By ; Nelly All

Saudi Arabian communications service provider Mobily and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) signed an agreement whereby Mobily will be leveraging Ericsson's cutting-edge products and solutions to support its drive to empower the kingdom's government and private sectors towards digital transformation, accelerate the deployment of digital services, and expand the provision of Internet of Things solutions, including the company's smart meter project that is driven by the Saudi Electricity Company. This comes in line with Mobily’s strategy to support digital transformation initiatives to achieve the kingdom's vision 2030 aspirations. The signing ceremony took place at Mobily’s headquarters in Riyadh in the presence of the CEO of "Mobily" Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Badran. The contract was signed by Alaa Malky, Mobily Chief Technology Officer and from Ericsson’s side, Ekow Nelson, Vice President of Ericsson Middle East and Africa. 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 enable Mobily to boost spectrum assets and enhance customer experiences and operational efficiencies. Ericsson will also provide and integrate a next-generation operation to enhance Mobily's customer experiences, capture new opportunities and drive business efficiencies in addition to offering next-generation communications services for the digital era including 5G and machine-critical Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 use cases. Moreover, enhanced mobile broadband services for consumers - such as high-definition streaming, immersive virtual/augmented reality and gaming, and connected cloud computing – are other services offered by Mobily towards its subscribers. Alaa Malky, Mobily Chief Technology Officer at Mobily says: “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." Fadi Pharaon, Head of Ericsson Middle East and Africa, says: “Today marks another major milestone in our long-standing partnership with Mobily in Saudi Arabia as together we will launch 5G in the western region.  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.”