Sparkle, part of the Telecom Italia Group, has landed its BlueMed subsea cable in Bastia, Corsica.
This is the latest landing on the subsea cable system connecting Italy with France, Greece, and several countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, before ending in Aqaba, Jordan.
The system is part of the Blue & Raman cable built in partnership with Google and other operators, which will extend to Mumbai, India.
In early September 2023, the Italian section of the cable went live, bringing 120Tbps of connectivity across four fiber pairs to Palermo, Genoa, and Milan.
Later that month, Sparkle activated the terrestrial section of the cable that connects Aqaba to the Mediterranean backbone linking to Milan.
At the time, Sparkle stated that BlueMed is expected to be activated in Corsica by the end of 2023, along with Pomezia (Rome), and Golfo Aranci (Sardinia).
The Blue & Raman project was announced in 2020, with the latter part named after Indian Nobel Prize Laureate Venjata Raman, and represents $400m of investment. The cable will provide a different route through the Middle East than Egypt, which currently has a submarine cable stranglehold.
Sparkle is currently being courted by KKR's subsidiary Optics Bidco. KKR submitted a €600m ($649m) non-binding offer for Sparkle on November 5, but the bid was rejected. KKR has requested an extension until the end of January for it to submit an updated offer. Estimates suggest that TIM values Sparkle at closer to €1 billion ($1.07bn).
