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.
Enrico Maria Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle
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. 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.
Alain Biston, CEO of ASN
ASN is proud to bring its end-to-end subsea expertise and advanced system design capabilities to GreenMed. 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 & 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.
