1st carrier neutral IXP, data centre set up in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The United Arab Emirates-based Etisalat has set up Pakistan’s first carrier-neutral IXP and data centre in the country to strengthen the reliability of internet connectivity while the PTCL will work with the DE CIX German data centre and IXP operator to run the operations of the new data centre.

Bringing a world-class data centre operator to Pakistan will now enable Pakistan to both bring super-scaling cloud services such as AWS, Google Cloud and Azure and provide a local content hub for content services such as YouTube, TikTok and Netflix. Inaugurating the Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE) powered by the DE-CIX, the first carrier-neutral IX in the country, Federal Minister for IT & Telecommunications Dr Umar Saif made the landmark announcement associated with the IT sector and revealed that China would start routing its internet traffic through Pakistan and it would make Pakistan a regional hub for connectivity. At the same time, it would be a source of earning huge revenue for internet transit traffic.

Describing the revolutionary steps, Dr Saif said: “Pakistan is a massive digital market, with an internet user-base larger than the population of Italy. Over the past few years, we have made significant strides in advancing fiber connectivity. We got two fiber loops from Kashghar to Rawalpindi, further extended to Karachi by the PTCL. Additionally, multiple submarine cables making landfall in Karachi further enhance our connectivity. Now, the PTCL Business Solution’s carrier neutral data centre, managed by a tier 1 data centre operator, DE-CIX is up and running and generates exciting prospects for localized content hosting from leading platforms like YouTube, Netflix and TikTok. The content cached and routed from Pakistan can seamlessly reach other markets, positioning us as the regional digital connectivity hub. It can generate annual revenues, ranging from $200-400 million through transit traffic to substantially add to our economy.” The PTCL is the largest integrated information communication technology company of Pakistan and DE-CIX is the world’s leading Internet Exchange (IX) operator. Housed in the PTCL data centre in Karachi, the IX is operated by the DE-CIX as a service (DaaS) model and built on the DE-CIX’s award-winning interconnection infrastructure. The interconnection platform offers local peering as well as remote access to the DE-CIX Frankfurt (Germany), one of the largest IXs in the world. The PIE powered by the DE-CIX is set to serve as a hub for regional connectivity, enabling local networks low-latency interconnection and localization of global content, while increasing network stability, scalability and security.