From our perspective at Power Loop, the Kardesa subsea cable project is not just another telecom investment. It is a structural shift in how digital traffic moves between continents—and Bulgaria is positioned to be one of its key anchors.
The project introduces a new, high-capacity data corridor between Europe and Asia, with Sofia emerging as a major termination and transit point. The expected result is striking: internet traffic volumes reaching the Bulgarian capital could increase up to twentyfold once the system is fully operational.
A Strategic Alternative to Existing Digital Routes
Kardesa is often described as part of the so-called Digital Silk Road, but the label only partially captures its importance. In practical terms, the project creates a “middle corridor” for data traffic, running through the Caspian and Black Seas and deliberately avoiding routes that have become operationally or geopolitically risky in recent years.
The system links Bulgaria directly with Georgia, includes a branch to Turkey, and is designed to extend to Ukraine when conditions allow access to Odesa. This positioning responds to a growing concern among global operators: the resilience of international fiber routes has become just as critical as their capacity.
The investor structure reflects this logic. The project is backed by Vodafone and NEQSOL Holding, a group with telecom assets spanning Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Their involvement signals long-term intent rather than short-term capacity expansion.
Why Bulgaria Became the Entry Point?
In Bulgaria, Kardesa will come ashore near Aheloy, where a dedicated landing station will be developed and operated by Novatel, part of Magyar Telekom and ultimately owned by Deutsche Telekom.
Geography matters, but it is not the whole story. From what we see, Bulgaria’s advantage lies in a combination of location, existing infrastructure, and institutional alignment. Project preparation started more than a year ago and involved close coordination with public authorities to clarify regulatory pathways and responsibilities. For international investors, that clarity can be decisive.
From the Black Sea coast, the cable will be routed inland to Sofia using two separate terrestrial paths. This dual routing is designed to improve redundancy, an increasingly non-negotiable requirement for international traffic hubs.
Using Energy Infrastructure for Digital Scale
One of the more interesting aspects of Kardesa is how it leverages existing energy assets. The terrestrial segment in Bulgaria will use infrastructure owned by Bulgartransgaz, the Bulgarian gas transmission system operator, which already has empty protective ducts installed alongside its gas pipelines.
This means the Bulgarian gas operator does not need to make a direct financial investment. Instead, it contributes to physical assets that dramatically reduce deployment time and cost. Optical equipment will be installed at compressor stations along the route to maintain signal strength over long distances.
For us, this is a clear example of infrastructure convergence: energy corridors increasingly double as digital corridors, especially where long-distance rights of way are already secured.
Scale, Cost, and Capacity
Kardesa is a large-scale undertaking by any standard. The total project value is expected to exceed €100 million, covering thousands of kilometers of subsea and terrestrial fiber. Within Bulgaria alone, the route length will surpass 1,000 kilometers, making it one of the most extensive fiber deployments in the country.
The designed capacity of the system reaches 500 terabits per second, which is orders of magnitude higher than the current international transit capacity terminating in Sofia. This is not incremental growth; it is a structural upgrade.
Preparing for a Data-Driven Decade
Traffic forecasts are central to understanding why projects like Kardesa are moving forward now. Industry projections point to average annual growth of close to 30% in global internet capacity demand through 2030. Cloud computing, AI workloads, video streaming, and cross-border data services are all contributing to this acceleration.
Against that backdrop, Sofia’s expected twentyfold traffic increase is not an anomaly but part of a broader rebalancing of Europe’s digital map. Cities that can offer connectivity, resilience, and room for expansion are gaining strategic weight.
What This Means Going Forward?
From an analytical standpoint, Kardesa places Bulgaria at the starting point of a new Europe–Asia digital axis. The immediate impact will be felt in telecom traffic volumes, but the secondary effects may be even more significant.
Higher international capacity improves the economics of data centers, cloud regions, and edge computing facilities, making Sofia more attractive for long-term digital investment. If those follow-on projects materialize, Kardesa could become a reference case for how infrastructure decisions made today shape regional competitiveness for decades.
For Power Loop, this is exactly the kind of development we track closely: where digital, energy, and strategic infrastructure intersect and where policy, capital, and technology align to change the map.
