Page 29 - SAMENA Trends - July-August 2022

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Omantel Crowned Middle East Best Regional Operator and Best Regional

Data Centre Operator

Omantel has emerged winner in two categories at the CC-Global
Awards 2022, presented by the Carrier Community, which is one of
the most active and prestigious forums in the wholesale industry.
The awards were recently presented in Berlin. Omantel won in the
Middle East Best Regional Operator and Best Regional Data Centre
Operator categories, reiterating its regional wholesale prominence
and capabilities that have contributed towards making Oman a
strategic point in the global communications domain. Sohail Qadir,
Vice President of Wholesale at Omantel, said, ‘’Omantel has been
consistently winning at the CC Global Awards, which is a remark-
able achievement. We thank the Carrier Community for recognizing
Omantel’s efforts to push the boundaries of telecommunications
and ICT services in Oman, the MENA region and beyond. Winning
these awards proves to us that we are on the right path, as they
are an encouragement to each milestone we reach. Omantel’s role
as the leader and enabler of digital transformation and a facilita-
tor of fast-paced global communication networks will only grow
in the time to come. These awards keep fueling our ambitious
journey.’’ Wida Schmidt, the Co-Founder of the Carrier Community
commented “We had a successful awards ceremony with a signifi-
cantly increased participation this year. This means that the com-
petition was even higher this time and our award judging panel,
Draft
formed by reputable and neutral industry experts, had a challeng-
ing task to decide on the winners. Omantel emerged as the winner
in two categories, which demonstrates its retained leadership in turned the region into the new communication hub. Followed by
the MENA region and reflects its successful journey of growth and SN1, the newly announced state-of-the-art data center in Salalah,
innovation. The company was named the Middle East Best Region- also in partnership with Equinix. The MC1 data center is where car-
al Operator for the third year in a row and recognized for changing riers, content providers, and cloud providers can co-locate critical
the wholesale landscape in the region through global connectivity IT infrastructure. It leverages Oman’s geographic advantage at the
investments and tech services offerings.” Omantel, beyond its role wholesale hub in the region with a solid strategy to enable its cus-
of being the leading integrated telecom service provider in the Sul- tomers and partners to deliver their services with the best possible
tanate, was recognized for enabling wholesale services in the Mid- end-user experience. After establishment, SN1 data center will de-
dle East, Asia, Africa and Europe resulting in successfully driving velop to be a key interconnectivity point for traffic flows between
a transformation unseen elsewhere in the region. Through serving Asia, Europe, and Africa. It will contribute to making Salalah the
80% of the internet from the global content locally hosted in Oman, newest wholesale hub in the regional telecom arena. By shorten-
Omantel has showcased how it has been attracting and hosting ing the length and routes to many highly strategic and important
key international content providers and hyperscalers to serve bet- subsea cables in the region, the new SN1 facility will transform the
ter internet experience to the Sultanate of Oman and the whole landscape of global traffic flows by creating a much more cost-ef-
region. Omantel has investments in more than 20 subsea cable fective route to connect businesses to the Middle East. The new
systems reaching to 120 locations around the world. Omantel has data center will also offer direct fiber connectivity to MC1. Through
introduced a number of new key global wholesale projects recently its Wholesale Business Unit, Omantel has been serving local and
including the partnership with SUBCO to facilitate the landing of international telecom operators, through providing them with ad-
Oman-Australia Subsea Cable (OAC) in Barka, one of the longest vanced telecom solutions in terms of interconnection, internet
ever direct subsea cables stretching for around 10,000 km from access, connectivity, infrastructure, carrier, roaming, and more.
Perth to Muscat, that offers an express route linking Australia and Omantel’s Wholesale has undergone an extraordinary transforma-
the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region and promises tion journey over the last decade, from being a party dependent
a secure, diverse and low-latency connectivity between the two on other regional wholesale providers for fulfilling its own require-
continents. Globally, Omantel’s network of submarine fiber spans ments to becoming a main wholesale provider serving telecom
for over 114,000 km (for operational cables originating from Oman operators and content providers locally, regionally, and globally.
to the world). Being recognized as the Best Regional Data Centre Moreover, Omantel introduced the Dynamic Global Wholesale In-
Operator category cements Omantel as the regional leader from tegration Program that is continuously evolving to cover the future
the wholesale perspective. The award recognizes the benefits of needs of the company and its clients through constant updates
Omantel’s joint venture with Equinix to establish MC1 in Muscat, and enhancements to remain on par with the global developments
the first carrier neutral data center in the MENA region, which has and lead the telecom scene in the region and beyond.

29 JULY-AUGUST 2022