The inaugural summit is part of the Capacity Middle East 2018 event and aimed to be a dedicated touchpoint within the year for the submarine cable market to address advancing market issues with the global submarine ecosystem as they look to build greater presence and invest in the region.

The opening panel entitled “The Middle East – Exploring the Subsea Terminal Hub between Europe and the Far East” and facilitated by Salience’s managing partner Ivan Skenderoski explored number of relevant issues for the development of the regional subsea hub concept. The participants included senior representatives from cable and wholesale service operators Airtel, GBI, PCCW Global and BBG consortium.

The panelists discussed about the natural emergence of various hubs across the region such as Oman as cable hub, UAE as data exchange hub, Kuwait as potential alternative transit route hub and even Djibouti gaining momentum going forward. These developments should use the lessons learned from other established hubs such as the Marseilles hub in Europe and try to provide regional integration possibly supported by the TRA authorities which should facilitate the developments of these hubs including the open access to the subsea capacity.