Telecom Italia Sparkle and Etisalat SmartHub Sign IPX Peering Agreement
Leading IPX providers interconnect networks to offer a seamless LTE Roaming Experience.
Etisalat, one of the leading telecom operators in the Middle East and Africa, and Telecom Italia Sparkle, today announced an agreement to connect their global multi-service IPX’s allowing mobile subscribers to roam seamlessly between international operator networks and enjoy high quality voice and mobile data services.
Telecom Italia Sparkle is among top 10 global service providers worldwide offering a complete range of telecom solutions catering the needs of fixed and mobile carriers, ISPs, content providers, multimedia players and corporate customers. TI Sparkle’s IPX solution today reaches across 80 networks covering 40 countries.
The partnership between Etisalat SmartHub and Telecom Italia Sparkle enables the two leading operators to expand their LTE footprint globally.
Ali Amiri, Executive Vice President, Carrier & Wholesale, Etisalat said: “We are pleased to be entering an agreement with Telecom Italia Sparkle which will benefit both companies with the combined multiservice IPX offerings and enhance our respective customers mobile roaming experience.
“Etisalat SmartHub IPX is a strategic addition to the Etisalat SmartHub portfolio enhancing our role as a global communication hub. Operators joining the SmartHub IPX will have access to TI Sparkle’s community and vice versa, providing a single point of interconnect.”
“TI Sparkle is a pioneer in the industry for the design and introduction of an IPX proposition, and the partnership with Etisalat SmartHub is another important milestone in our effort to make IPX the primary platform for the exchange of existing and upcoming IP based data and voice services globally” says Elisabetta Ripa, Chief Executive Officer of TI Sparkle.
With the global and rapid adoption of LTE networks throughout the world, the market is witnessing a sharp increase in the development of mobile devices supporting all-IP services.
About Smarthub
Etisalat’s Smarthub is the region’s largest capacity, content, internet and data hub in the Middle East. Smarthub includes the Middle East’s first IPX for mobile operators and includes the region’s largest portfolio of internet content. Smarthub has made significant strategic partners this year such as AMSix, Epsilon, Equinix, PCCW Global, SAP, China Telecom and Tata Communications among others. Smarthub also became the region’s largest hosted content delivery network (CDN) due to new partnerships with Limelight, Level3, and CDN networks. This is in addition to our already robust content portfolio (Akamai, Microsoft, Yahoo! and the world’s largest search and video provider). Connectivity to Smarthub is provided through a robust and diverse infrastructure of both regional and intercontinental cable systems managed by Etisalat’s Carrier & Wholesale Services www.etisalat.ae/smarthub.