Ericsson wins sole supplier deal for Saudi tech city

August 29, 2008 - Ericsson has won a five year contract to supply, build, integrate, operate and manage the multi-play communications infrastructure for Saudi Arabia's high-tech flagship King Abdullah Economic City.

The sole-supplier turnkey agreement with Emaar, developer of the smart city project, is reportedly the first for an end-to-end fixed network in Saudi Arabia and Ericsson's first GPON-enabled IPTV contract in the country. Ericsson will provide systems integration and network rollout services, and the contract brings together products from Ericsson's major acquisitions TANDBERG Television, Entrisphere, Marconi and Redback.

The network will deliver three-screen services such as movies-on-demand, personalised TV, IP telephony, super-fast Internet and data services to the city's 2mn residents, using a GPON Fibre to the Home (FTTH) infrastructure. Fahd Al-Rasheed, CEO of Emaar the Economic City, says: "This partnership sets the foundation for King Abdullah Economic City to be the world's first truly smart city."