Google, via a blog authored by vice president and head of Google Global Networking and head of technology and strategy, Google Cloud for Telecommunications Bikash Koley, has revealed plans to partner with Sparkle and others on a pair of submarine cable systems that will connect the Middle East with southern Europe and Asia. The Blue Submarine Cable System will link Italy, France, Greece, and Israel, while the Raman Submarine Cable System will connect Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman, and India.
Both the Blue and Raman submarine networks will feature 16 fiber pairs and carry an expected ready-for-service date sometime in 2024. The consortium members behind the two systems hope to make additional landings and connect the two systems terrestrially, writes Koley.
According to Sparkle, the two undersea systems will support multiple fiber tenants and feature open landing stations to enable competitive access to the cable termination points. The company adds that the Blue submarine cable will use a new northbound route in the Mediterranean, crossing the Strait of Messina rather than following the traditional route through Sicily Channel. The system will piggyback on Sparkle’s BlueMed system, which is currently under construction (see “Sparkle to launch BlueMed submarine cable across Tyrrhenian Sea”). BlueMed will share its wet components with four additional fiber pairs and carry an initial design capacity of more than 25 Tbps per fibre pair. The route extends to Jordan (Aqaba) with additional private branches into France (Corsica), Greece (Chania – Crete), Italy (Golfo Aranci – Sardinia and Rome), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey, and Cyprus, with more planned in the future. The Tyrrhenian part of BlueMed is expected to be operational in 2022.
“We are extremely proud to bring our collaboration with Google to the next level with this cutting-edge intercontinental infrastructure,” commented Elisabetta Romano, CEO of Sparkle. “With Blue and Raman Submarine Cable Systems, Sparkle boosts its capabilities in the strategic routes between Asia, Middle East and Europe and the enhanced BlueMed strengthens our presence in the greater Mediterranean area.”
Meanwhile, those knowledgeable in optical transport technology are correct in assuming that the Raman system is named for Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, an Indian physicist who won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on light scattering. That work led to the development of Raman amplification.
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