How Will Vodafone Cable Link Greek Data Hubs with 180Tbps?

Vodafone Carrier Services begins work on a 340km optical fibre system connecting Heraklion in Crete with Athens on the mainland. 

The infrastructure, called the Thetis Express, includes subsea and terrestrial routes and links two major carrier-neutral data centres. Built to deliver up to 180 terabits per second (Tbps), the system adds new wholesale capacity and strengthens Greece’s position in international data transit.

The cable features two marine segments, stretching 129km and 163km, along with three land-based routes that pass through the island of Milos.

Once live, it provides high-speed, low-latency connectivity between Crete and Attika, supporting data centres, telecoms operators and enterprise services.

Fánan Henriques, Product and International Business Director at Vodafone Business, says: “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.”

Data centre interconnection from Crete to Athens

The Thetis Express links two carrier-neutral data centres – one in Heraklion and another in Athens. 

A carrier-neutral data centre is a facility where multiple networks and providers interconnect without exclusivity, giving enterprises and operators flexible access to infrastructure.

The direct connection between these hubs supports faster data exchange and enables regional peering, where local networks swap traffic to reduce latency and improve service quality. 

Vodafone confirms that the system supports up to 180Tbps, described as “the equivalent of 25 million people streaming 4K video at once”.

This bandwidth supports services such as video conferencing, cloud computing, ecommerce and digital health. 

The link between the data centres helps content providers and cloud operators deliver services more efficiently to local and international users.

The design meets local demands for speed and reliability while contributing to broader data flows across the Eastern Mediterranean. 

Data centres connected to the system gain a high-capacity path for content delivery and traffic routing across multiple regions.

Wholesale performance and network resilience

Vodafone’s wholesale division uses the system to improve routing options for telecoms operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). 

The combination of subsea and terrestrial routes improves geographic redundancy, allowing providers to reroute traffic in the event of a fault.

This supports service continuity and reduces outages. The redundancy is valuable for wholesale clients serving business, mobile and public-sector networks. 

Customers benefit from lower latency and faster access to cloud services and real-time applications.

By expanding the available infrastructure, Vodafone increases options for carriers to deliver high-performance wholesale connectivity across Greece and into other European and Asian networks. 

This supports long-term regional demand and enhances service quality for operators delivering cross-border services.

Greece’s role in global data transit grows

Thetis Express connects with Vodafone’s wider fibre network in Greece.

This includes subsea and land-based routes between Attica and the Cyclades – such as Syros, Tinos, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros and Santorini – and further links to the Dodecanese, Crete and Corfu.

The new system also connects to the 2Africa cable, a major subsea network covering 33 countries across Europe, Africa and Asia. 

Vodafone confirms the link lands at its Crete station, enabling data movement between continents using Greece as a transit hub.

By routing international traffic through its infrastructure, Vodafone helps position Greece as a digital gateway for the Eastern Mediterranean. 

The setup supports demand from cloud providers, hyperscalers and global telecoms firms.

With this system, Greece gains a role as a strategic point for data exchange.

Data centres in Heraklion and Athens benefit from direct links to global fibre networks, creating faster data paths for wholesale and enterprise customers.