It took just over two years to build, lay and seal the 320 km submarine fiber optic cable from Crotone, Italy, to Preveza. The completion of the installation of the cable, also 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 involved the construction of a well on the beach, where the cable terminated, which was brought there by a small boat from the Teliri cable boat. Buoys were used to align the cable and after appropriate measurements it was sealed. Also in the industrial zone of Preveza, a cable termination station was created on an area of ​​2400 square meters. What is the significance of this cable?

“Through Ionian, we are participating in Greece’s ambition to become a European data center. Our submarine cable has huge potential because it can offer 70 times more international bandwidth 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,” notes Esther Gartes, Managing Director of Islalink, to K.

The strengthening of Greece’s position as a data center is a prerequisite for attracting even more investment in data centers. For example, the new data center that Digital Realty is launching in Heraklion on Crete is estimated to be the hub of intercontinental and regional submarine cables that will eventually end up in Crete, including Chania, Timpakion and Sitia. It is estimated that 95% of Internet data and voice traffic, and more broadly the exchange of information over the Internet, depends on more than 1.3 million kilometers of fiber optic cables that run underwater. Estimated to cross the earth from one end to the other more than 30 times, the submarine cables, together with cables laid above ground, ensure everything from uninterrupted YouTube video uploads to, of course, uninterrupted data center operation. ).

The cable arrived at Mitika Beach in Preveza a few days ago.

The increase in data due to the increase in Internet use requires the creation of cables with more bandwidth. 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. According to what PPC previously reported, the cable will provide a significant increase in data 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 and 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 Ionian submarine cable, the installation of which has been completed.