Not only Sparkle (Tim), what happens in Genoa for submarine cables
Genoa and Sparkle (Tim) have signed an agreement for an internet traffic exchange point. But the submarine cables that pass through the city today refer to the data center of the American company Equinix. Facts, insights and scenarios
Last week Ge-DIX, the institution of the municipality of Genoa for Internet interconnection services, reached an agreement with Telecom Italia Sparkle, the Tim group company that deals with telecommunications networks, for the establishment of a Internet Exchange Point (or internet traffic exchange point) at the “Genova Digital Hub” data center in Lagaccio. The center is owned by Sparkle.
WHAT IS AN INTERCHANGE POINT
The interchange point, also called IXP, is a physical infrastructure that allows the exchange of internet traffic between various providers of connectivity services. "Through a physical access point to the network", the press release explains, "local, national and international internet service providers (who land their internet network in Genoa) can interconnect directly with each other and exchange traffic […], at advantage of the navigation experience of the area's business and consumer user communities”.
THE AMBITION OF GENOA
Ge-DIX was founded by the Municipality of Genoa and Liguria Digitale, in a consortium with the Piedmontese Internet Exchange TOP-IX and with a number of companies such as Fastweb, BBBell, Retelit Irideos and Rocket Way.
Through the interchange point in Lagaccio, Genoa intends to promote its role as an interconnection point for terrestrial networks and submarine telecommunications cables. Among the latter, we note BlueMed – currently inactive: it will be completed in 2024 – which will connect Italy with France, Greece and Israel, with various branches in the Mediterranean Sea. The infrastructure is part of a larger project, with another cable, called Raman, which will reach South Asia via the Arabian Peninsula.
2AFRICA OF FACEBOOK AND MEDLOOP OF ORANGE
As Il Secolo XIX writes, the first of the submarine cables to land in Genoa – there will be four in all, by 2025 – was Facebook's 2Africa , a year ago; the British Vodafone and the French Orange also participate in the infrastructure. In Genoa 2Africa refers to the data center of the US company Equinix, in Val Bisagno, which however is not connected to Ge-DIX and currently, for technical reasons, cannot be. “We are working on it,” said the president of Ge-DIX, Luca Beltramino, as reported by Secolo XIX .
Another submarine cable, the Medloop, a French project (attributable to Orange) which connects Ajaccio, Marseille, Genoa and Barcelona, also lands in the center of Equinix: the laying was completed last December and is in operation.
DID GENOA MAKE A MISTAKE IN TRADING WITH SPARKLE?
Il Secolo XIX wrote that, by allying itself with Sparkle, "Ge-Dix has for now barred itself from any connection with the only two large submarine cables currently active in Genoa". The reason for the choice is not clear: does the significant stake of Cassa depositi e prestiti (controlled by the Ministry of the Economy) in Tim have something to do with it?
THE UNITED TERRAIN CABLE
The last of the four submarine cables passing through Genoa is expected for 2025: after 2Africa, Medloop and BlueMed, it will be the turn of Unitirreno. Unitirreno is owned by an Italian company, Unidata, and will pass between Fiumicino, Genoa and Mazara del Vallo. If it does not arrive at the Sparkle data center, preferring that of Equinix, and if the other cables do not do the same, Genoa will not become a digital pole but a simple "transition" point, notes the local newspaper.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/cavi-sottomarni-genova-sparkle-equinix/ on Mon, 07 Aug 2023 10:22:55 +0000.