Sparkle has announced the construction of GreenMed, a next-generation subsea cable system designed to enhance route diversity, resilience and low-latency connectivity between Europe and the Middle East.
Partnering with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and Elettra Tlc, Sparkle will be building the new subsea cable system in the Mediterranean. The goal is to open a high-performance corridor across the Central-Eastern Mediterranean and strengthen diversification, resilience and low-latency connectivity for carriers, cloud and content players.
“GreenMed represents another concrete step in Sparkle’s strategy to strengthen the Mediterranean basin as a key digital gateway and to reinforce Italy’s role as a primary international connectivity hub,” said Enrico Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle and chairman of the board at the Global Leadership Forum (GLF). “With GreenMed in the Adriatic and BlueMed in the Tyrrhenian, Sparkle offers two highly innovative routes between Europe and the Middle East for maximum diversification and resilience.”
Speaking exclusively with Capacity at Capacity Middle East, Bagnasco added: “We wanted to make the announcement here because GreenMed is, in our view, the new express digital corridor to connect the Middle East with Europe.
“It will have the shortest distance from the Middle East to the heart of Europe, and therefore the shortest latency. It will be a brand new route with more capacity and less latency.”
GreenMed East will cross the Adriatic Sea strategically and provide diverse optical fibre connectivity between Levant countries and the digital ecosystem in the Milan area, the companies said. The route will also support strategic Crete and Sicily gateways, in addition to Balkan countries, supporting surging demand driven by cloud adoption, content delivery, enterprise digitalisation and emerging AI-era traffic patterns.
Sparkle said the new system will be fully integrated into its broader backbone and landing-hub strategy and deliver secure international connectivity services.
ASN, a key player in the submarine cable industry, is expected to engineer and manufacture the system and will be responsible for the design and manufacturing of the subsea optical infrastructure. Elettra Tlc will install the system and carry out marine operations, including route surveys and cable installation and laying activities.
“ASN is proud to bring its end-to-end subsea expertise and advanced system design capabilities to GreenMed,” said Alain Biston, CEO of ASN. “This project will showcase next-generation wet plant technology, scalable capacity design and industrial quality, enabling a future-proof infrastructure that supports the most demanding applications and evolving traffic patterns.”
Didier Dillard, president and CEO of Elettra Tlc, added: “Our teams will deliver the survey and installation phases with a strong focus on safety, precision and environmental responsibility, leveraging deep experience in Mediterranean cable operations to ensure an efficient and reliable deployment.”
The GreenMed announcement builds on Sparkle’s experience with BlueMed, the company’s flagship project in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Within this context, Sparkle said GreenMed will further strengthen the open cable model allowing each fibre-pair tenant to select its preferred optical illumination architecture and vendor, in line with system design and operational requirements.
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