Int’l Bytes: China, Proximus, Orange Belgium, Sparkle, Salam

Four bits of infrastructure news from Europe, Asia, and Africa to catch up with:

The data center market in China is about to get some possibly unwanted attention from the national government, according to a report from Reuters late last week. State planners are stepping in after a boom in construction focused on the western province of Xinjiang where energy is cheap as the country experiences its own race to AI. They are looking to build a nationalized network on which one can purchase computing power, tapping the three state-run telecoms China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom to bring the infrastructure investments into line with Beijing’s broader plans.

In Belgium, underserved areas of Wallonia will be getting more connectivity soon. Orange Belgium and Proximus have signed an MoU to collaborate on a new infrastructure buildout to reach 1.4M homes and businesses. The plans call for Proximus to target 600K with FTTx in medium-density areas, for Proximus and Orange Belgium to team up on 200K in less densely populated areas, and for Proximus to help offer HFC connectivity via Orange Belgium to 600K in the most sparse regions. Wallonia is the mostly French speaking southern half of Belgium

The Mediterranean may have another cable in place soon. Sparkle and Algérie Télécom have signed an MoU to build a new subsea cable between Italy and Algeria. The high capacity cable system will help with Algeria’s digital transformation and add diversity to the connections between Europe and North Africa.

And Syria is looking to target communications infrastructure after years of disastrous civil war. The Saudi Arabian-based provider Etihad Salam Telecom Company has signed an MoU with the Syrian Ministry of Communications and Technology to build out IP infrastructure. Salam will explore the establishment of PoPs in both Damascus and Aleppo. I’m sure that if things go well, there is a lot more to do.

If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!

Categories: Datacenter · FTTH · Internet Backbones · Undersea cables