ETIHAD Etisalat (Mobily), Integrated Telecom Company (ITC) and Cisco announced their collaboration on a project to modernize and upgrade Saudi National Fiber Network (SNFN) to prepare it for the next phase of growth in the field of ICT.

Cisco’s task was to modernize and unify the partner›s networks by implementing state-of-the-art optical, packet technologies and architectures; thus, providing Mobily and ITC with unprecedented geographic reach in main cities, rural and remote areas; which will enable it to fulfill customers› demands in a fast and cost-effective way.

The project aims to migrate Mobily and ITC Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) network to a modern and high-capacity Gigabit Ethernet-Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (GE-DWDM) network.

Furthermore, the project purpose is to integrate two parallel long-haul networks and build a unified long-haul DWDM network supporting up to 200G and 400G speeds and extend Mobily›s long-haul networks in rural and remote areas to DWDM network.

The highly scalable DWDM and Ethernet network capabilities should provide optimum support for Mobily›s growth plans, by providing extensive coverage in major cities and remote areas across all regions of Saudi Arabia. Importantly, both opex and capex have been lowered through the simplification of the network operations, while reduce the launch time of new services in the market.

Eng. Maziad Al Harbi, chief technology officer at Mobily, said: “The new network will enable Mobily to reduce network operating costs. In addition, it will increase our capability to provide high-speed connectivity at 1G, 10G, and 100G speeds to most of our targeted remote areas at a low cost, which comes in line with the company›s plans to support one of the key programs to achieve the vision of the Kingdom 2030 to build a Digital Society and Economy.”— SG