Google and Italy's Sparkle plan to build two new submarine cables

Google and Sparkle announced plans to work with other unnamed partners to build two new submarine cables, each equipped with 16 pairs of fiber
.

One of the cable systems, Blue, will connect Italy, France, Greece and Israel, while the other Raman, will connect Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman and India
.

Blue will be deployed along a new northbound route in the Mediterranean, crossing the Strait of Messina instead of the traditional route
through the Strait of Sicily.
In the Blue system, Sparkle's own BlueMed submarine cable will be equipped with four additional fiber pairs, each with an initial design capacity of more than 25Tbps, which will extend to Jordan (Aqaba) and in the future will add branches in France (Corsica), Greece (Chania, Crete), Italy (Sardinia and Rome), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey, Cyprus and other places
。 The Tyrrhenian portion of BlueMed is scheduled to be operational in 2022, while Blue and Raman are expected to be operational in 2024 (RFS).

Elisabetta Romano, CEO of Sparkle, said: "With the Blue and Raman submarine cable systems, Sparkle has enhanced its capabilities on strategic routes between Asia, the Middle East and Europe and enhanced BlueMed's presence
in the Greater Mediterranean.
”