Batelco, the leading provider of digital solutions in the Kingdom announced that it has signed an agreement with INTERXION HOLDING NV, (NYSE: INXN), a leading European provider of carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data centre services, to deploy a new point of presence (POP) in Marseille, France.

The agreement is expected to expand Batelco’s presence in a strategically important hub location to accommodate the growing demand for internet bandwidth and content in Bahrain and the region. The Agreement was signed at Capacity Middle East 2019, which is taking place from March 4-7 at the Grand Hyatt, Dubai.

The signing of this agreement will enable the facilitation of route diversity via terrestrial and submarine cables as well as position Batelco as a regional provider for IP Transit service. Currently, the majority of traffic in demand in Bahrain and the region is content that is available in Europe. Hence, the large and growing community of networks and Tier-1 content providers available to build partnerships with Interxion Marseille will accelerate Batelco’s ability to cater to this growing demand from customers.

Commenting on the occasion Batelco Chief Global Business Officer Adel Daylami said, “This step forms part of Batelco’s efforts to seek new ways of enhancing customer experience and providing them with innovative solutions, as the company has always aspired to provide the latest digital and technical solutions to its customers in the Kingdom in line with Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030.”

“With the increased use of internet, it is imperative that customers are provided with reliable solutions allowing them to run their operations smoothly. Batelco is working to establish an extensive national and international infrastructure.”

Interxion Director of Market Development & Strategy Mike Hollands said that Batelco is a very notable addition to their community of customers in Marseille.

“The growing number of content, gaming and cloud platforms present in our Marseille data centres will now enjoy enhanced access to Batelco’s residential and enterprise customers in Bahrain and the Middle East. In addition, Batelco provides the 140+ networks present at Interxion Marseille with a significant new partner to exchange traffic with, as the city’s role as an interconnection hub continues to boom.”