, on the coast of Rome 9 February.
From Genoa, the cable will continue southwards across the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Sicily Hub in Palermo from there it will pass through the Strait of Messina and the Mediterranean Sea down to the Red Sea. The first section of the system, Genoa-Golfo Aranci-Pomezia-Palermo, will be operational as of May, while the extension to Corsica in Bastia will be completed in June 2023.
"Genoa is even more connected to the world and can play a central role as a hub in the Italian, European and global scenario," added Bucci.
"We must and want, as an administration, to be perceived as a facilitator towards companies, we want to make people understand that innovation means efficiency and that it is possible to do things well and quickly for the benefit of citizens and those who want to operate in our territory."
The cable landing in Genoa is currently underway off the port where the cable enters the Genoa Landing Platform, defined by a multi-conductor submarine pipeline known as the Bore Pipe, and connects through a 6km network of tunnels and underground galleries to the Genoa Lagaccio Open Landing Station.
"Blue is part of Google’s commitment to invest in accelerating the growth and development of a digital economy in Italy and the Mediterranean region, enabling the advancement of new technologies and innovations for Italian companies," said Stowell.
