Page 45 - SAMENA Trends - February 2022

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

ARTICLE

Global Connectivity Essential During and After the Pandemic

With MEA markets experiencing similar the development of a healthy internet
trends, the global ICT community is ecosystem to enrich the region.
supporting increased connectivity by
boosting the region’s digital infrastructure. “As the only operator from Asia investing
in 2Africa, our subsea cable resources
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated Connecting MEA to Asia and beyond are vital to connecting Africa to Asia and
digital transformation for companies and At the forefront of this push in MEA is CMI, beyond,” Colin said.
organizations in the Middle East and Africa the China Mobile subsidiary responsible
(MEA). China Mobile International (CMI) for international business. CMI continues “We are committed to
is expanding its network infrastructure to to invest and innovate to bring high-quality
connect MEA and the world, promoting communications services and solutions to a digital future where
global connectivity and helping shape a MEA to create a more connected world. telecommunications is
better digital future.
“We are committed to a digital future a bridge that increases
Reliable global connectivity positions where telecommunications is a bridge that economic competitiveness
companies and organizations to transform increases economic competitiveness and
and better support their business functions promotes better quality of life for people and promotes better quality
within the MEA region and across their in urban and rural communities across the of life for people in urban
other global locations. At the same time, globe. That’s why we are here,” Colin Wang, and rural communities
the COVID-19 crisis has changed the way Managing Director of CMI MEA Region
companies do business and touched every said. across the globe. That’s
aspect of daily life. Global connectivity has why we are here,”
become more essential than ever, enabling 2Africa is a key part of this future vision.
remote working, distance learning and The longest subsea cable in the world, Colin Wang
telehealth, and facilitating personal 2Africa will be over 45,000 kilometers Managing Director of CMI
communication and entertainment in length once completed in 2023/2024, MEA Region
services. connecting 33 countries across three
continents: Africa, Europe and Asia. As
In MEA, demand for digital services is a partner in the 2Africa consortium, CMI CMI has built global ICT infrastructure that
accelerating across all sectors of the is helping bring seamless international spans cables, points of presence (PoPs)
economy. Pandemic-related changes connectivity and new opportunities directly and data centers, with a total international
and MEA companies’ ambition to attract to 3 billion people, representing 36% of the transmission bandwidth of more than
foreign investment are combining to put global population. 105T at the end of 2021, up 18% over 2020.
further focus on digital transformation, 2Africa will help CMI further connect its 31
driving high demand for cloud solutions With MEA increasingly looking beyond PoPs around the Arabian Sea with its local
and collaboration applications. the pandemic, 2Africa creates unique ring in Europe and self-owned data centers
connectivity to enrich the region’s links in London and Frankfurt. It will also extend
Gartner is predicting that over 95% of with the world. The cable system has connectivity to Asia via its existing subsea
new digital workloads will be deployed 46 landing locations, directly linking the cable resources: SEA-ME-WE 5 and AAE-1.
on cloud-native platforms by 2025, African continent to the Persian Gulf, India
up from 30% in 2021, and that remote and Pakistan, and four key countries in In this way, CMI is creating a transnational
employees will make up a sizeable portion Europe, and onward to Asia. This coverage ICT superhighway that will help it
of the global workforce. More than 30% is important, since businesses and deliver enhanced capacity and improved
of workers worldwide are expected to be organizations will now have fair and easy service quality to drive intelligent digital
working remotely at least part of the time access to ample capacity in each landing transformation around the world.
this year. location, encouraging and supporting

45 FEBRUARY 2022