RETN Expands in Spain with New Barcelona PoP and 2Africa Connectivity to Milan

Barcelona, Spain - May 26, 2026 - RETN, the leading independent global network service provider, announces a strategic network expansion that strengthens its presence in Spain and its European backbone.

Founded in 2003, RETN operates one of the largest privately owned fiber-optic networks in the world, spanning more than 142,000 kilometres across Europe, Asia, and North America. The company delivers a comprehensive portfolio of internet services, including IP transit, Ethernet, wavelength connectivity, and colocation, serving carriers, cloud providers, enterprises, and content delivery networks.

Barcelona: a new connectivity milestone

RETN has launched a new Point of Presence (PoP) in Barcelona, which will play a critical role in RETN’s Mediterranean connectivity strategy. The Barcelona PoP provides direct connectivity to Milan via the 2Africa submarine cable system, one of the largest subsea cable projects globally. This route offers full path diversification compared to traditional terrestrial connections and delivers improved latency performance. The new PoP is connected to Madrid via gasoline pipes rather than the conventional highway network – further strengthening RETN’s network architecture within Spain and enhancing redundancy across key national routes.

Milko Ilari, Head of Southern Europe at RETN, comments, “Spain represents a key market for RETN, both strategically and technologically. We are excited to expand our network to such an important market with the goal of supporting operators’ local needs with dedicated resources on the ground. The launch of our Barcelona PoP and the connectivity to Milan via 2Africa highlights our commitment to delivering differentiated, high-performance network solutions. By leveraging alternative submarine routes, we are able to offer our customers greater resilience, improved latency, and true route diversity”.

The advantage of dual terrestrial-submarine connectivity

RETN’s use of submarine cable infrastructure is a key element of its broader resilient network design. Combination of submarine cables and terrestrial routes adds an additional layer of route diversity across different geographic and failure domains. By integrating subsea capacity alongside its extensive backbone network, RETN enhances overall resilience, improves service continuity, and supports stable performance for mission-critical applications.

Strategic expansion in Spain

As part of its growth strategy, RETN is significantly increasing its footprint in Spain and Southern Europe. RETN’s expansion reflects growing demand for high-performance and high-scale infrastructure in the region. Benefiting from strong growth in solar and wind generation, the Iberian Peninsula is becoming an increasingly attractive location for digital infrastructure and subsea landing systems. As a key landing point for submarine cables linking Europe with Latin America and Africa, Spain plays a growing role in intercontinental traffic flows and global network resilience.

“This is an important milestone for RETN, and we look forward to continuing our expansion in Spain while supporting the country’s growing digital ecosystem,” adds Milko.