The Chinese giant has agreed to put its points of presence (PoPs) at two Hong Kong data centres operated by Big Data Exchange (BDx), which has a total of five data centres in the Asia-Pacific region (see map).
Bill Lee, regional head of Hong Kong and China for BDx, said: “With China Telecom’s network PoPs now in our diverse Hong Kong data centres, our customers can take advantage of accessing unmatched local, global and trans-China network coverage.”
China Telecom’s new PoPs will be in HKG1 and HKG2, strengthening customers’ rapid digital expansions into leading markets.
They add to China Telecom’s existing 223 overseas PoPs across 41 countries.
Lee said: “As our customers look to Hong Kong to connect to their customers and meet today’s growing digital requirements, we remain committed to creating partnerships that foster growth in one of Asia-Pacific's top data centre markets.”
BDx is closely associated with HGC and with HGC’s US-based private-equity owner, I Squared Capital (ISQ). In January 2021, Andrew Kwok, CEO of HGC, told Capacity that BDx is owned by HGC and he noted the data centre operator’s plans for “a regional hub in Singapore”, 2,500km across the South China Sea from Hong Kong.
BDx has its Singapore data centre at Paya Lebar, adding to two in Hong Kong – one on the island and one in the special administrative region’s New Territories. Its mainland China data centres are in Guangzhou and Nanjing.
The company announced the opening of the Nanjing data centre in June 2021, saying this was the first phase of a 35MW campus.
BDx said the “region’s stable economic environment will continue to make it an ideal destination for financial institutions, as well as a growing number of technology companies, all of which require world-class colocation and connectivity”.
It said the addition of China Telecom’s services to the two Hong Kong data centres “gives customers access to greater redundancy, aiding in their disaster recovery and business continuity efforts. BDx customers will also gain access to all China Telecom services”, listing private lines, global internet access and trans-China traffic.
Former Telstra executive Martijn Blanken, now the CEO of London-based Exa Infrastructure, told Capacity in September 2021 that he has been advising ISQ for 18 months, concentrating on its BDx project, which HGC started setting up in 2018. Exa is also owned by ISQ, having been bought from GTT Communications earlier this year.
