According to GO, the new cable will link the Mediterranean island to the Italian mainland via Interoute’s pan-European network, which 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 the fourth quarter of 2008, and is being entrusted to an international consortium made up of Alcatel-Lucent and Elettra.

GO Chairman Sonny Portelli explained that the company will be implementing the new submarine cable system so that it can offer further resiliency for its existing international links by having a more diverse route.

“The new submarine cable will augment GO’s international capacity and cater for projected demands for broadband services which will be increasing in the coming future, especially with projects such as Smart City. Moreover, it will give GO the possibility to procure broadband capacity from Interoute,” Mr Portelli stated.

“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," he added.

Speaking with regard to the project, Malta's Trade and Industry Minister Austin Gatt commented: “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.”

GO Director Deepak Padmanabhan added: “This multimillion euro investment is a vote of confidence from GO’s majority shareholder – EIT – in both GO and the Maltese Islands. Once the new cable is deployed, Malta will have a first-class communication backbone which serves the needs of the islands for the present and future. This is an important step to achieve the Government’s goal of making Malta a centre of excellence in ICT."

GO CEO David Kay explained that the cable will link St. Paul’s Bay in Malta to Mazara del Vallo in Sicily, making the physical route of the cable different to that of the existing one that links St. George’s Bay to Catania. He further revealed that the cable will be 290km long and will have four fibre pairs, of which initially only one will be lit.

The DWDM terminal equipment will initially be equipped for two wavelengths at 10 Gbit/s each. Compared to the 2.5 Gbit/s currently available on the existing cable, this will augment the available capacity nine times.

In Malta the cable will land at GO’s existing premises at St.Paul’s exchange, whereas in Sicily it will land in a landing station provided by Interoute in Via Abetone at Mazara. From there, the cable will be backhauled through Interoute’s PoP in Mazara to the rest of their pan-European network. In Sicily, the cable landing station will be operated and maintained by Interoute.

“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," Kay stated.

Alcatel-Lucent will design, manufacture and commission the submarine cable system, based on its dense wavelength division multiplexing (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 which specializes in survey, installation and maintenance of submarine cable networks.

Interoute's network is the largest in Europe. The company’s fibre optic network consists of twelve rings across more than 54,000 route kilometres of lit fibre, and has the capacity to carry a petabit (a billion megabits per second) of traffic.

Interoute’s Renzo Ravaglia announced that: “Interoute is pleased to be a part of this historic venture, made possible through the EIT/Dubai partnership. With this cable, GO and Interoute will open up opportunities for Malta in the European Union, North America, the Middle East and beyond. It will physically link Malta directly into Europe’s largest communications platform, making access to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Rome almost as easy as connecting Valletta and Gozo.”