Tim, because Telecom Sparkle will aim at Africa
Sparkle presses the accelerator on Africa. Here is what emerges from the report "Digitization and economic development: the case of Africa, an empirical evaluation" edited by the TIM study center
Sparkle, the subsidiary of the Tim group that operates in the strategic sector of submarine cables for telecommunications, is increasingly looking to Africa.
In fact, in recent years on the African continent there has been an increase in demand for telecommunication services.
This is what emerges from the report “Digitization and economic development: the case of Africa, an empirical evaluation 'edited by the TIM study center with the patronage of Assafrica (Confindustria).
"We are in the era that is hungry for data", declared Elisabetta Romano, CEO of Sparkle, global operator of the Tim group, the fifth largest Internet network in the world, on the occasion of the presentation of the report and "we Sparkle are the second international operator for Africa ”which is“ the continent for which the increase in data is greater than that of the others. Why is Africa growing more? Because the next 1.3 billion internet users (eyeballs) will be in Africa ”.
But we are not just talking about the weight of the African continent. “Sparkle is increasingly strategic for Italy. When it comes to the internet and growing traffic, most of it is international traffic, ”Romano said. "Sparkle but the whole Telecom group has physical assets that have an inestimable value, and also human capital, skills, it is no coincidence that Google chooses Sparkle to work ".
The strategic nature of Tim's assets, not just the submarine cabling with Sparkle, is being talked about a lot these days after the expression of interest presented by the American fund Kkr for a totalitarian takeover bid on the Italian group.
All the details.
SPARKLE ACCELERATES IN AFRICA
Thanks to the international connectivity offered by Sparkle, the Tim group is contributing to the economic development of Africa with new ICT solutions and data center services. The latter will progressively enrich Sparkle's portfolio.
"In Africa, Sparkle is the second largest operator in terms of Internet traffic, thanks to its extensive network that runs around the continent and directly connected to Europe and Asia, and thanks to its strategic hubs in Sicily and Djibouti," he explained. Roman.
According to the TIM study center, the spread of broadband in Africa generated a positive contribution of 1.120 billion dollars to the growth of African GDP between 2009 and 2019.
Major contributions benefited South Africa ($ 462 billion), Egypt ($ 283 billion), Nigeria ($ 204 billion) and Algeria ($ 158 billion).
EMPLOYMENT IS GROWING IN AREAS CONNECTED BY FIBER
However, broadband, the report reads, has also made a significant contribution to all other countries: Angola $ 41 billion, Kenya $ 27.6 billion, Morocco $ 88 billion, Libya 88 , 5 billion dollars and Tunisia 48.8 billion dollars. In areas connected to the broadband network via fiber, there is an average increase in employment: from 22,000 to 82,000 new people employed for every million inhabitants (2.2-8.2%).
THRUST TO GDP BY SUBMARINE CABLES
Many recent studies and researches have empirically identified significant evidence of the benefit that the arrival of submarine cables in Africa has generated on the growth of per capita GDP. In South Africa, for example, each 10% increase in international bandwidth consumption led to a 0.15% increase in GDP per capita, in the period between 1995 and 2017. Future investments in bandwidth expansion and international connectivity could bring even greater benefits to Africa's per capita GDP, estimated from 0.42% to 0.58% only in the first 2-3 years following the construction of the new infrastructures.
SPARKLE INVESTMENTS IN AFRICA
And Sparkle's commitment to the African continent is also demonstrated by the Blue & Raman Submarine Cable Systems project.
Just last July, the subsidiary of the Tim group announced its collaboration with Google and other operators for the construction of the new intercontinental infrastructure that will connect Italy to India. Communications between Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia will be improved.
BLE & RAMAN SUBMARINE CABLE SYSTEMS WITH GOOGLE
Blue System will in fact connect Italy, France, Greece and Israel and Raman System Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman and India.
The operation of Blue and Raman is expected in 2024, while the Tyrrhenian part of BlueMed will be active already in 2022.
“It will consolidate Sparkle's presence in the Mediterranean and in Africa: it will be extended to Jordan with further branches in Africa, including those in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Eritrea and Djibouti,” added Romano.
"Sparkle will provide direct and uninterrupted connections throughout the Mediterranean basin and to Africa, with unprecedented levels of latency and efficiency and a new reference gateway in the city of Genoa," he continued.
IN ADDITION TO INFRASTRUCTURE, ALSO SERVICES
In addition to the B&R project, "Sparkle is investing in other large-scale infrastructure projects – in collaboration with selected partners, both local operators and OTTs – to provide advanced connectivity between Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe and in the opening of new points of presence to increase the capillarity of its African network ".
In addition to the infrastructure, Sparkle is in fact evolving its portfolio of services to offer advanced connectivity services and digital services such as SD-WAN, security services, cloud and IoT solutions, especially in North African countries.
THE ROLE OF THE SICILY HUB OF PALERMO
Furthermore, Sparkle plays an important role in providing international connectivity services in the African continent and in particular in North Africa, through its Sicily Hub in Palermo, a latest generation neutral hub equipped with cutting-edge technologies for data security. Thanks to its proximity to North Africa and the Middle East, the connection with 18 international cables and the integration with Sparkle Seabone's global IP Tier-1 Transit network, Sicily Hub has established itself, within a few years, as the main exchange point for Internet traffic to and from Africa to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
“The challenge today is to bring connectivity and capacity across the continent, opening new points of presence (PoPs), in addition to those in Lagos, Casablanca and Djibouti and investing in new Pan-African cable systems. But also to enhance the offer with new value-added services ”, he concluded.
SPARKLE MORE AND MORE STRATEGIC FOR ITALY
Finally, Africa is also looking at our country.
“Sparkle is increasingly strategic for Italy. When it comes to the internet and growing traffic, most of it is international traffic. We believe that it has always been, but today there is much more awareness ”said Elisabetta Romano. “Italy will increasingly be a center of gravity for international connectivity. In the next decade there is an opportunity for Italy that we cannot miss ”, concludes the CEO of Sparke.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tim-perche-telecom-sparkle-puntera-africa/ on Thu, 25 Nov 2021 14:57:26 +0000.