Trieste: A Candidate Telecom Subsea Cable Hub

Several data centre companies have asked for my thoughts on potential data centre sites that could exploit nearby subsea cable landings. Obviously there is a need for a new data centre in Marseille diverse to the Interxion sites. In fact, Telehouse Europe has such a plan, already has purchased a plot of land, and has LOIs from long haul carriers to bring it online. Quadrivium is retrofitting a former corporate data facility in Genoa to leverage 2Africa, Blue Raman, and the other cables that call it their home. 

Trieste is my nomination for a future cable landing station and Internet gateway. The city has a large port that could easily accommodate subsea cables. Furthermore, the latency of an intercontinental subsea network landing in Trieste and delivering traffic to Milano, Zurich, Vienna, and Frankfurt is definitely lower than routing via Marseille and even Genoa. So Trieste offers diversity without a latency penalty for central Europe and Scandinavia. 

Trieste was a great port city through much of its history. I suspect its political leadership would be open to reviving some of the former glory. The port is relatively deep at 18 meters. Moreover, the city has extensive rail networks connecting it to other major European cities. Hence diverse fibre backhaul should be available. I am sure Retelit would be interested in such a project. Of course, there are drawbacks. Overall the Adriatic Sea is relatively shallow. So again deep burial is a must and that raises coast. But if the aim is to efficiently distribute traffic, enhance resiliency and keep the length of the cable to a minimum, Trieste is clearly superior to Marseille or Genoa.