SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium awards Sparkle with Network Administrator and Network Operations Center responsibilities

Both functions to be operated by Sparkle in Catania, Sicily, where SEA-ME- WE 5 lands

Sparkle, the International services arm of Telecom Italia Group and a leading global operator, announces that it has been awarded by the SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium of both Network Administrator (NA) and Network Operation Center (NOC) responsibilities for the new cable system.
The two responsibilities have been assigned to Sparkle as outcome of a tender process participated by several consortium members, and the result represents an important recognition of Sparkle’s affirmed competence and knowhow in managing and operating submarine cable systems.
Both activities will be performed in Sparkle’s Core Landing Station in Catania, which is also a main landing point in Europe for SEA-ME-WE 5 - as well as for other major international cable systems.

With a design capacity set at 24 Terabit per second on 3 fiber pairs deployed by a consortium of 19 carriers including Sparkle, the new cable system is due to come into service by the end of this year and will provide lowest latency connectivity through 16 countries - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, France and Italy - offering an additional network layer of diversity and resilience for the heavily loaded Asia to Europe route.
Sparkle’s connectivity solutions out of Sicily - will be available to SEA-ME-WE 5 through Sparkle’s Next Generation Data Center and open ecosystem located in Palermo - Sicily Hub - a rich service marketplace interconnected with all international cables landing in Sicily, where customers can also peer directly with content providers or publicly through DE-CIX.

SEA-ME-WE 5 is the first cable in the Europe-to-Asia route to provide advanced connectivity solutions on a POP-to-POP basis from open telehouses in Europe - such as Sparkle Sicily Hub - as well as in Singapore, in a decisive effort to effectively address today’s demand for IP and capacity services, while facilitating network interconnection and improving performance.

With its participation in the SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium, Sparkle has secured its leadership in the fast growing Asia to Middle East and Europe route, enhancing its proposition with a diversified and low latency route to and from Asia. And with the recent opening of Sicily Hub in Palermo, Sparkle is further strengthening its role as leading European hub in the Mediterranean.