GreenMed opens a diverse high-performance corridor across the Central–Eastern Mediterranean, leveraging – for the first time – the Adriatic Sea and strengthening diversification, resilience and low-latency connectivity for carriers, cloud and content players
Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, announces the construction of GreenMed, a next-generation subsea system designed to enhance route diversity, resilience and low-latency connectivity between Europe and the Middle East. The system will be designed and manufactured by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), a major player in the submarine cable industry, and installed by Elettra Tlc, a company dedicated to the marine survey, installation and repairs of telecommunication cables.
The GreenMed East will cross the Adriatic Sea, providing diverse optical fibre connectivity between Levant Countries and the rich digital ecosystem in the Milan area, touching the key gateways of Crete and Sicily and, along the path, the Balkan Countries, thus supporting the growing demand driven by cloud adoption, content delivery, enterprise digitalization and emerging AI-era traffic patterns. The new system will be integrated into Sparkle’s broader backbone and landing-hub strategy to deliver secure, diversified international connectivity services to carriers, cloud and content players, and multinational enterprises.
GreenMed builds on Sparkle’s experience with BlueMed – the company’s flagship project in the Tyrrhenian Sea – and its pioneering “open architecture” approach. In this context, GreenMed reinforces the “open cable” model by offering each fibre-pair tenant the possibility to select its preferred optical illumination architecture and vendor, consistent with system design and operational requirements.
The contract between Sparkle, ASN and Elettra Tlc, executed this morning during Capacity Middle East 2026 in Dubai, will be in force by end of February 2026, with the first segments of the system expected to be in service by late 2028. Under the agreement ASN will be responsible for system design and manufacturing of the subsea optical infrastructure including wet plant components and associated equipment, while Elettra Tlc will execute marine operations including the route survey and the cable installation/laying activities.
“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 connectivity hub for international connectivity,” said Enrico Maria Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle. “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.”
“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.”
“Elettra is honored to be entrusted with the marine operations for GreenMed,” said Didier Dillard, President & CEO of Elettra Tlc. “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.”
About Sparkle
Sparkle is TIM Group’s global operator, first international service provider in Italy and among the top worldwide, offering a full range of infrastructure and global connectivity services – capacity, IP, SD-WAN, colocation, IoT connectivity, roaming and voice – to national and international Carriers, OTTs, ISPs, Media/Content Providers, and multinational enterprises. As a leading player in the submarine cable industry, Sparkle owns and manages a network of more than 600,000 km of fiber stretching across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia. Sparkle’s sales team has a global presence, with representatives in 32 countries.
Find out more about Sparkle following its X and LinkedIn profiles or visiting the website tisparkle.com
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About Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN)
With over 160 years of history and 80% ownership by the French State Investment Agency (APE), Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) is a major player in the submarine cable industry, with more than 850,000 km of submerged optical systems deployed worldwide – equivalent to 21 times the Earth’s circumference. With its 3 factories located in Europe and an exclusive fleet of 7 cable-laying vessels spread across the globe, ASN develops, designs, deploys, and maintains turnkey submarine transmission systems for telecommunications operators, content & service providers (OTT), as well as offshore oil and gas applications. With a complete portfolio of services and a unique expertise, ASN meets specific and growing demands of its clients to deliver ever-increasing connectivity across the seas and oceans.
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About Elettra
Elettra Tlc Spa is a company dedicated to the marine survey, marine installation and repairs of telecommunication submarine cables all around the world, operating a fleet of two cable ships and one survey vessel. Elettra Tlc is fully owned by Orange. Together with its sister company Orange Marine, it is a world leader in its sector of activity, representing 15% of the global cable ships fleet. It has installed more than 80 000 km of optical cables and is in charge of the maintenance of most of the submarine cables in service in the Mediterranean, Black and Red seas areas.
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