Major submarine and terrestrial fiber development projects – What the €850 million deal with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman foresees
It seeks to strengthen its position as a data transfer hub Hellas which is home to the most investments in data centers ever (data centers). The data centers, which store the data and the information trafficked through it Internetmajor submarine and terrestrial fiber development projects are needed, an area where new investments are being planned.
As it says moneyreview.grthe most recent agreement is the one signed by the Greek state, during the recent visit to our country by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. It has a budget of 850 million euros and has as its object the construction of a state-of-the-art underwater and terrestrial EMC data transmission cable system (East To Med Data Corridor). The Saudi telecommunications group Saudi Telecom, PPC, the Cypriot telecommunications group Cyta and the telecommunications company TTSA participate with a percentage of more than 50% in the scheme that will implement the project.
The specific cable, which will pass through Saudi Arabia and the Mediterranean, will connect Asia to Europe, ensuring a different route than the existing ones, which will allow faster data transfer. Based on the schedule, the project is estimated to start towards the end of the year and be completed within two years. As PPC has announced, the cable will provide a huge increase in data connectivity from Europe to Asia via Saudi Arabia and will 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.
The submarine fiber optic cable project is at an advanced stage
Also at an advanced stage is the construction of the submarine fiber optic cable in the Ionian Sea by Spain’s Islalink, owned by the Canadian group Fiera Infrastructure. The (Ionian) cable will run from Preveza to Crotone in Calabria, with the two cities 322 km apart. It will connect Milan and Rome with Athens and Thessaloniki, a small section of which will be ground and it is estimated that it will be put into operation next winter.
Also, Islalink has signed a 25-year agreement with Grid Telecom, a subsidiary of the independent electricity transmission operator (ITO). The object of the cooperation between the two companies is the extension of the land trunk network of the Ionian submarine cable, which is to be completed soon.
The list of such projects includes Sparkle and Google’s implementation of the Blue and Raman submarine cables, with the former planned to connect Italy, France, Greece and Israel. In this particular market, the subsidiary of the OTE group, OTEGlobe, has a strong presence, having developed approximately 21,000 kilometers of optical fiber cables abroad. Investments in submarine and land-based fiber are capital intensive and have little margin for profit. Nevertheless, the ever-increasing demand for data volume and the prospects that Greece has are attracting new players to this market.
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