Bharti Airtel’s business unit signed a deal with Italy-based Sparkle to take capacity on planned cables linking Italy and India, with the aim to diversify its global network across international sub-sea systems.

Sparkle CEO Enrico Bagnasco noted in a joint statement the Blue-Raman submarine cable system will support digital growth and “strengthens our historical partnership with Bharti Airtel”.

The companies will jointly work on “new business opportunities and projects in the Indian sub-continent”, making use of their respective cable infrastructures, the statement added.

The optical fibre system will connect France to India via Italy, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Oman. Google is the major investor.

The Blue system covers the Mediterranean, while the Ramon cable connects the eastern section through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea. The two cables will be linked overland to complete the system, which is expected to be in service later this year.

In India, the cable will land at Sify Technologies’ facility in Mumbai.

Sparkle, Telecom Italia’s wholesale unit, owns and manages a network of more than 600,000km of fibre across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas and Asia.