Ericsson contract for King Abdullah Economic City confirmed

As reported exclusively by Comm. on July 27, Emaar, The Economic City (Emaar EC), has confirmed the award of a SAR320 million (US$85 million) strategic agreement to Ericsson to implement and operate the smart city infrastructure and the multi-purpose network for Ethraa, The Smart City. Emaar EC is the company developing the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC).

KAEC has six key components – the Sea Port, Industrial Zone, Central Business District, Educational Zone, Resort District and Residential Communities

Fahd Al-Rasheed, CEO and board member, Emaar EC awarded the agreement to Bjorn Hemstad, chairman of Ericsson’s Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMA) region, in Jeddah recently. 

Ericsson will design, build and operate the entire telephony, Internet and data plus video broadcasting infrastructure for all investors and residents within KAEC under the supervision of Ethraa, The Smart City. It is expected that operations will start in January 2009 and extend to January 2012. 

Ericsson will undertake an extensive reconciliation and survey of KAEC and custom-develop the smart city infrastructure through a dedicated R&D team. The ICT foundation to be developed by Ericsson will ensure that investors and residents in KAEC will have access to the highest broadband connectivity possible, telephony and multimedia including seamless video connectivity.

With respect to Comm.’s breaking story on July 27, according to one insider involved in the KAEC project, the award of the contract to Ericsson was based purely on technical merit rather than political considerations. “Ericsson provided the best solution, and Emaar went with them. Cisco wasn’t in the running as far as they were concerned. In fact, Huawei was the second choice.”

KAEC, spread over 168 million square metres on the Red Sea coast, is the largest private sector development in the region.