GO’s multi-million euro investment in its second submarine cable, which will increase the available bandwidth capacity eight times over, is another ultra-essential building block for Malta’s economy, according to Investment, Industry and Information Technology Minister Austin Gatt.
Dr Gatt was speaking at an event during which GO announced details of the project at the Westin Dragonara Resort yesterday.
By means of the submarine cable, GO, Malta’s quad-play telecoms provider, will link Malta to Italy via Interoute’s pan-European network that connects 85 cities in 22 countries across 54,000 cable kilometres of fibre.
The submarine cable project, which will be known as GO-1 Mediterranean Cable System, is expected to be completed by November this year and is being entrusted to an international consortium made up of Alcatel-Lucent and Elettra.
GO chairman Sonny Portelli said the new submarine cable system would be able to offer further resilience to the company’s existing international links by having a completely diverse route.
“The new submarine cable will augment GO’s international capacity and cater for projected demands for broadband services that are expected to increase in the near future, particularly with projects such as SmartCity. Moreover, it will give GO the possibility to procure broadband capacity from Interoute,” said Mr Portelli.
He added: “In practical terms this means that GO now possesses world-class connectivity, which in turn allows us to provide services to the most demanding clients like big e-gaming companies”.
Asked whether he could quantify the investment involved in the project, Mr Portelli said this was commercially sensitive information. As for financing of the project, GO chief executive officer David Kay said finances were obtained from internal resources.
The submarine cable opens the company up to new business opportunities and enhances the country’s attractiveness as a site for investors who depend on reliable and efficient telecommunication systems.
The submarine cable will be 290 kilometres long and will have four fibre pairs, even though only one of this will be used initially.
The dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) terminal equipment will initially be equipped for two wavelengths at 10 gigabits each.
Compared to the 2.5 gigabits currently available on the existing cable, which runs from St George’s Bay to Catania, this will augment the available bandwidth capacity eight times over. However, the submarine cable has the potential to eventually provide an almost unlimited amount of bandwidth.
Minister Gatt said: “What is happening today is very significant. This is the most fundamental building block in the edifice we call ‘The Smart Island’.
“We will be anything but smart if we continue to live in fear of disconnection from the rest of the world.”
Dr Gatt said the cable will not be isolated, since it goes into the Interoute network, the largest in Europe. He said it is not simply a communications project, but another ultra-essential building block for the Maltese economy.
“Bandwidth is an essential driving block of the economy. Physical roads are slowly becoming less important than the virtual highway.
“This government has created a number of incentives for telecoms companies to engage in such investments. It is no understatement to say that economic development nowadays depends on the amount of available gigabyte capacity in the economy.”
GO director Deepak Padmanabhan said: “Once the new cable is deployed, Malta will have a first-class communication backbone serving the needs of the islands for the present and future. This is an important step to achieve the government’s goal to make Malta a centre of excellence in ICT”.
On the specifics of the project, Mr Kay said the cable will link St Paul’s Bay in Malta to Mazara del Vallo, on the south-western coast of Sicily. The physical cable route will be completely different to that of the existing cable that links St George’s Bay to Catania.
In Malta the cable will land at GO’s existing premises at St Paul’s exchange; in Sicily it will land at a station provided by Interoute in Via Abetone at Mazara.
From there the cable will be backhauled to the rest of their pan-European network. The cable landing station in Sicily will be operated and maintained by Interoute.
Mr Kay said: “The new submarine cable network complements our strategy of growing our data, hosting and managed services business lines.
“Moreover, this project demonstrates GO’s investment capacity which is linked to the country’s need to become an ICT hub in the Mediterranean.”
Alcatel-Lucent will design, manufacture and commission the submarine cable system, based on its DWDM technology and cables, with the ability to be upgraded easily and cost-effectively in the future.
Elettra will be responsible for the marine survey and laying of the cable. Elettra is a Telecom Italia Group company that specialises in survey, installation and maintenance of submarine cable networks.