A 290 kilometre-long fibre optic submarine cable will start to be laid on the seabed linking Malta to Sicily over the weekend in a multi-million euro investment that will boost telecoms provider Go's local infrastructure.
The entire process of laying the cable, between St Paul's Bay and Mazara Del Vallo, south of Palermo, will last around two weeks, while the new cable system is expected to be in full functioning order by early 2009.
The Italian vessel carrying out these works arrived in Malta yesterday and has already loaded the 290-kilometre length of cable which will be lowered onto the seabed over the weekend. The cable may reach up to 900 metres in depth.
The cable will be linking Malta to Italy through the pan-European network, operated by Interoute, which connects 93 cities in 22 countries across 56,000 kilometres of fibre. Go's decision to invest in a second submarine cable with a different provider was announced last January.
"Our cables will constitute 50 per cent of the four cables mentioned by government that should be up and running by 2010," Go chairman Sonny Portelli said.
Mr Portelli stressed that the project was of national importance and would provide resiliency and backup if and when needed. The cable is expected to cost millions, although the company would not reveal the exact figure.
Early last August, Go suffered a fault in their submarine cable which left thousands of users without internet access for hours. The new submarine cable is therefore a means of ensuring that Go has a secure and reliable backup should any elements of its network malfunction.
"With this cable, Go and Interoute will open up opportunities for Malta... physically linking the country directly into Europe's largest communications platform, making access to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Rome almost as easy as connecting Valletta and Gozo," said Interoute's country manager Renzo Ravaglia.
The project has been entrusted to the Telecom Italia Group Company Elettra, while Alcatel-Lucent is responsible for the design and production of the submarine cable system.
Go was the first telecommunications company in Malta to set up an international submarine cable link to Sicily in 1995, which will be operating independently from the new cable.
The 1995 cable is linked to the network of Italian provider Telecom Italia which originates from St George's Bay and lands in Catania.
Go, together with Vodafone, are the only local operators owning their own submarine cables to Europe.
Last August, Vodafone was considering the setting up of a second cable to safeguard connectivity.