Vodafone Orders Underwater Cables

Vodafone Malta has announced the award of a contract to Alcatel to build a Malta - Sicily submarine cable system. This project will link Vodafone Malta and Sicily with a high-capacity fibre optic link and will increase data bandwidth availability whilst increasing international voice capacity. In Malta, there is currently only one cable system, which supports all voice, data and Internet requirements.

Under the terms of the agreement, Alcatel will supply a submarine fibre cable spanning approximately 250km, land cable and transmission equipment. The submarine cable will be laid on the seabed at a maximum depth of 3,000 meters after carrying out an extensive survey of the sea bed between Malta and Catania in Sicily, using a survey ship equipped with sonar and other sophisticated survey equipment. Equipped with armoured steel protection, the cable is designed to withstand the harshest sea environment. During operation, the cable system will be monitored 24 hours a day from the Vodafone Malta Operations Centre in B'Kara. The initial capacity of the system is 2.5 Gbits/sec with the potential to increase the capacity over1 Tbit/sec, making the system future proof in terms of capacity expansion.

Vodafone Malta was granted an International Gateway licence in January 2003, upon liberalisation of international gateway services. The Vodafone Malta-Sicily Cable System is a component of the International Gateway project whereby Vodafone Malta will be providing international telecommunication services between Malta and other countries.

"The Vodafone International Gateway is expected to be operational by summer 2004. This will be very beneficial for the Maltese islands. This project will strengthen Malta's international telecommunications infrastructure and will also increase the capacity for the projected future demand of the Internet and related services. Furthermore, it will create a competitive market for International voice and IP services," said Joseph C. Grioli, Managing Director at Vodafone Malta. "The Vodafone Malta-Sicily Cable System will ensure a secure international interconnection to the Maltese Islands and we are pleased to be working with Alcatel on such an important project."

Posted to the site on 25th August 2003