Malaysian telco YTL Communications and telecoms infrastructure firm Bullish Aim Group announced on Monday they have formed a joint venture to develop fibre infrastructure to support the growth of data centres in Johor.
The JV plans to deploy a unified fibre optic network providing coverage to the major townships within the state of Johor, including some underserved areas.
YTL and BA Group said the unified network would not only provide extra connectivity capacity for data centres in Johor, bit also enable scalable high-bandwidth solutions to support the ongoing rollout of 5G in Malaysia as well as emerging technologies like IoT and AI.
“With Johor being the major hub for data centres, this joint venture will invest in and build the fibre backbone necessary to bring the new digital economy to fruition, driving exponential growth and deployment of digital services and leading-edge technology,” said Yeoh Seok Hong, MD for YTL Communications and its parent company YTL Power International, in a joint statement.
The companies also said the fibre network would reduce duplication of infrastructure, lower costs for service providers and be more environmentally friendly compared to building multiple networks.
Development of the fibre network is slated to begin in the first quarter of this year.
YTL Power is currently developing its 500MW Green Data Center Park in Kulai, Johor. In December 2023, the company revealed plans to partner with GPU chip maker Nvidia to build an AI data centre in the park.
