Telecom Egypt (TE) and the Dutch company AMS-IX have signed a strategic partnership contract to establish an EG-IX Internet Traffic Exchange Center in Egypt.
The centre will be located inside TE’s largest international data centre in the Smart Village, located on the outskirts of Cairo.
The agreement’s signing was witnessed by Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat, via video conference.
The partnership contract was signed by Adel Hamed, Managing Director and CEO of TE, and Etter Van Bergel, CEO of AMS-IX.
The EG-IX Internet Traffic Exchange Center will provide effective communications for content service providers, cloud services, application developers and telecom companies looking to enhance the digital experience for internet users in Egypt, Africa and the Middle East.
The centre will be managed by IX-as-a-Service (IXaaS) technology, through which AMS-IX supports the establishment and operation of corporate Internet traffic exchange centres around the world. EG-IX is expected to enter service beginning of 2021 after the construction of the data centre is completed.
Hamed said that this partnership aims to establish the first platform for electronic exchange points over the Internet in Egypt. The step will support Egypt’s digital transformation plans, and will strengthen the country’s Internet ecosystem. It will also support the ongoing regional efforts to create a digital ecosystem to collect internet traffic from Africa and the Middle East.