Focussing on growing connectivity between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, the panel agreed that there remains strong demand for additional capacity and IP transit services in Eurasia.
Several telecoms markets look set to drive growth in the region, such as the emergence of Iran, which in July agreed to curtail its nuclear in exchange for the US and EU lifting a number of crippling sanctions. Efforts are also underway to rebuild telecoms infrastructure in Iraq.
“If you look at Eurasia, we still see a lot of growth opportunities. There are almost Greenfield opportunities: Iraq is rebuilding and the situation in Iran is more favourable,” said Turk Telekom International (TTI) CEO Cengiz Oztelcan. “I think there is new demand for capacity services and there is still a focus on IP transit.”
Oztelcan hopes that the growth in regional traffic and an increase in subsea and terrestrial connectivity in Turkey will help establish Istanbul as a regional hub.
“We have ambitions to make Istanbul the next hub for the region. Geographically it’s a perfect location. We have the eyeballs and connectivity,” said Oztelcan. “TTI’s top goal is to make sure Istanbul becomes the next Frankfurt or Amsterdam of the region.”
The panel was moderated by TeleGeography’s Robert Schult, and also featured Mahesh Jaishankar, VP of datamena and broadcasting at du, Amr Eid, CCO at GBI, and Dino Andreou, CEO at OTE Globe.
