Batelco Leases Major Bahrain Data Center to Edge Provider Qareeb

Batelco Leases Major Bahrain Data Center to Edge Provider Qareeb January 14, 2026 Bahrain's telecommunications landscape is witnessing a significant strategic shift as regional operators leverage their infrastructure to support the burgeoning demand for low-latency and sovereign digital services. This move underscores the growing importance of edge computing and AI-ready infrastructure in the Middle East's digital transformation agenda. Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco), owned by Beyon Group, has entered into a long-term lease agreement with Qareeb Data Centers, an emerging Middle Eastern edge infrastructure specialist. Under the deal, Qareeb will manage and operate a newly built 6,000-square-meter (64,585 sq ft) facility located within Batelco's Data Oasis campus in Manama. This facility will serve as Qareeb's inaugural operational data center, marking a key milestone for the company. The partnership, formalized this week, stems from a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two parties in November 2024. The leased data center is designed to provide sovereign, low-latency colocation services tailored for enterprises, cloud providers, and digital platforms across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Hani Askar, Chief Global Business Officer of Batelco, stated, "This agreement represents an important step forward in translating our data center strategy into operational excellence, enabling us to extend our reach across key market segments." For Qareeb, this facility is a cornerstone in its ambitious regional expansion plan. The company has previously outlined a strategy to deploy 50 megawatts of data center capacity across several Middle Eastern markets, including the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and Egypt. Annemarie Van Zadelhoff, Qareeb's Chief Revenue Officer, emphasized the site's strategic value, noting, "This facility represents Qareeb Data Centers’ first operational data center and a significant milestone in delivering high-performance, scalable, and sovereign Edge colocation for cloud providers, AI innovators, and enterprise organisations across the Middle East." The agreement signals a broader trend of telecom operators monetizing their real estate and connectivity assets by partnering with specialized data center providers. It strengthens Bahrain's position as a digital hub in the Middle East, providing critical infrastructure to support next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence, which require localized, high-performance computing resources. The collaboration allows Batelco to focus on its core telecom services while ensuring its infrastructure meets the evolving needs of the regional digital economy through a specialized operator. Source: datacenterdynamics