Qatar. 6 October 2022 – GBI (Gulf Bridge International) a global cloud, connectivity and content enabler continues to support the increasing presence of OTT content providers in the Gulf region, directly linking regional ISPs with new nodes deployed within local data centres. As part of the strategy GBI and partners are able to provide complete end-to-end solutions to both the OTT content providers including colocation in Qatar and fulfilling their capacity and peering requirements. GBI latest partnership for this is with a world recognised OTT provider, which is the founder and owner of some of the planet’s most popular social media applications.
Individuals and businesses in the Gulf rely on social network apps and other services to stay connected and perform business critical operations. In line with digital transformation trends, this traffic increases every year, and GBI estimates it makes up to 50% of internet traffic in the region. The type of connectivity relied by each user varies on factors and use case, but the capacity needed to support these additional users and applications is ever-growing. For example, when thinking about just mobile connectivity, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) alone, there will be up to 93 million new mobile subscribers using the internet by 2025.
To cater for this increasing usage, OTT providers are bolstering overall connectivity in the Gulf region to ensure a continued quality experience for users. This need is made even more pressing with the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in November, and the connectivity needed to support the expected increase in the use of social media and streaming.
To date, some OTT providers primarily use nodes in Europe to connect to the Gulf, which increases latency and availability compared to hosting the services locally. It also costs ISPs to transit the data from Europe. GBI’s unique position as the only Gulf-based neutral carrier, means it offers direct remote peering across the region, with a central platform node allowing networks to connect and exchange traffic seamlessly.
Brendan Press, chief commercial officer at GBI, says, “This is an incredibly exciting time and we’re collaborating with some of the world’s biggest technology brands to ensure continued user experience and the digital development of the Gulf. With consumers demanding more content than ever before, we are supporting the demands of hyperscalers and OTT content providers by providing direct remote peering a revolutionary concept in the region. Services require high bandwidth, low latency, and full diversity. As the only privately owned, neutral services provider in the region, GBI provides a fully managed, end-to-end service for any global company needing access to any of the region’s growing mature and nascent digital societies”.
GBI’s CLS in all Gulf countries, diverse cable routes to Europe and Asia, and collaboration with local telecoms providers means it delivers an unparalleled datacentre connectivity service. Regional ISPs get access from the CLS in their country, direct to nodes in Qatar.
For the aforementioned OTT partnership, GBI is partnering with MEEZA, the Data Centre Service provider in Qatar. MEEZA has a good track record of delivering large scale Data Centre Services to global tier-1 hyperscalers.
Fadi Nasser, chief commercial officer of MEEZA, adds, “We are delighted to be working with GBI as its strategic partner for this project. Improving the connectivity of OTTs in the region will open up new doors for exchange of information, ideas, and technological advancement on new frontiers, in alignment with MEEZA’s role in driving forward the progress of the IT sector and the digital transformation of the state of Qatar.”
The same project is also using Vodafone Qatar’s high-capacity, reliable local network infrastructure for low-latency and always-on connectivity. It will allow regional ISPs to get access to the newly deployed nodes in the most efficient, fast, and convenient way.
Mahday Saad Al Hebabi, enterprise business unit director, Vodafone Qatar, concludes, “Vodafone Qatar is proud to support and enable the partnership between GBI and OTT content providers with our state-of-the-art connectivity services. Our alliance with GBI on this project is a testament of our dedication to contribute to a digital and innovative advanced ecosystem in Qatar and the Region.”
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