- New facility offers initial capacity for 125 server racks, scaling to 500.
- Positioned as a secure southern gateway, the centre aims to lower latency, strengthen networks and draw investment in AI, cloud and digital infrastructure.
What happened: Ooredoo unveiled a new tier-3 data centre in Salalah, Oman
Ooredoo announced the launch of a tier-3 data centre and submarine cable landing station in Salalah, Oman. The site is the first of its kind in the south of the country, and it gives direct access for global and regional traffic. It starts with 125 racks for servers and will scale to 500 as demand rises.
The landing station supports multiple subsea cables. It is designed to reduce latency and to provide secure, resilient routes for data across Asia, Europe and Africa. Ooredoo said the facility complies with class-3 standards and can support cloud, AI, and edge computing services. The company can host cloud platforms for global partners and offer colocation services for regional enterprises.
Salalah is well placed as a location. It sits near the Arabian Sea, which is an important route for international submarine cables. Many global operators seek low-latency connections between Asia and Europe, and Salalah gives an alternative to the congested Red Sea corridor.
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Why it’s important
Ooredoo said this project is a step for Oman’s digital economy. The centre offers a southern gateway that helps the country diversify its role in global networks. It gives a secure entry point for hyperscalers, cloud providers, and AI firms to land traffic and build services.
Saed Al Ghafri, Ooredoo’s infrastructure director, said the Salalah hub is a catalyst for the nation’s digital future. He said it helps attract global investment and supports innovation in AI and cloud services. The site also fits into Oman’s wider Vision 2040 plan, which aims to expand the digital sector and reduce reliance on oil.
The new hub is expected to draw demand from enterprises across the Middle East and Africa. It also strengthens regional resilience by creating another path for subsea cables that bypasses the Gulf chokepoints. For Oman, this means more jobs, better infrastructure, and new links to the global digital economy.
