Zain Group, UAE Etisalat sign deal to boost digital content services

Zain Group, the leading telecommunications group with commercial presence in eight countries across the Middle East and North Africa signed an agreement Wednesday with Etisalat UAE, one of the leading telecom operators in the Middle East and Africa.
The agreement would enable Zain Group companies to deploy Etisalat's Smarthub, a faster access to leading internet content and capacity services.
Smarthub IX and SmartHub IPX will also be available to the Zain Group throughout the region through the same connection.
Henri Kassab, Managing Director, International, Wholesale and Roaming of Zain Group said, ''Given Zain Group's strategic direction of transforming itself and becoming an integrated digital lifestyle mobile operator, it is critical that we bring a higher quality of data connectivity to our customers across the region.
This collaboration with Etisalat's SmartHub will help Zain sustain the huge growth in regional mobile internet and act as a more resilient platform for us to exchange regional traffic and source a vast repository of localized internet content." Kassab added "this partnership will further enhance the internet experience we provide, helping Zain to retain and attract new customers as well as complement our LTE 4G expansion strategy and support our planned roll-out of dynamic Enterprise services to corporate clients.
We look forward to continued work with Etisalat UAE and other key partners for the benefit of our customers." For their part, speaking on the occasion, Ali Amiri, Executive Vice President of Carrier and Wholesale Services, Etisalat UAE, said "Zain Group is an important partner for Etisalat and this marks a milestone in the regional expansion of the SmartHub.
Important operators like the Zain Group recognise the need for localised access to content and the need to support the mission critical customer applications with robust and reliable international network solutions.
"We look forward to a continued long and mutually beneficial relationship with the Zain Group and welcome them to the Smarthub community of content providers and networks." Etisalat UAE's Smarthub is the region's largest capacity, content, internet and data hub in the Middle East.
Smarthub includes the Middle East's first IPX for mobile operators and includes the region's largest portfolio of internet content.
Smarthub has made significant strategic partners this year such as AMSix, Epsilon, Equinix, PCCW Global, SAP, China Telecom and Tata Communications among others. Smarthub also became the region's largest hosted content delivery network (CDN) due to new partnerships with Limelight, Level3, and CDN networks.
Connectivity to Smarthub is provided through a robust and diverse infrastructure of both regional and intercontinental cable systems managed by Etisalat's Carrier and Wholesale Services.