MANAMA: The Kingdom of Bahrain has become the first nation to host a hub providing global IP connectivity to all operators in the GCC and Middle East region, thanks to BT-VIVA joint venture.
This has bolstered Bahrain’s position as a leading telecom services provider in the region, thanks to the Government’s commitment to be at top in telecom infrastructure development.
VIVA Bahrain, the Kingdom’s leading telecommunications services provider and BT, one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, today announced the launch of Bahrain’s Global IP Exchange (GIPX) interoperability hub.
“Bahrain is the first nation to host a hub providing global IP connectivity to all operators in the gulf region and Middle East,” Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, told the launch Press conference on Sunday, adding that the launch reaffirms our Kingdom as a regional leader in the telecommunications industry and underlines our Government’s commitment to building a strong knowledge-based economy.
“We are convinced that cost effectiveness and faster connectivity will also reinforce Bahrain’s position as an attractive business friendly environment,” he added.
The new GIPX hub is expected to be of particular interest to mobile and fixed service providers across countries such as Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Egypt who need to terminate international voice traffic to other countries.
With the launch of the GIPX hub, VIVA Bahrain delivers hosting and connectivity, whilst providing a new route to market for BT’s Global IP Exchange Voice and interoperability services in the region. It will also enable BT to extend its Global IP Exchange footprint to the Middle East.
By using the GIPX hub, those operators benefit from convenient, simplified and seamless access, enabling them to provide their end customers with fully interoperable services and innovative products. The hub unlocks significant pull-through business for mobile roaming, Wi-Fi roaming and other future IP Exchange propositions.
“The regional GIPX hub we are launching today connects Gulf and Middle East operators to BT’s best-in-class global IP backbone. The hub is close to the source of traffic making it quick, easy and cost effective for telecom operators to connect, while offering them the opportunity to develop innovative new services,” Ulaiyan Al Wetaid, CEO of VIVA Bahrain, said, adding that the end-users in the Middle East and beyond would benefit from more choice, better service and higher quality communications.
“For consumers, applications such as HD voice, video calling, and Wi-Fi roaming and 4G-roaming will become easier to access and less expensive than they are today.”
“We are delighted to launch our new Middle-East Global IP Exchange interoperability hub in Bahrain together with VIVA Bahrain, exactly one year after first announcing our partnership,” Wael El-Kabbany, managing director, Middle East and North Africa, BT Global Services, said.
“We have worked together with VIVA for more than five years and share the same outlook on leadership, dynamism, innovation and how the creative use of technology can help deliver a great performance. The hub enables access to BT’s global platform with VIVA’s regional expertise. It will help further develop a new ICT ecosystem and encourage global players to drive new ICT services, in addition to offering the latest technology services to the home market. It is also a key building block in the execution of our strategy aiming at rolling out a fully federated Global IP Exchange infrastructure around the world.”
BT IP Exchange is an interoperability service that enables fixed, mobile, legacy and next-generation networks to interconnect in a way that minimizes the cost and technical burden of protocol conversion. Specially developed to meet the growing need for connectivity between voice-over-IP operators, traditional communications providers, and converged service providers, BT IP Exchange provides essential interworking between the various communications technologies currently used by businesses and consumers around the world.