Vodafone to Hook Up Crete With 180 Tbps Subsea Cable
Vodafone to Hook Up Crete With 180 Tbps Subsea Cable
By Nick Wood, Telecoms.com
January 28, 2026
A marine survey is already underway for the Thetis Express. Named after Achilles’ mum, once completed it will connect carrier neutral data centres in Heraklion in Crete, and Athens.
The route is not entirely straightforward, comprising two subsea segments – one originating in Athens, the other in Crete – that meet in the middle on the island of Milos, which sits roughly halfway between Crete and the Greek peninsula. The two ends will be joined by a terrestrial segment that spans the island.
The cable will have a maximum capacity of 180 Tbps, which Vodafone says is the equivalent of streaming 25 million videos at 4K.
“Vodafone plays a central role in ensuring Internet traffic flows smoothly and securely worldwide,” said Fanan Henriques, product and international business director at Vodafone Business. “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.”
Due to its situation in the Mediterranean – positioned almost equidistant between Europe and Africa – a bewildering number of international cable systems pass in close proximity to Crete.
One of those is the 2Africa cable, the longest in the world, that connects Europe to the entire coastline of the African continent, and will eventually wend its way to India. Vodafone is one of 2Africa’s many partners, and there is already a landing station on Crete’s south coast. The telco said plans are already afoot to connect 2Africa to the Thetis Express.
As such, Vodafone reckons that when it is up and running, the Thetis Express will offer a wider range of wholesale interconnectivity services from Greece to the rest of Europe, as well as Southeast Asia. It also offers redundancy in the event of a break or power failure.
Vodafone’s new project further cements Europe’s position as one of the biggest regions for submarine cable activity.
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