United Group, parent of Nova, is moving forward with a major new infrastructure project. This is the ground connection between Athens and Thessaloniki, which will form part of a wider regional network with the aim of strengthening its infrastructure United Group in Southeast Europe.

The project of the new connection will start in September 2024 and is expected to be completed at the end of 2025. It is implemented through UG’s subsidiary United Fiber, the 2nd largest fiber to the home (FTTH) provider in Greece. The project is part of UG’s wider international strategy to further strengthen its infrastructure.

The Athens – Thessaloniki connection it will cover 548 km of networkpassing through 8 major key cities of Greece (Athens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Lamia, Larissa, Livadia, Katerini, Thebes).

From Thessaloniki, the new route will connect Sofia and Belgrade and, traversing the entire Balkan region, will connect to the main hubs of Western Europe via Ljubljana.

At the same time, in the east, it will strengthen the existing interconnections with Turkey and the Middle East, as well as the existing interconnection with Bulgaria. To the west and south, the new connection will form part of the infrastructure network connecting Athens with the existing submarine cable to Italy and Crete.

The wholesale activities of the project will be managed by the Group’s business unit, United Group International Wholesale (UGI). UGI is engaged in wholesale telecommunications activities for UG, offering state-of-the-art telecommunications services including data, voice, mobile and roaming to all European hubs in partnership with major operators and technology companies.

THE Paolo Ficini, CEO of UGI emphasized: “By creating this ground-breaking new interconnection, United Group demonstrates in practice its commitment to become the largest fiber optic network provider in Southeast Europe, enhancing competitiveness, creating new investment opportunities and accelerating the digital transformation of all countries involved . The project responds to growing demand stemming from significant investment in new data centers in the region, as well as submarine cables on Greece’s southern border.”

Through this large-scale infrastructure project, UG demonstrates in practice the scale of its investments, being the largest fiber optic network provider in Southeast Europe. In a region that is the crossroads between East and West, UG further strengthens our country’s role as a data hub, creating new investment opportunities and accelerating Greece’s digital transformation.