CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google is in talks with Italy’s government over plans to set up base stations in Sicily to develop infrastructure for a submarine fiber optic cable network across the Mediterranean, a cabinet undersecretary said on Tuesday.
“Google is very interested,” Undersecretary Alessio Butti told reporters on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Group of Seven advanced democracies. “We are holding talks over base stations in Sicily.”
Google is already partnering with Telecom Italia’s (TIM) submarine cable unit, known as Sparkle, to operate two submarine cable systems linking the Middle East with southern Europe and Asia.
TIM this month entered exclusive talks with Italy’s Treasury and its partner Asterion to sell Sparkle by Nov. 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 said.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Bernadette Baum)