A submarine fibre-optic cable linking Malta to Marseille in France would cost a maximum of €17 million – considerably less than anticipated, according to the executive chairman of the Malta Communications Authority Edward Woods.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna announced the government’s plans to have a submarine fibre-optic link between Malta and Gozo and another one linking Malta’s backbone to Marseille, France, in the Budget for 2017.

Malta’s telecommunication providers GO and Melita already have submarine cables – but all three go to Sicily, which Dr Woods said was not ideal.

We could be even more sought after than Marseille as we can offer links to north, south, east and west. There is the potential to make huge amounts of revenue

“We are connected to only one country, Italy, and if anything happened there, whether it was natural, accidental or anything else, we would be stranded,” he told The Business Observer.

The authority sought advice from foreign experts and was pleasantly surprised to learn that it would actually be cheaper than anticipated as there are numerous submarine cables from east to west to which Malta could connect.

Although the minister had mentioned that Malta would be seeking EU funds, this might not be that easy, Dr Woods said, although he said that the MCA had received considerable cooperation from the European Investment Bank.

Dr Woods believes that the role of the MCA is to facilitate the project and he would like to bring together the stakeholders, arguing that the business model would be sound.

“Malta could become a hub when it comes to connectivity, just as Marseille currently is. We could be even more sought after than Marseille as we can offer links to north, south, east and west. There is the potential to make huge amounts of revenue.

“I believe that the local operators should do it between themselves. It would cost much more for Melita to get a cable from Milan to Malta than what its share of €17 million would be – and it would not have to share it,” he said.