Deepening its collaboration within the Middle East, China Mobile International (CMI) has joined hands with Omantel to establish its third Point of Presence (PoP) in the region in the Sultanate of Oman. The new partnership leverages Oman’s strategic location and the complementary strengths of CMI and Omantel to enable closer ties between the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

The new PoP will leverage Omantel’s vast subsea network to provide latency improvement, prevent single point failure and connect with other CMI PoPs for resilient connectivity in the Middle East to support increased global connectivity for multinational businesses. Omantel has invested in 20 subsea cable systems covering 120 locations around the world. It is also the first and only carrier within the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to land a submarine cable in Europe.

The Oman PoP connects to the Dubai, Fujairah and Djibouti PoPs through CMI’s SMW-5 and AAE-1 cable system, and connect to other APAC cable systems in Singapore, such as SJC and APG going to Hong Kong. In the future, more new cables will be linked to the Muscat PoP to strengthen CMI’s connectivity and provide an alternative path through the Middle East.

Sohail Qadir, Vice President, Wholesale, Omantel said, “With the globalization of the telecommunications sector, we are looking at an exciting future of our partnerships and expansion with CMI. Omantel became the preferred choice to help CMI take its strategies forward in part because of the Sultanate of Oman’s geographical location, policies that feel the pulse of a digital future, and an infrastructure network that enables us to reach further. Forming the backbone of this partnership will be Omantel’s robust infrastructure, subsea network, professional facilities management and access to power.”

“In an era of digitization and global cooperation, CMI and Omantel are coming together to provide secured and reliable connectivity for businesses working in GCC countries, Africa, Europe and beyond,” said Andrew Niu, CMI Chief Partnership Officer, “As part of our commitment to the GCC region, CMI will be investing in backhaul to connect our new Oman POP with our PoPs at SmartHub and Datamena and globally to our infrastructure in Djibouti, Singapore and other key hubs. This will bring Oman into a CMI network that covers China and across six continents.”

The partnership with CMI underscores Oman’s economic potential and business-friendly climate, as a secure and stable Gulf state. It also reflects Omantel’s growing reputation as a trusted global player. With modern high-speed infrastructure and ultra-low-latency connectivity, Omantel supports enterprise customers and as a state-owned company and experienced in submarine industry helps major telecom service providers with cable landing and terrestrial fiber construction to expand their reach.