STC will include its extensive international submarine cable network for this initiative, which already offers the highest availability to Europe from the GCC today.
STC Group has announced that it intends to establish an advanced technology business, which is expected to form a premier digital hub for the MENA region to enable digital transformation in various sectors aligning with Vision 2030.
Existing assets, which STC will bring to this initiative, include its extensive international submarine cable network, which already offers the highest availability to Europe from the GCC today.
This is achieved through STCs investment in the optical mesh linking multiple high-capacity cables, to ensure continuous service availability in the event of any cable outages.
STC lands submarine cables both in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Gulf and consequently is able to offer low latency to Europe from the Red Sea, and from the Gulf, by also leveraging our terrestrial cross border network. STCs optical cross-border network connects to all neighbouring countries and offers faster connectivity to customers in many countries than they can achieve through the submarine cables landing there.
A number of next-generation multi-terabit cables are currently in the planning stages to meet the very high cloud and content demands predicted in the future, and the first of those to come to the region will land with STC.
STC also intends to leverage its Data Centre estate. With eight Data Centres operating today, STC already has the largest estate in the region. One of these, Mena Gateway, is home to JedIx, the fully redundant internet traffic exchange platform launched last year, which is another key existing asset for our interconnection hub.
Five more Data Centres are currently under construction in multiple countries in the region, and STC will continue to invest in expanding its footprint where necessary to better serve customers across the region.
Commenting on the development, STC Group CEO, Nasser Suleiman Al Nasser said: STC is stepping up to support its clients as they face into this transformation challenge, and is pleased to announce its commitment to creating the premier digital hub for the MENA region. We will bring together both the considerable assets we already have, those which are currently under construction, and our future planned investments to further boost hosting and interconnection capacities. This will ensure that we create in Saudi Arabia the natural home for the MENA regions digital ecosystem, building on our strategic location at the intersection of three continents.
STC is a primary investor partner of the 2Africa submarine cable project, which will deliver very high capacity interconnectivity between three continents. STC will land this submarine cable in the Red Sea, and we are additionally investing in extending that cable into the Gulf, where we will land in multiple countries. STC has further committed to build The Saudi Vision Cable, which will facilitate multi-terabit connection to the North West region of Saudi Arabia, in support of the KIngdoms ambitious plans for Neom, and onwards to Jordan. These significant developments will totally transform the landscape and set the standard for high capacity connectivity in the region, Al Nasser added.
He further noted: STC is committed to working with government, partners and other regional and international stakeholders to ensure that customers get the maximum benefit from the digital hub we are building for the region.
