STC and Nokia will trial various technologies.
Nokia and Saudi Telecom Company signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of “5G” and internet of things use cases. Under terms of the agreement, Nokia and STC will carry out trials of technologies such as 4.5G Pro and 4.9G touted by Nokia.
The collaboration between the two companies is also set to play a role in STC’s digitalization transformation and its support of Saudi Arabia’s “2030 Vision” for transforming the country into the hub connecting Asia, Africa and Europe.
“Our mission is to enrich our society by introducing pioneering services to the people in the kingdom, and we are proud to enter into this MoU with our long-term partner Nokia to achieve this mission,” said Nasser Al-Nasser, SVP of technology and operations at SCT. “We aim to bring the first commercial 5G network to the Gulf region, and we are confident that Nokia’s innovations toward the development of 5G technologies and IoT use cases, and their trials around the world, will provide a clear path for this.”
The agreement also includes cooperating on network modernization and the evolution to cloud, leveraging Nokia’s 5G-ready AirScale radio, AirFrame data center platform, CRAN, cloud RAN, multiple-input/multiple-output antenna technology, network slicing and its Multilayer Optimization SON.