Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), the Middle East’s most profitable mobile operator, “plans to spend about $1 billion to transform the kingdom into a regional data hub, and may sell a stake in its data hub, called Center3, business to finance the plans,” Bloomberg reports.
The $1 billion will be invested over the next 5 years, the report said, and will be done through Center3 to help Saudi Arabia host more media, gaming and corporate data.
The comments were made by Mohammed Alabbadi, STC’s chief carrier and wholesale officer and chairman of Center3, to Bloomberg.
STC wholly owns Center3 and is considering a stake sale in the future, Alabbadi said.
“We have already had talks with potential investors,” Alabbadi said. “Whether it’s direct equity share or an IPO, those things will be analyzed in due course…The region, and Saudi Arabia specifically, is still a consumer of data when it comes to how we connect to other hubs — whether thats cloud content, media or gaming,” Alabbadi told Bloomberg.
“With the growing demand there’s a rising need to host that content locally.”
