Bayanat, Etihad Etisalat’s data subsidiary, has signed wholesale agreements with three different retail service providers to serve the community in Yanbu through open access network.

FTTH Mobily, Sahara Net and Shabakah Net are going to provide smart city services for the residential and industrial areas at Yanbu industrial city.

The signing ceremony for these agreements was held in the presence of Royal Commission for Jubail & Yanbu CEO Alaa bin Abdullah Nassif. Also present were Akil Al-Akil, GM of Bayanat company, and Omar Al-Rasheed executive GM for the mega projects in Mobily.

Nassif said the agreement will help provide the Internet services for 1,500 housing units in Yanbu industrial city. It will also provide modern digital environment conducive to creativity, learning and provision of improved health services ensuring sustainable environment for the residents of the industrial city.

He added that the Royal Commission in Yanbu is seeking to convert Yanbu from its status as the industrial city to smart City by upgrading the basic infrastructure of the city. This is being accomplished by building a 3,000 km long fiber network utilizing state-of-the-art international equipment, with capacity to accommodate future expansion of the residential area, heavy and light industries area, and various businesses.

In addition to this, two fully equipped data centers are being established equipped with latest hardware and software to provide secure host services to businesses in the vicinity at competitive rates.

Al-Akil termed Bayanat as a strategic partner to the Kingdom in general and the Royal Commission of Yanbu in particular for development and implementation of smart cities.

Bayanat team has already completed and announced the roll-out and implementation of the network infrastructure based on the Strategic Partnership Agreement with the Royal Commission, based on build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.