Located by the Red Sea and known as Jordan’s only port city, Aqaba is on the vital route linking Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Maximizing its potential, the Aqaba Digital Hub, an iconic project that will serve the growing demand for modern digital services in Jordan and the MENA region, was established.
Created by a group of Jordanian entrepreneurs, the Aqaba Digital Hub aims to capitalize on key digital growth trends that will ultimately benefit individuals, enterprises, and governmental organizations — not only in Jordan but the entire region. Taking this into consideration, digital transformation is an ongoing phenomenon that requires high-bandwidth connectivity, internet exchanges, and data centers. In response, the Hub provides a broad range of services such as optimized IP exchange, online, satellite, fiber access, and data center for the underserved MENA region.
Among the Hub’s notable accomplishments are hosting the first IP point of presence (POP) in Aqaba for two international telecom operators; building and operating the first tier-3 uptime certified carrier-neutral data center in Aqaba; operating the first fiber-optic network in Aqaba via its telecom arm “Naitel”; and setting up the first internet exchange (IX) point in Jordan.
To highlight, AqabaIX has attracted the National Information Technology Center (NITC), in addition to a number of regional and international internet service providers (ISPs) as well as content delivery networks (CDNs) like Google, Packet Clearing House, and Subspace. As an instrumental tool in developing the local internet ecosystem, AqabaIX helps in optimizing and improving the quality of traffic flow, reducing latency, and improving cybersecurity.
Moreover, Aqaba Digital Hub was selected as the Jordanian hosting facility for the Raman submarine cable, a part of Google and Telecom Italia Sparkle’s Blue-Raman submarine cable system. Through Aqaba, this new subsea cable would connect Asia with Europe.
In support of bringing the Aqaba Digital Hub into life, local authorities granted licenses and approvals to acquire 30,000sqm land in Aqaba to build a digital media city, a 5kw mega data center, a teleport landing station, and submarine cable landing station with beach manhole access.