Guam’s Citadel is poised to capitalize on the >1 Pb of new subsea capacity planned to transit Guam. Citadel is being supported in its commercialization activities by long-term partner, APTelecom. The Guam Exchange runs atop trusted network compliant equipment with a Day 1 capability for up to 800Gbps of Ethernet traffic forwarding between IXP customer ports.
Given the strategic location of Guam, the IXP will attract unique ASN paths via the Pacific Island nations as well as the potential for direct routing to major population centers across the Asia-Pacific region, addressing the demands of new subsea cables traversing the Pacific between Asia and the USA. The Guam IXP, announced in January 2024, in conjunction with Guam’s first ever dedicated Tier III compliant Data Center campus located in Harmon, the central industrial heart of Guam will be ready for service on August 15th.
The Phase I, ‘Harmon 1’ Data Center currently has two data halls equipped to handle an initial IT load of 1.3MW. The campus has ample space and power to expand by a factor as network density increases. The campus sits atop a dense buried fiber ring traversing the island, interconnecting all of the existing and planned Cable Landing Stations. The aggregation of subsea cables has been a top priority for Guam IX, ensuring end users can seamlessly interconnect to every subsea cable on the island via cross connect at the Meet-Me-Room. To foster growth, Citadel are embracing an Open Access policy allowing all fiber operators access to the campus without any surcharges or bureaucratic hurdles.
Geographically, Guam is well placed to serve as a regional hub, given the island directly connects to the nation states of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Australia and mainland USA. The end result is that over 900Mn in end user eyeballs can be directly connected to Guam via relatively low latency BGP paths. Over the coming years, Guam is poised to become a critical ICT hub for network operators and enterprises looking for switching and restoration of their global backbones, Internet peering and edge Pop deployments.
Jim Beighley, CEO Pacific Islands at Citadel (CPL) stated “Guam has entered the public discourse in a major way over the past few years. As the geopolitical winds have shifted, a strategic emphasis on policies and investments are providing Guam the tailwinds needed to emerge as a critical regional hub in the Pacific for international telecommunications and potentially the global Internet routing table. Citadel is excited to be a central part of this evolution of critical infrastructure in the Pacific region and are delighted to be working with APTelecom.“
Eric Handa, CEO, APTelecom commented “Guam’s Citadel has emerged as a digitally savvy player, with access to diverse internet fiber connectivity, along with a policy of true open access in all of its facilities. This, coupled with significant expansion plans and underpinned with a highly stable regulatory and political environment, sees Citadel poised to become the most important digital infrastructure player in region.”
