By Lightwave
Sparkle, Telecom Italia Group's international services business unit, says it will acquire what it called “significant spectrum” on the Flag Atlantic-1 (FA-1) transatlantic submarine network as well as capacity on the new SEA-ME-WE-5 undersea cable system. Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, owns and operates both systems.
As part of the capacity agreement, Sparkle says the two parties will cooperate on leveraging Sparkle's hub in Palermo, Italy, to address connectivity to South America as well as the Middle East and Asia Pacific from the site. Sparkle asserts the hub is closer than any other European peering point to North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. The site therefore can offer as much as 35 ms lower latency than more northern continental alternatives.
