Italian shipbuilding major Fincantieri and Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the development of innovative technological solutions for the surveillance and protection of submarine telecommunications cables.
The agreement is part of a strategic vision for Italy’s technological development and international competitiveness. The partners will collaborate to ensure the resilience of infrastructures, which are fundamental for digital connectivity and the country’s technological growth.
Through shared and specialized work teams, Fincantieri and Sparkle will analyze the requirements for improving the security of undersea telecommunications infrastructures, identifying innovative technologies and solutions to ensure their operational resilience.
Fincantieri is developing advanced solutions for the surveillance and protection of subsea infrastructure. Given the current geopolitical tensions and increasing dependence on these strategic infrastructures, the company considers the underwater sector as a key dimension for sustainable economic development.
According to Fincantieri, the proprietary fiber-optic network stretches more than 600,000 km across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia, of which 90% is laid on submarine cables.
Sparkle’s agreement with Fincantieri is part of collaborations with major players in the sector, including the Italian Navy, with which Sparkle has been working since 2022 to protect its proprietary submarine cables and neighboring areas, and the Polo Nazionale della dimensione Subacquea (PNS, Italian national hub of the underwater dimension), which brings together the national public and private players operating in the sector.
“ The agreement with Sparkle marks an important step in our technological development path in the protection of critical submarine infrastructure. We are ready to deploy our Group’s know-how to develop cutting-edge solutions that combine reliability and innovation ,” Pierroberto Folgiero , CEO and General Director of Fincantieri, commented.
“Thanks to this collaboration, in addition to strengthening our commitment to digital security, we concretize the development of civilian submarine alongside the military one, and project the role of Fincantieri and Italy as an industrial leader on an international scale, through synergies between national excellences.”
“The agreement with Fincantieri represents a fundamental step in our mission to protect subsea infrastructures, which are pillars of global connectivity and national security. Our collaboration will combine outstanding expertise in the shipbuilding and telecommunications sectors to develop advanced technological solutions able to address the increasingly complex challenges of an interconnected world,” Enrico Maria Bagnasco , CEO of Sparkle, said.
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