Riyadh – Mubasher: Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) has signed an agreement with Ericsson to cooperate in accelerating digital transformation across Saudi Arabia.

The agreement aims at speeding up the deployment of digital services, expand the provision of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in public and private sector entities, including the Saudi Electricity Company’s (SEC) smart meter project, according to a press release.

This comes in line with Mobily’s strategy to support digital transformation initiatives to achieve the goals of vision 2030.

The contract was signed by Alaa Malky, Mobily Chief Technology Officer, and Ekow Nelson, Vice President of Ericsson Middle East and Africa, in the presence of Mobily CEO Salman Al Badran.

Commenting on the agreement, Alaa Malky, Mobily Chief Technology Officer, said, "We have a long and successful history of partnering with Ericsson whereby we strived to lead in offering telecommunications services and technologies in the Kingdom including developing Mobily’s journey in the expansion of new generation networks and offering Internet of Things solutions."

"At Mobily, we strive to make our services and products a unique and viable choice for customers in the government and private sectors towards digital transformation. This is thanks to our reliance on the best technical solutions in the world to provide high quality and reliable services that our customers expect,” he added.

The end-to-end expansion of Mobily’s network will see the deployment of Ericsson products and solutions spanning transport, core, charging and billing and radio access, including 5G products from the Ericsson Radio System portfolio.

The Ericsson Radio System products will allow Mobily to provide the next-generation communications services for the digital era including 5G, IoT, and Industry 4.0 solutions.

Meanwhile, Fadi Pharaon, Head of Ericsson Middle East and Africa, remarked, “5G is set to revolutionize how we use and adopt technology and will have a huge impact on businesses and society in the kingdom. It will bring high speed, ultra-low latency and highly secure connectivity to a massive number of devices and is a technology that will unlock a vast array of new use cases through Mobily’s next-generation network.”