Sparkle, Telecom Italia Group's international services business unit, says it will acquire what it called "significant spectrum" on the Flag Atlantic-1 (FA-1) transatlantic submarine network as well as capacity on the new SEA-ME-WE-5 undersea cable system. Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, owns and operates both systems.
As part of the capacity agreement, Sparkle says the two parties will cooperate on leveraging Sparkle's hub in Palermo, Italy, to address connectivity to South America as well as the Middle East and Asia Pacific from the site. Sparkle asserts the hub is closer than any other European peering point to North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. The site therefore can offer as much as 35 ms lower latency than more northern continental alternatives.
Sparkle serves the Palermo hub via Seabone, the company's Tier 1 global IP transit service. The site also is connected to 19 major international submarine cable systems landing in Sicily. DE-CIX also hosts an internet exchange platform at the site.
"Through our partnership with GCX we will significantly enhance our spectrum capacity and continue our strategic global backbone expansion plans. This partnership further leverages both companies' European and American assets, including 100-Gbps IP transit connectivity, improving our ability to meet growing market demands," said Alessandro Talotta, chairman and CEO of Sparkle.
"Earlier this year we expanded our reach into Sparkle's Sicily Hub in Palermo with a multi-service PoP, providing enhanced coverage and increased diversity options to meet the growing demand for high-performance, low-latency connectivity across Africa, the Mediterranean, and the emerging markets," said Bill Barney, CEO, Reliance Communications and Global Cloud Xchange. "We are pleased to further expand our partnership with Sparkle across the strategic Atlantic route and into Asia Pacific."
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