CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google remains in talks with Italy’s federal government over strategies to establish base terminals in Sicily to establish framework for a submarine fiber optic cable television network throughout the Mediterranean, a closet undersecretary claimed on Tuesday.
“Google is very interested,” Undersecretary Alessio Butti informed press reporters on the sidelines of a pastoral conference of the Group of Seven progressed freedoms. “We are holding talks over base stations in Sicily.”
Google is currently partnering with Telecom Italia’s (TIM) submarine cable television system, referred to as Sparkle, to run 2 submarine cable television systems connecting the Middle East with southerly Europe and Asia.
TIM this month got in special talks with Italy’s Treasury and its companion Asterion to market Sparkle byNov 30.
“The government considers Sparkle as a strategic company as 95 to 99% of internet traffic passes through submarine cables and about 16% involves the Mediterranean Sea,” Butti claimed.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
