Abdullah Alsawaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology (CIT) in Saudi Arabia has appreciated Saudi Telecom Company’s role in implementing the ministry’s plan to deploy broadband all around the Kingdom, after the company delivered FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) to 51K homes in Riyadh.
After a field visit to view FTTH in north Riyadh, accompanied by Dr. Khaled Biyari, STC Group CEO, Alsawaha said, "We thank STC, our partners in the Broadband Initiative, which will cover 2 million homes across the Kingdom, in accordance with our National Transformation program 2020, in line with the objectives of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, in accordance with the directions of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and His Highness the Crown Prince around the Kingdom."
The minister listened to a thorough explanation from Abdullah A. Alzmame, Network VP, about the progress of the project as planned and achieving a good percentage of it in less than two months through coordination and cooperation with the supporting bodies represented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, which will contribute in overcoming many of the regulatory actions required for FTTH deployment projects in all regions.
Minister Alsawaha and Abdullah Alkanhal, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, also inspected the field works of the project, and reviewed some of the excavation and extension works on a number of houses in Al Yasmine neighborhood in Riyadh.
Dr. Biyari thanked the Minister for his effective role in supporting and following up the project as planned by NTP 2020, stressing that this field visit proves support and attention to the speed of achievement and tackling challenges of the field work, in order to provide the service according to the expectations of customers in all regions of the Kingdom.
He added, "We, at STC, work with great attention of all our human and technical capabilities to complete this project, which is an unprecedented shift in broadband deployment in the Kingdom."
STC recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) to implement the Ministry's plan to deploy high-speed broadband services in all regions of the Kingdom. The project will cost about 7.3 billion SAR, and the implementation period is around four years ending by the end of 2020.