Equinix announced a joint venture with Oman Telecommunications Company to deliver data center and interconnection services to customers in the Middle East.

The joint venture will develop a new network-dense data center in Barka, near Muscat, the capital of Oman — targeting IT infrastructure needs of carriers, content providers and cloud providers.

Equinix and Omantel will both spend $10 million, representing 50 percent shareholding each. The joint venture will look for debt financing as well.

Customers in the GCC and wider MENA region can also leverage other Equinix data centers in the region for dual access to content providers, allowing carriers, content providers and cloud providers to build resilience into their IT and network infrastructure.

The IBX data center in Oman will benefit from connectivity to cable landing stations (CLS) and subsea cable systems that terminate directly inside the facility. It will also benefit from the investments by Omantel in multiple strategic subsea cable systems throughout the region and world.

Equinix will operate the data center, which will have 18,600 square feet of colocation space and approximately 750 cabinets. The first phase of the three-phase build will include 250 cabinets and is expected to open for business by Q2 2019.

Omantel has investments in 20 subsea cable systems and leverages six landing stations in Oman and one in France. Omantel is an investor in AAE-1 consortium, one of the largest, newest high-capacity connections between Asia, Africa and Europe.

Omantel has also invested in multiple regional and international cables including Europe India Gateway (EIG), Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG), Gulf to Africa (G2A), and Silk Route Gateway-1 (SRG-1), among others.

“The IBX data center with Equinix in Oman represents a massive step forward for Oman and the Middle Eastern ICT markets,” Talal Al Mamari, CEO, Omantel, said.