Page 25 - SAMENA Trends - May 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

China Mobile International Partners with Omantel for its Third PoP in the

Middle East

Deepening its collaboration within the cables will be linked to the Muscat PoP to SmartHub and Datamena and globally to
Middle East, China Mobile International strengthen CMI’s connectivity and provide our infrastructure in Djibouti, Singapore
(CMI) has joined hands with Omantel to an alternative path through the Middle East. and other key hubs. This will bring Oman
establish its third Point of Presence (PoP) Sohail Qadir, Vice President, Wholesale, into a CMI network that covers China and
in the region in the Sultanate of Oman. Omantel said, “With the globalization of the across six continents.” The partnership
The new partnership leverages Oman’s telecommunications sector, we are looking with CMI underscores Oman’s economic
strategic location and the complementary at an exciting future of our partnerships potential and business-friendly climate,
strengths of CMI and Omantel to enable and expansion with CMI. Omantel became as a secure and stable Gulf state. It also
closer ties between the Middle East, the preferred choice to help CMI take its reflects Omantel’s growing reputation as
Africa, Asia and Europe. The new PoP will strategies forward in part because of a trusted global player. With modern high-
leverage Omantel's vast subsea network the Sultanate of Oman's geographical speed infrastructure and ultra-low-latency
to provide latency improvement, prevent location, policies that feel the pulse of connectivity, Omantel supports enterprise
single point failure and connect with other a digital future, and an infrastructure customers and as a state-owned company
CMI PoPs for resilient connectivity in the network that enables us to reach further. and experienced in submarine industry
Middle East to support increased global Forming the backbone of this partnership helps major telecom service providers
connectivity for multinational businesses. will be Omantel's robust infrastructure, with cable landing and terrestrial fiber
Omantel has invested in 20 subsea cable subsea network, professional facilities construction to expand their reach. As the
systems covering 120 locations around management and access to power.” “In an Sultanate's first and leading integrated
the world. It is also the first and only carrier era of digitization and global cooperation, telecommunications services provider,
within the six Gulf Cooperation Council CMI and Omantel are coming together to Omantel capitalizes on ultra-low latency
(GCC) countries to land a submarine cable provide secured and reliable connectivity networks to enable innovation and digital
in Europe. The Oman PoP connects to the for businesses working in GCC countries, transformation globally. It utilizes Oman's
Dubai, Fujairah and Djibouti PoPs through Africa, Europe and beyond,” said Andrew geographic advantage at the absolute
CMI’s SMW-5 and AAE-1 cable system, Niu, CMI Chief Partnership Officer, “As part nexus of the east, west, north, and south
and connect to other APAC cable systems of our commitment to the GCC region, CMI to enable its customers and partners to
in Singapore, such as SJC and APG going will be investing in backhaul to connect deliver their services with the best possible
to Hong Kong. In the future, more new our new Oman POP with our PoPs at end-user experience.

Cisco Acquires ThousandEyes For Around $1
Billion To Make Deeper Push Into Software

Cisco continued its software acquisition Todd Nightingale, the company said in 2017 acquisition of AppDynamics for
spree, announcing on Thursday the the release. The purchase follow’s Cisco’s $3.7 billion, which brought in software
purchase of ThousandEyes, whose
technology helps companies monitor their
network for outages. Terms of the deal
weren’t disclosed, but a person familiar
with the matter confirmed a Bloomberg
report that the purchase price was about
$1 billion. Since Chuck Robbins was
named Cisco’s CEO in 2015, the company
has been focused on expanding its
portfolio of cloud-based software so it can
cater to companies that are moving away
from their own data center and into more
distributed environments. ThousandEyes
will be part of Cisco’s new Networking
Services business unit, which is run by

25 MAY 2020