Orange has outlined plans to leverage its data center assets as the French telco looks to capitalize on the growth around data center demand.

Michaël Trabbia, CEO of Orange Wholesale, noted last week at Mobile World Congress that data centers form a key segment of the carrier's telecoms infrastructure.

Trabbia stressed the importance of Orange owning its own telecoms infrastructure, during a time when many operators have sold some of their infrastructure assets, including towers and data centers.

"Owning infrastructure is only possible if you have the investment," Trabbia told a roundtable in Barcelona.

He explained that, through the operator's tower subsidiary Totem, Orange has been able to generate more revenue opportunities by opening up its towers to third parties.

Trabbia confirmed to DCD that Orange will look to leverage its data center assets in a similar way.

"We're experiencing big market growth in data centers. We have been building some assets for our own needs. For instance in France and other countries as well," said Trabbia.

Orange owns 75 data centers across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The company refers to data centers as the "network brain" on its website.

In a timely announcement last week, Orange appointed Totem CEO Nicolas Roy to lead Orange Group's data center strategy and business development unit. Trabbia reiterated that this appointment outlines the company's strategy to push its data center focus.

"We looking to leverage the [data center] assets that we have. Our objective is not to sell these assets for cash as we have no debt issue, rather we want to contribute to this market growth and market demand that we're seeing with AI."

In the same way that Totem has opened up its 27,000 telecom towers to third parties, Trabbia said the company plans to do the same with its data centers, paving the way for colocation opportunities.

Trabbia said Orange will make more announcements on its data center plans in the future.