European fiber backbone and subsea infrastructure provider EXA Infrastructure says it has signed a deal with Turkey’s SOCAR Fiber to develop a terrestrial fibre optic route across Turkey that it says will add diversity to the cluster of subsea cables in the Red Sea corridor.
EXA said the planned route will leverage SOCAR Fiber’s 1,850 km fibre optic infrastructure along the TANAP Natural Gas Pipeline route that runs between Greece and Georgia. SOCAR Fiber – a subsidiary of SOCAR Türkiye – currently uses the network to provide communication infrastructure services in 20 provinces and 67 districts.
Under the deal announced on Tuesday, EXA will not only lease a pair of fibre optic cable ends, but also market other cable ends of SOCAR Fiber to major global data centre operators. The deal also includes an option to extend the route towards the Iraq border to provide connectivity into the Gulf region.
EXA said that because the SOCAR Fiber cables are buried next to the TANAP pipeline, it integrates seamlessly with EXA’s Trans Adriatic Express network, which connects France with Turkey by utilising the Trans Adriatic Pipeline route.
Moreover, said Steve Roberts, SVP of network investments at EXA Infrastructure, the tie-up with SOCAR Fiber creates a badly needed terrestrial route to add diversity to the Red Sea bottleneck – an issue that's been highlighted by a rash of subsea cable breaks along the Red Sea corridor this year.
“The vulnerability in the Red Sea region has shown that the industry needs more investment in diversity,” Roberts said in a statement. “We are committed to investing in route diversity and ensuring our customers can access Europe and North America with as many secure paths as possible, and this partnership with SOCAR provides an ultra reliable and highly scalable alternative to the Red Sea into Turkey and the rest of Europe."