320 km fiber optic cable will “connect” Italy with Greece

It took just over two years to build, lay and seal the 320 km submarine fiber optic cable from Crotone in Italy to Preveza.

The completion of the installation of the cable, known as Ionian by the Spanish company Islalink, was marked by its sealing a few days ago on Mitika Beach in Preveza. This last stage of the project included the construction of a shaft on the beach, where the cable ended, which was brought there by a small boat from the Teliri cable ship. Buoys were used to align the cable and, after appropriate measurements, it was sealed. Also in the industrial zone of Preveza, on an area of ​​2400 square meters, a cable termination station has been created.

“Through Ionian, we are participating in Greece’s quest to become European data center. Undersea cable has huge potential, it can offer 70 times more “capacity” (transmission of digital data) than the country currently has. It also strengthens the security and reliability of the international network by offering an alternative route compared to the existing ones,” said Esther Gartes, Managing Director of Islalink, to Catimerini.

Strengthening the position of Greece as a data center is a prerequisite for attracting even more investment in this high-tech sector. For example, the new data center that Digital Realty is launching in Heraklion on Crete is estimated to be the hub for intercontinental and regional submarine cables that will eventually end up in Crete, including Chania, Timpakion and Sitia. It is estimated that 95% of the data and voice traffic on the Internet, and more broadly, the exchange of information over the Internet, depends on more than 1.3 million kilometers of fiber optic cables laid underwater.

Estimated to circle the Earth more than 30 times, underwater wires, along with cables laid above ground, ensure everything from uninterrupted YouTube video uploads to uninterrupted data center operations.

The cable was delivered to Mitika Beach in Preveza a few days ago. The increase in data traffic due to the increase in Internet use requires the creation of higher capacity cables. In this direction, the construction of an ultra-modern submarine and terrestrial cable data transmission system EMC (East To Med Data Corridor) is underway, the budget project of which is 850 million euros. The cable will create a new route connecting Asia with Europe.

The Saudi telecommunications group Saudi Telecom, PPC, the Cypriot telecommunications group Cyta and the telecommunications company TTSA with a share of more than 50% participate in the project implementation scheme. As previously reported ΔΕΗthe cable will provide a significant increase in data transfer speeds from Europe to Asia via Saudi Arabia and turn Greece into the European Union’s eastern data gateway and Saudi Arabia into a regional digital hub between Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Islalink has also signed a 25-year agreement with Grid Telecom, a subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE). The object of cooperation between the two companies is the expansion of the terrestrial backbone network of the ionic submarine cable, the installation of which has been completed.

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