TM Global deploys Ciena kit on ASEAN digital corridor

TM Global is deploying Ciena optical equipment on networks carrying traffic across Malaysia and the wider Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand digital corridor. The move reflects rising demand in Southeast Asia from data centres, cloud services and artificial intelligence workloads.

TM Global, the wholesale arm of Telekom Malaysia, is using Ciena's WaveLogic 6 Extreme to handle higher traffic volumes driven by AI, cloud adoption and broader digitalisation across Malaysia's public and private sectors. The deployment also reflects a wider shift across ASEAN, where operators are under pressure to add capacity between increasingly connected data centre markets.

Singapore has long been the region's main digital hub, but limits on land, power and sustainability have pushed technology companies and enterprises to look to nearby markets for expansion. Malaysia and Thailand are drawing interest because of available resources, policy support and proximity to Singapore, helping support low-latency links between facilities in all three countries.

Recent investment announcements by global technology groups have added to that momentum. Google has launched a new data centre in Bangkok as part of a USD $1 billion investment in Thailand's digital infrastructure, while Microsoft has announced plans for a data centre in Johor to support AI-related demand in ASEAN.

Data centre demand

The regional market still has room to grow. A Maybank ASEAN data centre report cited by Ciena estimates the region's market is 55% to 70% underpenetrated compared with more mature markets. It also projects annual growth of about 20%, reaching an estimated total addressable market of USD $11 billion a year by 2028.

That expansion is not limited to the facilities themselves. Operators also need denser, more resilient links between sites as AI systems generate traffic patterns that differ from conventional enterprise and cloud applications. AI workloads are typically more data-intensive, more sensitive to latency and more dependent on heavy east-west traffic between data centres.

These demands are shaping how new infrastructure is built and operated. Rather than building and running fibre networks end to end on their own, some hyperscale companies are increasingly turning to managed optical infrastructure from telecoms providers.

Managed networks

This model, often called a Managed Optical Fibre Network, allows service providers to deliver dedicated optical links as a managed service. For customers, it can reduce the time and operational burden of building new infrastructure directly while preserving control over performance across multiple markets.

Ciena says two groups are driving demand. One is consumer internet platforms expanding their reach to ASEAN's large online population, where latency, network scale and metro-to-edge access are critical. The other is cloud and enterprise-focused providers, including large international platforms, that need stronger links across the Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand corridor for enterprise workloads, AI training and cross-border digital services.

For telecoms operators, network requirements are shifting. Capacity must scale quickly, and links must support both established traffic types and newer AI-driven workloads on the same routes. The corridor connecting Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand is emerging as an early test case because it combines Singapore's existing data centre concentration with expansion opportunities in neighbouring markets.

TM global role

TM Global's deployment is part of Telekom Malaysia's broader effort to deepen its role in that regional build-out. Telekom Malaysia says the use of Ciena's equipment strengthens its wider digital infrastructure portfolio, which includes GPU-as-a-Service and data centre assets aimed at hyperscale customers.

Alex Wong, Regional Managing Director, Ciena ASEAN, said the Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand corridor is becoming "a hotbed of business opportunity in the region", driven by "surging demand for data center capacity, high-performance connectivity, and scalable network architectures".

"Without high-capacity, resilient, and scalable connectivity between these locations, the full value of AI cannot be realized," he said.

Ciena added that the corridor "stands as a blueprint for what is possible when markets collaborate, infrastructure scales, and innovation leads".