The Royal Commission of Yanbu, in collaboration with Bayanat Co, an Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) subsidiary, has inaugurated the first smart city in Saudi Arabia at Yanbu.

The smart city was opened at a ceremony held at the Head Office of the Royal Commission for Jubail & Yanbu in Riyadh.

The Royal Commission of Yanbu executed the telecom network infrastructure in collaboration with Bayanat Co. The work included building and operating unified telecom and IT network in Yanbu Industrial City which is considered the first brick in achieving “Yanbu Industrial Smart City”. This is the first step of productive collaboration between the Royal Commission and Bayanat, said a statement.
 
The smart city ceremony was inaugurated by Prince Saud Bin Abdullah Bin Thunayyan Al-Saud, chairman of RCJY; Minister of Communication and IT Dr Mohammed Al-Suwaiyel; CITC Governor Dr Abdulaziz Salem Al Rwais; Dr Alaa Nassif, CEO of the Royal Commission of Yanbu; Eng Ahmed Aboudoma, Mobily chief executive officer; and a number of Royal Commission, Mobily, and Bayanat leaders.

Dr Alaa Nassif, CEO of the Royal Commission of Yanbu, said: “The Royal Commission’s vision for Yanbu Industrial City represents a qualitative transformation that complies with 2030 Kingdom Vision through enhancing the efficiency and capabilities of the information technology environment of the city to support initiatives and industrial and commercial projects in the Industrial City.

“Moreover, it aims to provide an attractive community environment to reside and secure high-income job and investment opportunities for residents and visitors,” he said.

The Royal commission of Yanbu started strategic partnerships with international technology providers in the field of smart cities to develop and create more than 10 services in the city that will improve greatly the citizen experience and city operations by using new technologies like Internet of Things.

Eng Ismail Alghamdi, Mobily chief business officer, said the inauguration confirms the leading role of Bayanat Co in the telecom sector in Saudi Arabia, and reflects the company’s keenness to support added value economic projects, and smart cities projects which serve the kingdom and in line with 2030 Vision to develop the information technology infrastructure.”

More than 1,800 km of FTTH cables have been implemented inside the city to connect around 15,000 housing unit and 55 industrial units. About 22,000 ports have been executed for the housing units and 480 ports for business units. A single control centre for network and services management, and a specialised service portal for end users have also been set up, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service