In an interview with the Times of Oman, CEO Talal Said Al Mamari (pictured) said yesterday that Omantel wants to “change the landscape of the wholesale industry”.
Omantel and Sub.co, which built the cable, have entered into a large capacity agreement for connectivity between Oman and “various key telecom hubs in Europe through Omantel’s extensive subsea network”, said the paper.
Sub.co said in April that it has completed the final cable landing for its 10,000km Oman Australia Cable (OAC). The cable runs from Muscat to Perth in Western Australia, via a route that avoids zones within Asia that are affected by territorial disputes or extreme natural events. The final landing was in Barka, Oman.
Now, Al Mamari told the Times of Oman, he wants “Oman to be the leading gateway to the region and beyond”.
He said: “OAC is going to contribute to changing the landscape of the wholesale industry and take our collaboration to the next level. Omantel was the wholesale partner of choice for OAC and has attracted more and more international partners like Sub.co to work and collaborate with us.”
Omantel and Sub.co are in the process of completing provisioning and handover of the capacity in readiness for service commencement. They are also exploring further options to expand their collaboration, said the newspaper. These might “include other upcoming systems to provide further capability and diversity for OAC”.
The cable will connect to Equinix’s MC1 facility in Oman, a carrier-neutral data centre. It might later be expanded to Equinix’s SN1 data centre in Salalah and beyond, said the paper.
