Construction on the new fibre system, called Thetis Express, has already begun, with marine surveys underway.

The system will include two marine segments of 129 km and 163 km, as well as land connections through Milos, with endpoints in Heraklion, Crete and Attika, Athens.

According to the telecoms giant, the project aims to boost Greece’s digital economy and improve access to essential online services such as healthcare, education and banking.

In addition to the subsea cable, Vodafone is building three new high-speed terrestrial cable systems. Together, these networks will provide third-party providers with more wholesale interconnectivity options between Greece, Europe and Southeast Asia.

When fully operational, Thetis Express will transmit up to 180 terabits per second, enough to support around 25 million users streaming 4K video simultaneously. 

The system will also link to the 2Africa cable network, which already connects at Vodafone’s Crete landing station and is set to link 33 countries across Africa, Europe and Asia.

Vodafone product and international business director Fanan Henriques said: “Vodafone plays a central role in ensuring Internet traffic flows smoothly and securely worldwide. 

“We are now extending this capability to more places in Greece using a mix of new optical fibre terrestrial and subsea cables and in the future, emerging satellite services like space-based direct-to-device mobile broadband.”

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