Orange is to build a new $135 million data center in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, which has yet to be given a name.
In an interview with Digital News Egypt, Hesham Mahran, Orange Egypt chief enterprise Line of business officer, and Ayman Amiri, chief technology officer for Orange Egypt, said the new facility will host all smart city platforms of the New Administrative Capital.
Orange is responsible for the new capital’s services management center for five years, and the company aims to start the trial operation of the center early next year.
“Orange International employs more than 15,000 engineers in the field of smart cities, as well as 5,000 engineers and researchers in the technology and innovation sector, and nearly 2,000 specialists in the field of information security,” said Mahran. “The company is keen on a strong presence in the field of smart cities and is fully prepared to invest in this field.”
The new capital city lies just east of Cairo, about 35km (21 miles) into the desert between the regional ring road, the Cairo-Suez road, and Cairo-El Ain El Sokhna road. It has been under construction since 2015, and the country has not yet judge entries to a competition to name the new city.
The Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) is a state-backed company contracting the telco's regional subsidiary. DCD reported on the signing of the contract between Orange and ACUD in January 2020.
The company is also reportedly due to open the first phase of its data center in the Al-Awayd area of Alexandria soon. The new facility was first announced in March 2020 and is being developed in partnership with Huawei. Orange currently operates a data center in Cairo.
Orange has been an on expansion spree across 2021; in Spain the company has opened a facility in Santander and is reportedly aiming to develop five more, it has also opened a new data center in Poland, and acquired a facility in Morocco.
