Italian Navy and Sparkle signed Memorandum of Understanding for the protection of subsea telecommunication cables

At “Salone dei Marmi”, Palazzo Marina, the Italian Navy and the Italian telecommunications company Sparkle
signed the Memorandum of Understanding to improve the protection of subsea communication infrastructures. The signatories were the Chief of the Italian Navy, Admiral Enrico Credendino, and Sparkle’s CEO Elisabetta Romano at the presence of Sparkle’s Chairman Alessandro Pansa.
The MoU formalizes the willingness to cooperate in a strategic sector for the Country’s socio-economic development and envisages, in particular, the setting up of shared operating procedures and the possibility of undertaking joint reconnaissance and monitoring activities of Sparkle’s proprietary submarine cables and neighboring areas. The Italian Navy will also provide cartographic support for the seabed of interest as well as assistance in emergency operational situations. The agreement will also allow the development of study and research activities deemed to be of common interest between the parties for the pursuit of their respective tasks.
“The Italian Navy is one of the main pillars of national maritime cluster and works daily to defend and support it. We have professional competences and skills to perform submarine operations and today, also thanks to Sparkle, an important process begins that gives the right attention to the underwater dimension of Italy, a maritime country with 8,000 km of coastline, at the center of the Mediterranean Sea.”, said Admiral Credendino after the signature of the agreement. Stressing the importance of this joint protocol, the CEO Elisabetta Romano said: “We are proud and honored of this prestigious collaboration with the Italian Navy, which confirms the strategic role of digital infrastructures for the Country’s development while recognizing Sparkle’s significant contribution”.
Insights
More than 97% of the bulk of data that makes up the Internet stream, on which our society relies, is transmitted through a dense network of undersea cables. Such critical infrastructures largely rely on the only protection provided by the depth of the sea in which they lie, protection that is now evanescent thanks to technological advances that make the ocean depths increasingly accessible, and at decreasing cost. To Sparkle, which is among the world’s leading players in the strategic submarine cable industry, belong an articulated set of networks and systems that constitute a critical infrastructure to the Country’s smooth socio-economic development.
At the same time, the Navy is the only institutional entity capable of ensuring the monitoring and protection of the underwater dimension where vital interests for the country insist, such as those residing in the so-called communication backbones. The convergence of interests towards the need to ensure more effective preservation and protection of communication infrastructure of national interest led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding