GRID TELECOM TO ESTABLISH CRETE AS LEADING MEDITERRANEAN DIGITAL HUB

Strategic Expansion Positions Crete as a Key Gateway Between Continents

Athens, 20 October 2025 – Grid Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) of Greece, announced an expansion of its international network plans, aiming to develop Crete as a major digital hub linking Europe, Africa, and Asia. 

Grid Telecom has invested in infrastructure to transform Crete as a strategic axis for data traffic in the Eastern Mediterranean. Deploying Minoas East-West and Apollo East-West repeaterless fiber cable systems, interconnects Crete with the Greek mainland using four diverse routes and 96 fiber-pairs. The Minoas East and Minoas West cables deliver up to 35 Tb/s capacity per fiber-pair, linking Chania to the Peloponnese, and providing an alternative low-latency route to Milan and other Western European destinations. The Apollo East and Apollo West cables were introduced in service in May 2025, linking Heraklion and Attica regions without intermediate landings and offering up to 11.5 Tb/s capacity per fiber-pair, providing an express path to the Balkans and beyond.

Additionally, Grid Telecom co-owns the Crete branch of the 2Africa system, the world’s longest subsea fiber cable, which was landed on Crete in February 2025, connecting 33 countries and 46 landing points across Europe, Africa, and Asia, spanning 45,000 km, and supporting 18 Tb/s capacity per fiber-pair or more, on key segments in the Mediterranean. Through partnerships with Telecom Egypt and other stakeholders, Grid Telecom is preparing to deliver robust international capacity eastwards to the Middle East and westwards to major European destinations, directly interconnecting Crete with Port Said, Genoa, Marseille, and beyond.

Grid Telecom has managed to consolidate its position as the premier, truly carrier-neutral wholesaler in Greece, delivering open-access strategic digital infrastructure, by increasing its optical network reach in Crete through overhead (OPGW) and underground fiber cables, and by upgrading its nationwide DWDM network. By integrating an extensive optical fiber network across Greece and neighbouring countries with its own links and points-of-presence, the company seeks to provide network diversity, security, and efficient low-latency connections. This expansion allows Grid Telecom to offer alternative backhaul links with the shortest possible routes between data centers and cable landing stations in both the Greek mainland and Crete, supporting its function as a carrier-neutral, open-access data node.

With state-of-the-art infrastructure, Grid Telecom, strengthens Greece's role as a digital connectivity hub in the wider Balkan and Mediterranean region, with significant benefits across business sectors, while creating new prospects for strong and mutually beneficial synergies in the telecommunications ecosystem of Crete.

About IPTO:
The Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) is responsible for the operation, monitoring, maintenance, and development of the Hellenic Electricity Transmission System, aiming to ensure safe and undisrupted power supply across the country, as well as the operation of the electricity market for transactions outside the Day Ahead Scheduling pursuant to the principles of transparency, equality, and free competition. IPTO’s Ten Year Network Development Plan provides for the electrical interconnection of major Greek islands in the High Voltage System by the end of the decade, the strengthening and modernization of the continental power grid as well as the facilitation of Greece’s transition towards a cleaner energy mix. IPTO’s investment program, includes the Crete-Attica power link, the completion of Cyclades interconnections as well as the interconnections of the Dodecanese and the North Aegean islands to the mainland. IPTO is also developing and designing new interconnectors to all neighboring countries and the Eastern Mediterranean, with Greece as the main hub.  

For more information, contact:
Email: pressoffice@admie.gr

About Grid Telecom:
Grid Telecom was established in 2019 as a wholly owned subsidiary company of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) of Greece and acts as its telecommunications vehicle for providing wholesale services and total solutions to national and international operators and large enterprise customers. Grid Telecom’s optical fiber terrestrial and subsea network exceeds 6,000 km throughout Greece, offering dark fiber and spectrum, achieving the shortest possible routes, network diversity, maximum security, and very low latency. Grid Telecom is developing a growing international optical fiber network that is supported by a state-of-the-art proprietary DWDM optical network, providing ultra-fast capacity services and collocation services within protected areas in IPTO’s substation sites across Greece.  

For more information, contact: 
Email: pressoffice@grid-telecom.com