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The Kardesa submarine cable system will join Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey, and Ukraine
This week, Vodafone Group and Vodafone Ukraine have introduced their intentions to construct a brand new submarine cable spanning the Black Sea, the primary for nearly twenty years.
The €116 million Kardesa cable will embrace landings in Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey, and Ukraine, notably excluding Russia.
It’s anticipated to ship a further 500 Tbps of capability to the Black Sea area, offering a much-needed altnerative for restricted and getting older infrastructure presently within the space.
The cable is being constructed by specialist Xtera, with the primary cable touchdown anticipated to be inbuilt Bulgaria in 2027.
Given its prominence as a gateway to the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea is presently dwelling to surprisingly few submarine cables. Right here’s the area’s subsea cable infrastructure at a look from Telegeography’s subsea cable map.
Supply: Telegeography
Alongside the west coast runs Turk Telecom’s KAFOS cable (purple), connecting Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. On the east coast, is a system merely generally known as the Georgia–Russia cable (orange), constructed by the 2 nation’s operators to attach the international locations in 2000.
The one cable presently spanning the Black Sea is the 2008 Caucasus Cable (pink), linking Bulgaria to Georgia. One other route crossing the ocean – a joint power and telecoms system known as the Black Sea Submarine Cable (BSSC), working from Georgia to Romania – was introduced final yr.
Lastly, the tiny cluster of dots on the north of the image, on the entrance to the Sea of Azov, is in truth two cables: Russian telco Miranda Media’s Kerch Strait (blue) and Vitality Bridge (orange) cables.
The query of why there are so few Black Sea subsea cables, whereas nuanced, might be broadly answered in two components. Firstly, the digital economies in South and Southeast Asia have grown way more quickly than their Central counterparts. Because of this, routes passing alongside Asia’s south coast and thru the Crimson Sea, have turn into extremely developed, decreasing the necessity for a Black Sea crossing to Europe. Secondly, the Blacks Sea’s geopolitical sensitivity has made constructing routes tough, presenting initiatives with a myriad of advanced regulatory and safety challenges.
For the Kardesa cable, alternatively, geopolitics is a serious motivator. The cable will provide regional visitors a route that doesn’t go by means of Russian territory, which Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov stated he hoped would assist “set up Ukraine as a key hub for web visitors between Europe and Asia, bypassing Russia”.
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