Etisalat expands SmartHub footprint with new facility in Kalba

Etisalat has announced the further expansion of its SmartHub with a third location opening in Kalba complete with a state-of-art Tier 3 data centre facility addressing the growing demand and enhancing geographical diversity.

SmartHub Kalba is Etisalat’s third wholesale data centre, following the opening of facilities in Fujairah and Dubai last year. The new data centre will offer geo-redundant ecosystem for global players to expand their regional presence.

Additionally the new facility is also selected to be the landing for Africa-1, a new subsea telecom system connecting Africa, the Middle East and Europe. This gives SmartHub Kalba a pivotal role in catering towards facilitating faster connectivity to various global partners.

With the launch of its latest facility, Etisalat’s Carrier & Wholesale Services (C&WS) has set a benchmark in the region, and is a testimony to the company’s strategy to ‘Drive the digital future to empower societies’. It is also in line with UAE leadership’s vision to continue leading as an ICT and data hub for the region addressing the diverse requirements of global telecom infrastructure.

Ali Amiri, Group Chief Carrier & Wholesale Officer, Etisalat, said: “As one of the biggest neutral carrier hotels, Etisalat’s SmartHub data centres will be an ICT bridge between continents always supporting critical business activities of global customers. SmartHub Kalba will enable us to increase our capabilities and global capacity to meet our international clients’ expanding needs for infrastructure across Asia, Africa, Europe, Middle East and the Americas. We at Etisalat are committed to making ‘SmartHub’ a preferred location for carriers, cloud service providers, Internet exchanges and companies looking for a carrier grade data centres.”

The new facility is scheduled to be operational by the first quarter of 2022 providing a robust data centre infrastructure evolving to meet future demands including landing of a new generation of submarines as well as becoming a disaster recovery hub for Etisalat’s customers in the Fujairah SmartHub.