The government of Oman has formed a large capacity agreement with Australian submarine cable development firm Subco that will leverage Omantel’s subsea network to provide connectivity between the Sultanate and Europe.
The agreement will enable Omantel - which is 51% owned by Oman’s government – to deliver high capacity connectivity from Muscat to Subco’s points of presence in London, Marseille and Milan. This will allow Subco to connect its European PoPs to its Oman Australia Cable (OAC), a 10,000km cable between Muscat, Oman and Pert, Australia that is scheduled to enter service in July 2022.
According to Subtel Forum, the OAC is the first fully diverse cable to connect EMEA and Asia without routing through the Malacca Strait, a narrow strait between Indonesia and Malaysia which experiences frequent seismic activity, causing disruption to subsea cable services.
Omantel CEO Talal Bin Said al Maamari said: “OAC is going to contribute in 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 SUBCO to work and collaborate with us.”
Subco founder Bevan Slattery added: “With the OAC only a few months away from [service], having this capacity in place to extend our reach into Europe is important to further enable our capability and addressable market.”
