Tata Communications, Zain KSA to bring Smart City Solutions to Saudi Arabia

Mumbai-based Tata Communication, and Zain KSA, a pioneering mobile telecommunications and digital services provider in the Middle East, have entered a strategic engagement to fuel digital transformation journeys of enterprises and government organisations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Tata Communication in a statement issued to the stock exchange today said, "With this collaboration, the combined ecosystems will deliver solutions and platforms to remodel cities with smart street lighting, smart waste management, connected workplace, healthcare and connected cars."

In the flagship project, Tata Communications and Zain KSA are working together to bring smart street lighting solutions for one of the key cities in KSA. Tata Communications IoT ecosystem will serve as a one-stop-shop to provide the hardware, platform, application and insights while Zain KSA will expand the footprint with its business-to-business (B2B) offerings through joint projects related to software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) and global contact centres, as well as the application of smart transport and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions enabling smart waste handling, smart metering and other smart city use cases, to name a few.

"The strength of the reach of Zain KSA and cutting-edge infrastructure combined with our ecosystem of advanced technologies will strengthen the country's shift to becoming a sustainable economy," said Vaneet Mehta, Region Head, Middle East, Central Asia & Africa, Tata Communications.

Mr Mehta further added, "This is a demonstration of our both organisations commitment to enable reimagining of cities in the Middle East by operating on smarter and cost-efficient models. This is a milestone project for Tata Communications for transforming the city into an intelligent and energy-efficient metropolis, reducing its carbon footprint and charting the path for other cities to replicate."

"Building on our pioneering and internationally renowned 5G network and in line with our vertical expansion strategy to drive 5G applications such as IoT we will work together to contribute to our comprehensive digital solutions offering and transformation services under one roof to enterprises and governments across the kingdom," said Eng. Saad A. Al-Sadhan, Chief Business and Wholesale Officer, Zain KSA.

The Tata Communications and Zain KSA strategic engagement will serve Saudi's enterprises and government institutions with advanced technologies such as IoT, 5G, Low Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN specification), Managed Security Services, SDWAN and many others. It will also support environmental sustainability measures and the digital transformation of the region.