Wholesale and Capacity

International and domestic communications were severed due to the damage sustained by the submarine cables connecting Tonga to the rest of the world.

Zain Group has announced that its operation in Jordan has entered into a definite 15-year agreement to sell and leaseback the passive physical infrastructure of its 2,607 tower portfolio in Jordan to TASC Towers for $88 million. The transaction includes an additional 223 sites transferring to TASC Towers on a managed basis. Zain Group holds a 25% minority stake in TASC Towers.

Console Connect has extended its collaboration with NaiTel, the telecom arm of Aqaba Digital Hub, to enable on-demand global connectivity access in the Middle East.

The facilities being developed by WIOCC Group's new data center company Open Access Data Centres (OADC) will host cable landing stations for the 2Africa and Equiano subsea cables. This is after WIOCC completed a $200 million debt and equity capital raise.

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), a global cloud, connectivity and content enabler, is deploying Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme, to increase GBI’s smart network capacity and performance. This upgrade will help GBI meet the demanding internet traffic requirements between the gulf cooperation council (GCC) countries, Europe and India. This will also help prepare the region for major upcoming sporting events – including the world’s largest football competition – in Qatar and the wider region.

Telecom Egypt, Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator and one of the largest subsea cable operators in the region, has deployed Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optical technology to maximize capacity along the Mediterranean segment of its Middle East North Africa (MENA) submarine cable system as well as mesh network.

Dubai Internet City, the region’s largest hub for technology companies and talent, has announced a deal with Khazna Data Centers, one of the largest wholesale data center providers in MENA, to establish two state-of-the-art data centers.

Intelsat, the operator of the world’s largest satellite fleet and connectivity infrastructure, now has more than 8,000 vessels operating on its award-winning FlexMaritime service.

Steven Yi, president of Huawei Middle East & Africa, and HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), have broken ground the first phase of the largest solar-powered data center in the Middle East and Africa.

Nokia and Orange have completed a network trial using the Nokia PSE-Vs, its fifth generation super coherent optics. This trial successfully validates Orange’s network capability to increase its optical capacity to support end-to-end 400Gbps services across its network.