Sparkle, the leading international services operator in Italy and among the first in the world, and Valencia Digital Port Connect (VDPC), the Spanish telecommunications infrastructure company that is developing the Barracuda submarine cable with private equity firm Teset Capital, announce a strategic agreement for the Barracuda cable to land at Sparkle’s Genoa Landing Platform.
The project Barracuda Barracuda will build the first direct, high-capacity, low-latency submarine route between Spain and Italy, creating a 1.070 km digital bridge between Valencia and Genoa. Designed with an open cable system architecture, Barracuda will be equipped with 12 fiber pairs, each with a capacity of 32 Tbps (terabits per second). The project involves a total investment of approximately €100 million and will be completed in three years, with operations scheduled to begin in 2028.
Under the agreement, Barracuda will land at the Genoa Landing Platform Sparkle, a scalable infrastructure designed to offer a turnkey, highly resilient and secure landing on the European west coast. Through this infrastructure, the cable will reach Genoa Digital Hub Sparkle's Lagaccio facility is an open and neutral colocation facility and interconnection point with other submarine cables and European terrestrial networks, as well as with the Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) already present at the facility. Thanks to the Genoa landing, VDPC will have immediate access to the main European hubs, avoiding the costs, time, and administrative complexity associated with the development of a proprietary landing infrastructure.
As part of the broader agreement, Sparkle will also acquire infrastructure assets on the Barracuda system as well as colocation services in the Valencia Cable Landing Station, a fully neutral and scalable infrastructure designed to host Barracuda and up to three additional submarine cable systems. This additional capacity will expand Sparkle's connectivity in the Iberian Peninsula, serving the local market and the growing West African market, further consolidating its strategic presence in the Mediterranean region.
“This agreement represents an important step in our strategy to position Genoa as a key gateway to Europe,” he said. Enrico Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle"The arrival of Barracuda will strengthen and expand the city's digital ecosystem, while the system's capacity will allow us to further expand our resilient, high-performance Mediterranean network, responding increasingly effectively to the demand for international connectivity."
Enrique Martín, CEO of Valencia Digital Port Connect, said: “This agreement with Sparkle marks a key milestone in the Barracuda project and confirms that we are moving forward in line with our strategic roadmap. Choosing Genoa as our landing point and welcoming Sparkle as a long-term customer strengthens Barracuda and the Valencia Cable Landing Station as strategic assets for international partners, confirming the credibility of our ambition to make the system fully operational by 2028.”
