Turning into a hub for fiber optics

The creation of data centers in Greece and the networks that Greek and foreign companies develop highlight that this country is geographically apt to evolve into a fiber-optics hub.

“Thanks to its position, the country could become a hub to secure traffic from the markets in the Middle East and the Far East to Europe,” says OTEGlobe’s head of strategy and transformation Giannis Konstantinidis, as the “Ionian” project of Spanish company Islalink also illustrates.

The “Ionian” submarine cable will connect Crotone in Italy with Preveza in western Greece. The submarine infrastructure will be complemented by two terrestrial fiber-optic rings connecting the system to the cities of Milan and Rome with Athens and Thessaloniki, that “can become alternative hubs to Sofia in the Balkans,” Islalink chief executive officer Esther Garces tells Kathimerini in an interview.

Greece could constitute an ideal alternative to existing gateways to Europe, argues Konstantinidis: “The cables that come from Asia and the Middle East through Suez and Egypt to end up in Frankfurt and Amsterdam usually go via Italy or France,” he reports.

Source: ekathimerini.gr