Between Olbia and Golfo Aranci the hub of the Mediterranean digital highways

All thanks to data and digital highways at the bottom of the sea. Thanks to Google's submarine cables in Golfo Aranci, and Siportal's new data centre in Olbia, Sardinia is aiming to be in the vanguard throughout the Mediterranean. They will also become a crucial hub on the international scene in light of a very powerful internet network sheltered from geopolitical turbulence, since 90% of traffic between Europe and Asia passes through the Red Sea.

Outlining this scenario is the report prepared by the study centre of Cipnes, the public body for the economic growth of Gallura and North-East Sardinia.

"Today's internet giants, such as Google and Meta, need more bandwidth for their services. This is why, for years, they have chosen to build submarine cables around the world because they want to be guaranteed to have a channel that is always free to pass data through,' reads the study centre's analysis. One of these projects, Blue or Bluemed, directly involves Sardinia. Blue is the submarine cable for ultra-wideband made operational in 2023 by Sparkle (Tim group), Omantel and, indeed, Google. The cable is 4,700 km long, starts from Aqaba in Jordan and, crossing the Mediterranean, arrives in Genoa'.

The island participates in the network with the Golfo Aranci hub. "In 2023, the Maritime District Office of Golfo Aranci had authorised the works of the Blue project, first for the cleaning of the area with the ship 'Ocean Link' and then for the laying of the submarine cables with the ship 'CS Recorder'," the document goes on to reconstruct, "The operations were carried out by Alcatel Submarine Network. Then the arrival of the cables at Cala Spada, near the centre of the Gallura municipality. With the result that 'Sardinia therefore has a powerful new network for the internet worldwide, which does not pass through the Red Sea'. 'Only from 2025, through the other section of the submarine cable, called Raman,' the document continues, 'will Blue's cables connect Europe and Asia, starting from Jordan, passing under the Red Sea, touching Oman and arriving in India'.

Also in the pipeline is the '2Africa' project, a plan to connect the whole of Africa to the internet, with 45,000 kilometres of cables. 'The project is being carried out by several giants,' the document further reconstructs, 'Bayobab, China Mobile, Orange, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, WIOCC and, indeed, Meta. Data will begin to travel on '2Africa' from 2024. In the Mediterranean section, the cables for now touch Genoa but there is already a connection, not yet active, according to submarinecablemap.com, with Golfo Aranci'.