Grid Telecom an IPTO company, and Lamda Hellix a Digital Realty company, align investments in Crete

Athens, November 29th, 2022 – Grid Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary company of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) of Greece and Lamda Hellix: a Digital Realty company, announce the expansion of their strategic cooperation by aligning their investments to catalyze Crete’s evolution into a robust telecommunications hub between Europe, Africa, and Asia. 

Following a series of announced investments involving intercontinental, regional, and national subsea cable systems to land on the island, Lamda Hellix made known its plans for the deployment of its first carrier-neutral data center HER1 in Heraklion, Crete to host these cable systems and enable interconnection between each of them as well as other telecommunications systems. 

The new data center is an important part of Digital Realty’s integrated Mediterranean strategy, alongside its existing hubs in Marseilles and Athens, and hubs under development in Barcelona, and Israel. The acquired site is expected to support the development of up to 6.5 megawatts (MW) of installed IT load, with the first phase scheduled for completion in 2025. The data center will be deployed within the Industrial Zone of Heraklion, an optimal location with existing telecommunications infrastructure that can facilitate connectivity with operating terrestrial and subsea networks. Due to its proximity to the coast, the facility will also serve as a cable landing station for subsea systems landing near Heraklion.

The existence of high-quality, carrier-neutral data center of this size in Crete is of paramount importance for companies or consortia that deploy subsea cable systems in Crete, as it facilitates efficient interconnection to their customers and partners.

Grid Telecom has already made significant investments, aiming to develop and establish the island of Crete as a strategic interconnection node in the broader Balkans – Mediterranean area by adding capacity of hundreds of terabytes (TBps), through MINOAS East-West and APOLLO East-West subsea cable systems, which provide four geographically alternative routes to the Greek mainland with 96 fiber pairs in total. 

Grid Telecom has also announced its plans to build a cable landing station on the southern coast of Crete, that will anchor new subsea cable systems crossing the Eastern Mediterranean, providing carrier and hosting facilities. As part of this development, Grid Telecom will provide diverse and highly reliable backhaul routes with low latency and high availability to all existing and new data centers on the island of Crete, the Greek mainland, and in neighbouring countries, leveraging its capabilities as a regional carrier-neutral open-access data hub.
 
Leveraging its network infrastructure in Italy, the Balkans and Central Europe, Grid Telecom has also developed a state-of-the-art DWDM optical network, providing ultra-fast capacity services, as well as collocation services within protected areas in IPTO’s substation sites across Greece.

The investments of Lamda Hellix and Grid Telecom are highly complementary. For this reason, the two companies have signed an MoU that extends their established strategic cooperation at Lamda Hellix’s Athens Campus to the Heraklion facility, where Grid Telecom intends to establish a high capacity, Point-of-Presence.

Apostolos Kakkos, Chairman and CEO, Lamda Hellix, comments, “Our vision has always been to promote Greece as a regional hub and as a gateway between Europe and the Middle East, N. Africa, and Asia. During the past years we have worked hard towards this goal, hand-in-hand with the community, subsea cable partners, and customers. Today, we see our dream come true. Our Heraklion data center will act as a catalyst that accelerates developments in the region. In this journey, our cooperation with Grid Telecom is of key importance as their investments add value to the ones of the large intercontinental subsea systems landing in Greece, and to our own investments in Crete and  Athens”.

George Psyrris, Director of Grid Telecom, comments, “Grid Telecom consolidates its position as a premier carrier-neutral wholesale provider in Greece and Europe, offering telecommunications corridors of high capacity and reliability, while developing digital infrastructure of strategic importance in Crete. The partnership of Grid Telecom with prospective subsea cable operators will provide open-access backhaul networks with leading edge data connectivity and international reach to the Balkans, Italy, and other destinations in Europe and beyond. Neutral data centers and open-access cable landing stations create synergies and add value, which is why we highly value our strategic cooperation with Lamda Hellix and have extended it to also cover the emerging market of Crete”. 

About Lamda Hellix - www.lamdahellix.com
Lamda Helix, A Digital Realty Company is the largest and most interconnected carrier-neutral data center service provider in Greece. Its state-of-the-art data center campus in Athens was founded in 2002 and offers the best cloud and colocation services in the category. It acts as a hub for telecommunications providers, customers and partners and a gateway between Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). 

About Grid Telecom - https://www.grid-telecom.com/en
Grid Telecom, established in January 2019, is a 100% subsidiary company of Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator - IPTO (www.admie.gr/en). Grid Telecom, is IPTO’s telecommunications vehicle for providing services to national and international providers. Grid Telecom’s fiber optic terrestrial and submarine network exceeds 4,000 km throughout Greece and will further expand to exceed 6,000 km in the next years, connecting the Greek islands with the core network.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Eleni Zafeiropoulou, Lamda Hellix: A Digital Realty Company  
ezafeiropoulou@lamdahellix.com
Antigoni Basakarou, Grid Telecom: A wholly owned subsidiary of IPTO
pressoffice@grid-telecom.com