Telecom Italia Sparkle expands reach of Sicily hub with MENA cable

Telecom Italia Sparkle expands reach of Sicily hub with MENA cable

Telecom Italia Sparkle has expanded the reach of its data centre in Palermo by adding a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) cable’s landing station in Mazara, Sicily.

The 9,500km-long MENA cable is said to utilise advanced optical technologies to connect the markets of Oman, Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt and Europe. The cable also includes branching units in the Mediterranean and Red Seas for potential expansion to markets in South Europe and East Africa. 

“With the expansion of On-Net reach of the Mazara landing station, our new ecosystem and leading IP gravitational center in the middle of the Mediterranean is able to provide a better internet experience to MENA Cable customers who will be able to benefit from a full data center service portfolio at our resilient and diversified Sicily Hub platform”, said Alessandro Talotta, CEO of TI Sparkle.

Presently served by its tier 1-grade global IP transit service Seabone, the company claims its Sicily hub is located closer than any other European peering point to North Africa. 

Through DE-CIX’s IX platform, the hub enables carriers that land their IP backbones in Sicily to directly interconnect with each other and to other providers – including some of the world’s largest content players – with a presence in the facility. 

Kamran Malik, CEO of MENA, said: “By hosting TI Sparkle inside MENA cable landing station in Mazara, Sicily, MENA provides its customers an alternative connectivity to the heart of Europe that moved to the middle of the Mediterranean. Having Sicily Hub connected to MENA Cable Landing Station through TIS Sparkle is adding to MENA more flexibility and reachability.” 

Capacity Middle East 2016is taking place in Dubai this week. To view our full coverage of the event, click here

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