STC and Ericsson launch 5G network in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Ericsson have signed a deal to launch a mid-band 5G network in Saudi Arabia.

The deal was announced in a signing ceremony at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, Ericsson said in a statement.

STC will deploy a 5G network using Ericsson commercial hardware and solutions including radio access network (RAN), packet core, transport, and Ericsson Network Manager.

The network modernization – comprising latest wireless and fixed broadband technologies, boosted speed and 5G deployment - will operate on a 3.5 gigahertz (GHZ) band.

"Our aim is to build a network that caters for current and future services. 5G is considered as a very important step toward digitalization and connecting everything, which supports Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 toward economic diversification," Nasser Al Nasser, STC CEO, said.

In addition to facilitating the delivery of next-generation mobile broadband, cloud, and providing support for massive Internet of Things (IoT) deployment, Ericsson's 5G collaboration with STC will also enable new industry use cases thanks to increased throughput and reduced latency.