Williams F1, the parent company of the AT&T Williams team, has chosen AT&T to be the global network provider for the newly establish Williams Technology Centre (WTC) located at the Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP).

AT&T will provide the WTC with a suite of advanced communications services to support its development and provide seamless communications between the new centre and Williams F1's headquarters located in the UK at Grove, Oxfordshire. This will make certain the Qatar based centre becomes a virtual extension of the team's core operation in the UK, ensuring speedy collaboration between the two locations and a consistent IT environment deployed at both sites.

'The Williams Technology Centre will be technology focused with the aim of driving development and innovation of our flywheel and simulator technologies that have their origins in Formula One,' stated Alex Burns, CEO of Williams F1.

'We have developed our presence in the Middle East in recent years so we can support these types of services for global companies who need access to consistent infrastructure and applications wherever they operate,' added John Gibson, president of AT&T in the Middle East and Africa.

The centre at QSTP will be the first Formula One-related technical centre outside the sport's traditional heartland of Europe.

The WTC will initially be tasked with the progression of two Formula One inspired R&D projects with clear commercial goals, namely the development of an industrial application large Magnetically Loaded Composite (MLC) flywheel and the advancement of Williams F1's simulator know-how for competition and road car application.

The centre will be housed in the 45,000 sqm state-of-the-art QSTP complex being developed by Qatar Foundation.-TradeArabia News Service