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stc has inaugurated the digital operations control center, which is considered the largest integrated operating center in the region with an area of more than 42,000 square meters that can accommodate about 2,300 employees. The ceremony took place in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Khaled Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal, the Chairman of stc’s Board of Directors, and the Deputy Vice Minister – Ministry of Communications & IT, Eng. Haitham Al-Ouhali.
The CEO of stc group, Eng. Nasser bin Sulaiman Al-Nasser confirmed that the digital operations control center includes a system made out of advanced digital processes in several areas, such as simulation, digital infrastructure management, digital crises management and reinvention within a range of digital solutions. It is a comprehensive and complete technical space abiding by high security standards. He also noted that the center will enhance Saudi Arabia’s position as a leading regional business center or a” HUB”. It will lay the foundation for the company to become a regional center offering a system of digital services in the Middle East and North Africa. This would help to achieve the objectives of the second phase of stc’s strategy “DARE”, in order to enable digital transformation in various fields, benefit from the the Kingdom’s strategic location at the crossroads of three continents. It promotes investments in international connectivity services and data centers to extract the value from the group’s numerous assets and its advanced services and technologies.
The center operates the biggest international gateways in the Middle East and North Africa, which have the capacity of more than 8.4 terabits per second, and are connected to more than 4 submarine cables. They consist of the latest protection and distribution systems in the world, used for the first time in the region to generally secure the company’s service system and the data transmission and voice circuits system for all customers. In addition, there are many global content localization systems, making stc’s network one of the most active networks in the world in terms of internet provision, especially when it comes to some social media platforms.
The center also operates and monitors the largest and latest long-range correspondence networks in the region, which exceed 155,000 kilometers of fiber optics. These networks will boost connectivity between the East and the West through the continental marine stations located in a number of coastal cities in the Arabian Gulf, such as the city of Al-Khobar and the cities of Jeddah and Yanbu on the Red Sea Coast. Two more stations are expected to be added in the cities of Duba and Haql in order to provide intelligent connectivity systems for all of the world’s marine cable systems. These systems cover more than 100 stations across continents with the length of the continental marine cables exceeding 35,000 kilometers.
In order to protect this technical system from cyber threats, the Centre has been equipped with the largest and newest cybersecurity operations centre in the region (SOC). This center is managed by highly skilled cybersecurity experts in accordance with the best international practices and standards to develop a secure national network.
stc has also worked on developing a plan to deploy the 5G network in more than 47 cities throughout the Kingdom. This came within the scope of a plan aimed at strengthening the group’s leadership in terms of reliable mobile coverage and deploying the largest advanced 5G network in the Middle East. Over the course of the next phase, we will expand the scope of deployment of the 5G network in Saudi Arabia to cover more than 71 cities across the Kingdom.