Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, announces that it has reached an agreement with Ge-DIX (Genoa Data Internet eXchange), a non-profit consortium of interconnection services, to establish an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) at Sparkle's "Genoa Digital Hub" data center, thus creating a new digital ecosystem in the Ligurian capital.
Ge-DIX was founded by the Municipality of Genoa and Liguria Digitale - in a consortium with Piedmont-based Internet Exchange TOP-IX and TLC companies BBBell, Fastweb, Retelit Irideos and Rocket Way - with the goal of creating a preferred data traffic exchange for Internet service providers. Through a physical network access point, leading local, national, and international ISPs (who land their Internet networks in Genoa) can interconnect directly with each other and exchange traffic with the content and application providers in the facility, benefiting the Internet experience of local businesses and consumers.
With this agreement, Ge-DIX establishes an Internet Exchange Point in Sparkle’s Genova Digital Hub in Lagaccio, an open and neutral colocation facility, as well as a new interconnection point for international terrestrial networks and submarine cables including Blue & Raman Submarine Cable Systems - which will connect Milan and Marseille via Genoa to East Africa, the Middle East and India - and to the associated BlueMed system with its branches in the Mediterranean - Marseille, Bastia, Golfo Aranci, Pomezia, Palermo, Chania and Tel Aviv.
The Genova Digital Hub is also set for significant growth thanks to the Genova Landing Platform, an infrastructure designed to accommodate, in addition to BlueRaman and BlueMed, the sustainable landing of up to six new cables seeking diversified access to major European hubs, with massive growth potential for transit and exchange traffic. In addition, operators and ISPs already members of Ge-DIX or present in the area will benefit from the global connectivity offered by Sparkle’s network through Seabone IP transit service and City2City capacity solutions.
“The agreement between Ge-DIX and Sparkle takes on great importance in the digital transformation process of Genoa and Liguria,” says Luca Beltramino, chairman of Ge-DIX. “Thanks to this additional strategic location, Ge-DIX will be at the center of innovation and connectivity, strengthening Genoa's position as a technology hub of international significance”.
“The presence of Ge-DIX in our Genoa Digital Hub is an important piece in building a new digital ecosystem in the Ligurian capital”, says Enrico Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle. “Having contributed with our infrastructure to this development makes us very proud and we are grateful to the city of Genoa for welcoming and sharing our vision”.
About Ge-DIX
Ge-DIX is the Internet Exchange of the city of Genoa. It is managed by a Consortium with the following founding members: the City of Genoa, Liguria Digitale, BBBell, Fastweb, Retelit, Rocket Way, and TOP-IX.
The Consortium is open to other entities that need the Interconnection Services it provides. The initiative was motivated by latest trends. First, Genoa (and the Liguria Region) has been chosen as a location for landing of new submarine telecommunications cables, which are the key component for transporting data on a global scale. Second, digital transformation leads to the development of applications and services that require low network latency to provide the best user experience, so a more widespread interconnection between service providers and end users is necessary.
Finally, the gradual transformation of Internet Exchanges, are transforming into advanced interconnection systems that securely and efficiently enable several services provided by Edge/Cloud Providers. Hence, the extended name of Data Internet Exchange.
About Sparkle
Sparkle is TIM Group’s Global Operator, first international service provider in Italy and among the top worldwide, offering a full range of infrastructure and global connectivity services – capacity, IP, SD-WAN, colocation, IoT connectivity, roaming and voice - to national and international Carriers, OTTs, ISPs, Media/Content Providers, and multinational enterprises. A major player in the submarine cable industry, Sparkle owns and manages a network of more than 600,000 km of fiber spanning from Europe to Africa and the Middle East, the Americas and Asia. Its sales force is active worldwide and distributed over 32 countries.
Find out more about Sparkle following its Twitter and LinkedIn profiles or visiting the website tisparkle.com
Rome, 27 July 2023
