Saudi Telecom Company and Cisco Sign Managed Services Agreement to Drive Network Capabilities for Digital Era

BARCELONA, SPAIN--(Marketwired - Feb 27, 2017) - Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO)

• Managed services agreement to deliver improved network agility and performance, new customer experiences and reduced opex and capex spend
• End-to-end engagement extends longstanding relationship between STC and Cisco, aligns with Saudi National Transformation Plan and country digitization acceleration

At Mobile World Congress, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Cisco announced that they have signed a three-year managed services agreement to transform STC's core network and operations, and prepare it for the digital era. The long-term contract delivers the full functionality of a Service Provider-grade Network Operating Center (NOC) to support STC's drive to introduce new services, improve customer experiences and enhance network agility and performance.

The engagement extends the longstanding relationship between STC and Cisco and will support the telecom service provider in scaling to meet current and future customer demands. The transformation of STC's network aligns with Saudi Arabia's National Transformation and the country digitization acceleration plans announced between the government and Cisco last year, which aims to support the Kingdom's digital economy ambitions.

"We operate in a constantly evolving industry in the Kingdom with a need to continuously improve our operational service and customer satisfaction, as well as reduce operational expenditure," commented Nasser Alnasser, Senior Vice President for Technology and Operations at STC. "This contract with Cisco has been structured to take our digital operations to the next level through the introduction of industry-leading tools, processes and, most importantly, a focus on developing local calibers across multiple technology domains to meet the needs of the business on the one side, and to increase the technical Saudi workforce on the other."

While STC's service availability and reliability are already considered industry benchmarks in the region, Cisco's managed services will further elevate the performance of STC's critical infrastructure. The new contract covers STC's core MPLS, which carries all of the service provider's core and critical services, in addition to WiFi and Evolved Packet core networks, as well as the IT Enterprise and Data Center core business.