TAWAL, the leading Saudi ICT Infrastructure company, has announced today the partnership with Nokia to provide full turnkey services towards expanding and deploying 5G for TAWAL’s infrastructure in the western and southern parts of Saudi Arabia. This partnership comes in alignment with TAWAL’s strategy to accelerate the roll-out of future technologies and support the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 of digital transformation.

This project is part of TAWAL’s plan for 5G expansion in the western and southern parts of Saudi Arabia, where Nokia will be adding 5G capabilities to 670 4G sites over the course of six months. In addition, Nokia will be replacing some existing towers with new ones while modernizing and strengthening others.

Saeed Alshehri, Chief Operations Officer of TAWAL, stated: “We are delighted to work with Nokia in expanding and deploying the 5G network across our infrastructure. This comes in line with our strategy to enrich the communication needs of MNOs, the Government and Businesses by accelerating the roll-out of new technologies, together we will provide the best-in-class services to build and manage the infrastructure that will allow us to stay ahead of our clients’ needs”.

Stating on the partnership, Khalid Hussein, Country Senior Officer at Nokia Saudi, added: “The expansion of the 5G network opens up boundless horizons and strengthens the distinguished partnership between Nokia and TAWAL. This partnership will highlight Nokia's full turnkey services, which will contribute to achieve the Kingdom's 2030 Vision and support the digital transformation. Our partnership will further pave the way for future collaborations with TAWAL in the 5G-era”.

Furthermore, TAWAL will manage the project and ensure that all agreed requirements are applied, while Nokia will be working on several underlying core functions such as civil work construction, power supply, relocation and reinforcement of the towers, this aims to enhance the infrastructure’s efficiency and reduce operational costs.