Blue

Overview

Blue is a submarine cable system spanning 5,055 kilometres across the eastern and central Mediterranean Sea. It connects six countries — Cyprus, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, and Jordan — forming a multi-branched network across one of the world's most densely connected maritime corridors. The system became ready for service in 2023.

Route and Landings

In Cyprus, the cable lands at Yeroskipos. France is served by two landing points: Bastia and Marseille. Greece has a single landing at Chania. Israel connects through Tel Aviv. Italy has the highest concentration of landings on the system, with terminals at Genoa, Golfo Aranci, Palermo, and Rome. Jordan is served by a landing at Aqaba, on the northern tip of the Red Sea.

Ownership and Operators

Blue is jointly owned by Google, Sparkle, and Zain Omantel International. Sparkle is the international wholesale subsidiary of Telecom Italia. Zain Omantel International represents a partnership between two established Middle Eastern telecommunications groups. Google has invested in a number of submarine cable systems to support its global network infrastructure.

Status and Timeline

Blue entered service in 2023, making it one of the more recently commissioned cable systems operating in the Mediterranean region.

Regional Context

The Mediterranean corridor served by Blue is home to several other long-haul submarine cable systems. Compared to intercontinental systems such as 2Africa (45,000 km, RFS 2024), PEACE Cable (25,000 km, RFS 2022), and Asia Africa Europe-1 (25,000 km, RFS 2017), Blue is a regionally focused system at 5,055 km, concentrated entirely within Mediterranean and adjacent waters. Its 2023 ready-for-service date makes it among the most recently deployed systems operating in this corridor.

Measured network performance across 191 ping tests in the last 60 days shows an average round-trip latency of 86.2 ms, with a best recorded result of 65.5 ms.

Strategic Role

With ten landing points distributed across six countries, Blue provides direct connectivity between the eastern Mediterranean — Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, and Greece — and the central Mediterranean hubs of Italy and France. Italy's four landing stations spread across the country's coastline, including in the south at Palermo and the north at Genoa, allow the cable to reach multiple points within the country rather than concentrating traffic at a single terminal. The combination of ownership by a global technology company and two regional telecommunications operators reflects the mixed-use nature of capacity on this system, serving both wholesale and private network demands across the corridor.