Nokia bags TM backbone deal as hyperscalers home in on Malaysia

Under the agreement, Nokia will deploy a dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) network spanning the entire length of the country, from its border with Thailand in the north, to Singapore in the south.

It will be based on Nokia's fifth-generation super-coherent Photonic Service Engine (PSE-V), which is capable of transmitting data at close to the Shannon limit – the theoretical maximum rate of error-free data that can be sent over a single channel.

TM will also make use of Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) and its WaveSuite platform. The latter ensures everything runs smoothly, and offers the ability to spin up potential new revenue streams through its service enablement application.

"As a trusted partner to TM, we are delighted to collaborate with our customer to help accelerate the adoption of AI and address the ever-growing hyperconnectivity of traffic," said John Harrington, SVP and head of Asia Pacific sales for Network Infrastructure at Nokia. "Our best-in-class optical solutions will enable TM to provide a sustainable and world-class network experience to its end users in the region. Our technical lab in Malaysia, coupled with local manufacturing of DWDM gear, allows us to ensure the timely and smooth execution of this important project."

Indeed, while Singapore is a long-established hub for hyperscalers, neighbouring Malaysia is shaping up to become one as well.

This week, the first Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud region in Malaysia went live, offering storage and compute resources to everyone from start-ups and entrepreneurs, to large enterprises and government customers. AWS plans to spend $6.2 billion on its Malaysia operations between now and 2038.

Over the next four years, AWS will also spend $9.2 billion to upgrade its existing facilities in Singapore, and work with the government to stimulate the development and adoption of advanced AI services.

On top of that, AWS is also in the midst of building its first infrastructure region in Thailand, as part of 15-year, $5 billion investment scheme.

And that's just AWS.

In 2022, Google Cloud unveiled plans to build data centres in Malaysia and Thailand as part of a broader expansion of its Asia Pacific footprint that also includes New Zealand.

Never one to be left out, Microsoft is also in the process of deploying what it calls an Availability Zone in Kuala Lumpur, which will complement its existing one in Singapore. It is also building another one nearby in Jakarta, Indonesia.

With all this hyperscale activity ramping up in Malaysia and its neighbours, it is little wonder that TM feels a pressing need to upgrade its optical backbone infrastructure.