GO Chief Digital Officer: Malta’s competitiveness depends on reliable international connectivity

“Malta’s economic competitiveness depends on reliable international connectivity which is fundamental to the country’s digital transformation and national resilience.”

That is the message from Kelvin Camenzuli, Chief Digital Officer at GO, as the telecommunications company announced a major EU-backed upgrade of the GO-1 submarine cable linking Malta to Sicily.

The project, known as MOGOSC (MOdernisation of the GO-1 Submarine Cable), will modernise one of Malta’s most important pieces of digital infrastructure through the replacement of submarine line terminal equipment with a next-generation transmission platform.

GO said the upgrade will deliver significantly greater capacity, enhanced cybersecurity and full alignment with European strategic infrastructure requirements. The initiative is co-funded by the European Union through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital Programme.

The project’s total eligible cost amounts to €1.56 million, with the EU contributing €778,636.50, representing half of the investment. Completion is expected by September 2027.

Mr Camenzuli said the investment will help ensure that the GO-1 cable continues to provide Malta with secure, high-capacity connectivity to European and global networks for many years.

“We are proud to be delivering this project with the support of the European Union and HaDEA, helping strengthen Malta’s position as a digitally connected island nation,” he said.

The GO-1 submarine cable extends approximately 290 kilometres between St Paul’s Bay and Mazara del Vallo in Sicily and carries a substantial proportion of Malta’s international telecommunications traffic.

GO has initiated a Request for Proposal process to select a technology partner for the project, with vendor participation restricted to companies that comply with EU cybersecurity requirements.

Deployment is expected to commence later this year, with the upgraded system entering service by mid-2027. GO said the new platform will provide a minimum of 400 Gbps of aggregated capacity from launch and will be capable of scaling to multiple terabits per second in the future.

The enhanced capacity is expected to support growing demand for cloud computing, digital business operations, international communications and emerging technologies across Malta’s economy.