Europe - Submarine Networks

Cable Landing Stations in Russia

Cable Landing Stations in France

Marseille is now the most hot cable landing site in France, with 16 submarine cables landing or confirmed to land in Marseille.

In 2019, the Port of Marseille-Fos constructed new subsea cable landing infrastructure which provides a reliable and convenient plug & play interface for subsea cables coming from all over the world to the Marseille area. The port delivers the first phase of the dedicated infrastructure which can land up to six cables, a one-stop shop system within the French administration for permitting process to facilitate applications, and secure facilities tailored to accommodate the Power Feed Equipment of subsea cables, while the Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) can be installed flexbly at other cable landing stations or carrier neutral data centers.

Although it is open for licensed international companies to land subsea cable in France, Orange (France Telecom) have been participating in most of the projects as landing party in France.

Submarine cables connecting Asia and North/East Africa:

2Africa (under construction)
AAE-1
Africa-1 (under construction)
Atlas Offshore
EIG
Hawk
IMEWE
Med Cable Network
Medusa (under construction)
PEACE
SMW3
SMW4
SMW5
SMW6 (under construction)
TE North/ Tata TGN-EA / SEACOM / Alexandros
TEAS (under construction)

Except for the SMW3 cable which lands together with ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) at Penmarch CLS, most of above submarine cables connecting France with Asia and North/East Africa land in Marseille.

Trans-Atlantic cables:

TAT-14 (retired)
Flag Atlantic 1 (FA-1)
Apollo
Dunant
Amitié

Subsea cables connecting West Africa:

ACE (Africa Coast to Europe)

And other Intra-Europe subsea cables.

Cable Landing Stations in Italy

Sicily, Bari and Genoa are the major landing locations for subsea cable connecting Italia.

Being the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily is a strategic location for subsea cables connecting Asia, Europe, Africa. There are now 19 subsea cables landing in Sicily, at cable landing stations in Palermo, Catania, Mazara del Vallo, Pozzallo and Trapani.

Bari is another major landing site in Italy.

Telecom Italia Sparkle Bari CLS houses Italy-Albania and OTEGLOBE Kokkini-Bari cable systems
GTT (formerly Interoute) Bari CLS terminates JONAH cable system
Retelit Bari CLS is the landing station for Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1)

Genoa is the landing site for two new cables:

BlueMed cable system will arrive at Telecom Italia Genoa CLS
2Africa will land at Equinix GN1

Jio's India Europe Express (IEX) cable is expected to land in Savona

Cable Landing Stations in Cyprus

The Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA) is the leading telecommunications provider in Cyprus.

Cyta has developed an extensive submarine fibre optic cable network connecting Cyprus at three cable landing stations, namely Ayia Napa, Pentaskhinos and Yeroskipos.

Cytaglobal Cable Landing Stations — Cytaglobal Submarine Cable Network

Cytaglobal Pentaskhinos CLS:

TELFKROS

Cytaglobal Pentaskhinos CLS:

TELFKROS
UGARIT
ALASIA
EUROPA
CADMOS
ARIEL/JONAH
ALEXANDROS (subsystem of TE North)
ARSINOE (subsystem of PEACE)
MINERVA (subsystem of MedNautilus)
ATHENA/KIMONAS (subsystem of MedNautilus)
KINYRAS

Cytaglobal Yeroskipos CLS:

KINYRAS
SMW3
LEV
MINERVA (subsystem of MedNautilus)

Primetel Yeroskipos CLS:

HAWK

Primetel owns a submarine fiber cable landing station in Yeroskiposis, the first privately owned landing station in Cyprus. In 2009, Primetel partnered with Reliance Globalcom (now Global Cloud eXchange, or GCX) on the HAWK cable system to land the Hawk cable at Yeroskipou cable landing station in Anatoliko (Paphos).

Cable Landing Stations in Malta

Being a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, Malta is located 80km south to Sicily, Italia.

Now, all the submairne optical fiber cables landing in Malta are connecting to Sicily, Italia and onward to the rest of the world. There are now 4 submarine cables connecting Malta and Sicily, GO-1 Mediterranean cable system, Italy-Malta cable system, Epic Malta-Sicily Cable System (EMSCS) and Melita 1.

GO plc

GO plc is the leading fixed network operator in Malta, offers a wide variety of services to global carriers. GO plc is the major telecom partner to international financial institutions, global online gaming companies, multi-national organisations based in the centre of the Mediterranean, as well as the Maltese Government. GO Wholesale provides reliable voice termination services to all local operators in Malta and is the roaming partner of choice for the leading mobile networks worldwide. Publicly listed on the Malta Stock Exchange, the majority shareholder of GO is TT Malta Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tunisie Telecom.

GO operates Msida CLS for Italy-Malta cable system and St Paul’s Bay CLS for GO-1 Mediterranean Cable System.

The Italy-Malta cable system is a 238km cable connecting Msida CLS in Malta and Catania CLS in Sicily, Italy, ready for service in 1995. The Italy-Malta cable system is a bilateral system owned by GO and Telecom Italia Sparkle, and the first international subsea cable owned by GO. In 2017, GO and Sparkle upgraded the Italy-Malta cable system to support 100Gbps wavelength.

The GO-1 Mediterranean cable system is a 290km and 4-fiber-pair cable linking St Paul’s Bay CLS in Malta to Mazara del Vallo CLS in Sicily, Italy, ready for service in December 2008, with initial capacity of 2x10Gbps DWDM. GO partners with Interoute to land the cable at Interroute’s Mazara del Vallo CLS in Sicily, and connects to Interoute's pan-European network.

GO is building the LaValette cable system connecting Malta with France and Egypt, its 3rd submarine system and the first international connectivity in Malta to a country other than Italy.

Epic (formerly Vodafone Malta)

Epic Communications Limited is the largest mobile network in Malta by number of customers. In November 2020, Monaco Telecom acquired Vodafone Malta for US$250 million and rebranded it as Epic.

Epic owns the Epic Malta-Sicily Cable System (EMSCS), formerly known as Vodafone Malta-Sicily Cable System (VMSCS), connecting Balluta Bay CLS in Malta and Catania CLS in Sicily, Italy. The EMSCS cable system is an unrepeatered fibre optic cable system initially providing a 2 x 2.5Gbps, ready for service July 2004.

Melita

Melita operates a mature and nationwide fiber optic network in Malta, operates Bahar ic-caghaq CLS for Melita 1 cable system.

The Melita 1 cable system is a 97km repeaterless submarine cable connecting Bahar ic-caghaq CLS in Malta and Pozzallo CLS in Sicily, Italy, ready for service in 2009. The Melita 1 cable system is the fourth submarine cable between Malta and Sicily.

Bahar ic-caghaq CLS is adjacent to Melita Data Center, the only purpose-built data center facility in Malta, built to Tier III specifications.