Omantel and Ciena Collaborate to Serve the Digital Backbone of Oman’s AI and Cloud Economy

Ciena announced that it has worked with Omantel to help launch its new Managed Optical Fibre Network. This milestone marks a pivotal advancement in Omantel’s vision to position the Sultanate of Oman as a regional connectivity hub for hyperscale, AI, and cloud-driven economies.

The MOFN service delivers dedicated, high-performance optical connectivity tailored for hyperscalers, cloud providers, and large enterprises with complex digital infrastructure needs. Powered by Ciena’s cutting-edge optical solutions, Omantel designs, builds, and manages the entire fibre network, offering secure, scalable, and elastic connectivity that mirrors the agility of cloud-native operations.

Omantel’s collaboration with Zain Group and Zain Omantel International further extends these capabilities across regional markets, enabling hyperscalers and enterprises to access international capacity and multi-country network reach through a unified, fully managed service model.

“Hyperscalers need connectivity that is as flexible and intelligent as their cloud infrastructure,” said Eng. Samy Ahmed Al Ghassany, Chief Tech and Digital Officer at Omantel. “Our collaboration with Ciena empowers Omantel to deliver network-as-a-service capabilities that redefine fibre connectivity in Oman. We are enabling our customers to scale instantly, monitor performance transparently, and focus on innovation, without having to worry about infrastructure complexity.”

Built on Ciena’s WaveLogic™ 6 coherent optics, Omantel’s MOFN supports up to 1.6 Tbps per wavelength across both C and L bands. The network is engineered for dynamic scalability and workload adaptability, meeting the growing demands of AI processing, data center interconnects, and hyperscale applications.

Omantel’s fibre footprint interconnects multiple international cable landing stations and carrier-neutral data centers, including MC1 in Muscat and Equinix SN1 in Salalah, creating a highly resilient digital backbone across Oman. With real-time SLA monitoring, bandwidth-on-demand, and automated provisioning, customers gain full visibility and control while Omantel manages the infrastructure end-to-end.

This advanced platform reinforces Oman’s strategic role as a digital gateway between Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe, empowering global enterprises to expand across the Middle East with greater agility, reliability, and security.

“Oman is rapidly emerging as a regional hyperscale hub,” said Thomas Soerensen, Vice President of Global Subsea and International MOFN at Ciena. “With MOFN, Omantel can deliver dynamic, high-capacity fibre services that combine the simplicity of the cloud with the performance of our WaveLogic technology.”

Ciena’s WaveLogic solution also supports AES-256 encryption and Quantum Key Distribution interworking, ensuring ultra-secure transmission for customers in government, financial and corporate sectors. These capabilities—combined with automation and analytics—enable Omantel to deliver a new standard of secure, intelligent connectivity aligned with Oman’s digital transformation agenda and Vision 2040.

Source: Ciena media announcement