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Nov 7, 2024
Muscat, Oman - Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world's digital infrastructure company™, has officially opened its state-of-the-art data center in Salalah, Oman, establishing a significant new interconnectivity hub that will transform global data flows.
Strategically located in the coastal city of Salalah, the new data center – SN1 – is built in cooperation with Omantel, a regional leading telecom and technology provider in the Middle East. The facility is commercially and operationally managed in full by Equinix as a carrier neutral and open access Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centre.
This marks the second carrier-neutral data center built in Oman, following the success of MC1 in Muscat, and Equinix’s sixth facility in the Middle East, complementing its existing operations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. SN1’s unique location in Salalah optimizes the routes of several highly strategic connections, offering a more direct and cost effective reachability for businesses and service providers across four continents.
Strategic Impact on Global Connectivity
SN1 will significantly reshape traffic flows across the Middle East and beyond, reducing latency and improving the resilience of global networks. The facility will also feature direct fiber connectivity to Equinix’s MC1 data center in Muscat, providing carriers, hyperscalers, content providers, and cloud service providers the ability to co-locate their critical infrastructure and further enhance regional operations.
Kamel Al-Tawil, Managing Director of Equinix for the MENA region, highlighted the facility’s importance: “I’m delighted to inaugurate our latest strategic data center, further showcasing our investment in Oman and the wider Middle East. With extension to multiple subsea cables, this new hub in Salalah will transform global connectivity across different continents and aligns perfectly with our strategy of creating network-dense, highly interconnected ecosystems globally,"
Talal Al Mamari, CEO of Omantel, emphasized on Salalah's strategic importance: “Today, we are announcing another major milestone through our partnership with Equinix. The launch of the SN1 data center is a corner stone of our strategy to create a global connectivity hub in Salalah. We are committed to attracting the world’s leading content providers and hyperscalers to the region, and this state-of-the-art data center is a key part of this vision. By next year, we plan to land multiple subsea cables in Salalah, solidifying its status as one of the most connected hubs in the region due to its location at the crossroads of major international routes between Asia, Europe, Africa and all the way to Australia.”
Omantel’s Investment in Global Connectivity
Over the past decade, Omantel has invested over USD 1 billion in international networks and data centers, successfully attracting global hyperscalers to establish their regional hubs in Oman. On a global level, the creation of the joint venture Zain Omantel International (ZOI) - marks a significant step forward for the international business, creating a leading force in the wholesale telecom sector, delivering end-to-end connectivity solutions across the Middle East and beyond.
About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company, enabling digital leaders to harness a trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. Equinix enables today’s businesses to access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need to accelerate advantage. With Equinix, they can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value.
About Omantel
Omantel Wholesale is the international and domestic wholesale division of Oman Telecommunications Company S.A.O.G. (Omantel), the leading and first integrated telecommunications service provider in Oman.
Founded in 1970, Omantel is a joint-stock company listed on the Muscat Securities Market, with 51% ownership by the Oman Investment Authority (OIA), the sovereign investment arm of the Omani government.
Omantel has investments in over 20 submarine cable systems globally, with five unique submarine cable landing stations in Oman, and multiple terrestrial links providing outbound connectivity to neighboring countries. It is also the first and only GCC carrier to land a submarine cable in Europe.
Omantel Wholesale leverages ultra-low latency networks to drive innovation and digital transformation globally. By capitalizing on Oman’s geographic position at the crossroads of East, West, North, and South, it enables customers and partners to deliver superior services with the best possible end-user experience.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks to our business and operating results related to the current inflationary environment; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; stock price fluctuations; increased costs to procure power and the general volatility in the global energy market; the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX® and xScale® data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; risks related to regulatory inquiries or litigation and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent and upcoming Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
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