Saudi Telecom Company Becomes the First Service Provider in Middle East to Implement Cisco Virtualized Packet Core Technology

Saudi Telecom Company (STC), the largest telecommunication services provider in the Middle East and North Africa and the leading operator within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has selected Cisco Virtualized Packet Core (VPC) to transform its mobile service delivery model and expand its customer offering in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

With an international presence that extends over nine countries, STC needed a mobile platform that could deliver the network elasticity and service agility needed to support the rapid growth and evolving demands of today's market. By implementing Cisco VPC, STC becomes the first service provider to implement the most advanced and latest Cisco solution in the Middle East.

Mobile traffic from smartphones and other portable devices, along with new digital traffic types like Machine to Machine (M2M) communications and Internet of Things (IoT) applications are creating huge volumes of mobile data traffic. To keep pace, operators like STC must continually expand their mobile networks. Solutions like Cisco VPC will help STC address new demands while reducing network capital and operational expenditures. VPC will allow STC to simplify and accelerate the process of adding new enterprise customers from all vertical sectors including healthcare, transportation, retail, banking etc. and launching new applications to market.

The Cisco VPC solution will provide a universal mobile packet core to support all STC’s wireless services in a single solution. It allows STC to take advantage of wide range of capabilities together with the flexibility, efficiency, and scale of virtualized cloud services. These same capabilities will also make it easier for STC to create innovative new services and bring them to market faster.

As the industry's most complete, fully virtualized evolved packet core, the new Cisco VPC solution significantly enhances service agility for service providers, enabling them to scale capacity and introduce new services much faster and more cost-effectively. As part of its ongoing efforts to deliver a superior mobile experience, STC’s new mobile platform will provide customers in the Kingdom with greater network speeds and a higher quality of service over 4G LTE and beyond. STC Mobile Network is transforming to address technology market transitions involving video, cloud, and security, all fueled by the Internet of Things (IoT), which is creating new opportunities for global service providers and their customers. 

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Eng. Nasser Al Nasser, SVP, STC said: “Cisco has been a longstanding strategic STC partner and we are delighted to be expanding our strong relationship in order to deliver even more capabilities to our 29 million subscribers throughout the Kingdom. As a leading provider of ICT services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, STC’s goal is to maintain its leadership position by continuously innovating to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. Cisco Virtualized Packet Core solution will give us the flexibility we need to launch new services quickly and seamlessly for our valued customers.”

Eng. Abdullah Al Zmame, VP of Network, STC said: "As the leading Mobile Operator amongst Saudi Arabia's service providers, STC has un-wavered commitment to our valued customers to provide them with an integrated set of most modern and advanced services, anywhere, anytime. Cisco virtualized Packet Core solution will give us the opportunity and the capability to grow our service offering for our valued customers and also to stay ahead of the game in what is already a very competitive market."

Eng. Rabah Zarzour, Client Executive, Service Provider Sales, Saudi Arabia, Cisco said: “As businesses evolve and the speed of change rapidly increases, communication and information will be crucial. That is why Cisco is committed to working closely with leading service providers like STC to deliver intelligent networks, new capabilities like cloud and greater bandwidth on integrated products, services, and software platforms. We are truly honored that STC’s continues to have confidence in Cisco, and we look forward to working together long into the future. Our joint goal is to continue to innovate and transform our technology solutions in order to help customers like STC deliver better and more robust services for their customers.”

This latest agreement with STC represents another major milestone in both companies long-standing strategic relationship aimed at delivering state-of-the-art telecommunications services.