Although the cloud may seem like a magical invention, a lot of physical infrastructure is needed to support fast Internet connections.
Greece and Saudi Arabia have announced a joint venture to lay land and submarine cables connecting Europe and Asia, according to Reuters (opens in a new tab).
The project is known as the "East to Med data Corridor", consisting of terrestrial and submarine cables, and will be developed by MENA HUB, owned by Saudi and Greek telecommunications companies.
"Eastern Mediterranean Data Corridor"
There is still some way to go on the details and a deal is expected in July. Cable laying is time consuming and the new corridor is expected to be completed by 2025.
A source told Reuters the estimated total cost would be around 800 million euros.
It is fair to say that Greece has had a difficult financial history over the last decade, facing tough demands from the European Union to rescue its economy.
Digital transformation was among the priorities of the Greek government, which came to power in 2019, and the agreement would represent an important step in this project, consolidating Greece as a destination for technological innovation.
Greece has received around 30.000 billion euros for digital transformation - made up of grants and loans - and part of these funds will be spent on the installation of 5G and fiber.
Creation of internet infrastructure.
It is not only countries that want to lay submarine and terrestrial cables to obtain better access to the Internet.
Meta, Google, and many other large corporations are quietly working to build a next-generation Internet infrastructure around the world.
Meta has been working on (opens in a new tab) 2Africa, a 45 km cable that will link the UK with Spain before running down the entire African coast to Oman.
The cost of such projects is a drop in the ocean compared to the potential benefits available, both in terms of adding new users and charging other companies and governments to transfer data over their cables.