Greek Islands Promised Internet Speeds of Up to 1 Gbps

At least ten Greek islands will get very high internet speeds of up to 1 Gbps by this summer, mobile operator Vodafone Greece announced this week.

The company is expected to have completed the full development of 670 kilometers of underwater and 800 km of underground fiberoptic cables that will pass through the Cyclades (Syros, Tinos, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros and Santorini) and will be interconnected with the Dodecanese (Kos and Rhodes) and Crete (Chania and Sitia).

Corfu, in the Ionian Sea, will also be connected to the network in mainland Greece.

In the Dodecanese and Crete, the construction, laying and sealing of the optical fiber, which allows the interconnection of the islands with mainland Greece, has already been completed.

The project, which began in early 2022, is an investment of 40 million euros, the mobile operator announced.

“With 99% of data traffic internationally transported through undersea cables, this type of technology investment is a key factor in the development and digitization of nations, through seamless access to high-quality internet services,” Nikos Plevris, Network Director of Vodafone Greece, said.

He added that the imminent completion of the land and subsea infrastructure development project in the Aegean and Ionian Seas is an extremely important development.

“We are creating new perspectives for our subscribers, but also for the regional development of our country as a whole, ensuring equal access to digital technologies for everyone and opening new paths: in education, health, communication, work and tourism.”

Greece and Greek islands have slow and expensive internet

Greece has the slowest fixed internet in Europe, according to the annual report on the digital quality of life, compiled recently by cyber security company Surfshark.

The country is ranking 39th among 117 countries worldwide and is also 29th among 38 European countries surveyed.

The report also showed that an internet user in Greece needs to work every month for about twelve minutes to buy 1 GB of data for his mobile phone, six times more than what is needed in Bulgaria and 149 times more than what is needed in Israel, the country with the lowest fees which also tops the 2022 index.

Regarding mobile internet speed, Greece ranks 20th, with a speed of 97.5 Mbps/second. In contrast, the internet speeds at home are an average of 40.4 Mbps/second, which puts Greece in 84th place. According to Surfshark, fixed internet speed in Greece is two times lower than in Bulgaria, while mobile internet speed is thirty-six percent lower.

In the Greek islands, there is a growing demand for digital communication from households, businesses, tourists and digital nomads that have decided to work remotely from Greece.

In 2021 Greece launched a new initiative to attract digital nomads by partnering with internet providers to offer new and better services for people who choose the country as a base for remote working.

Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias announced that private companies were willing to provide better internet connection packages. However, little has been done since.