Nokia announced the opening of a regional maintenance hub in Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to support its customers across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

The new center will provide repair and support services for Nokia’s 5G and other telecoms network equipment as well as training to local engineers. The move supports Nokia’s efforts to extend the lifespan of its network equipment through the adoption of circular practices that enable greater material efficiency and reduced waste, enabling more sustainable networks.

The new center is expected to save at least four weeks of end-to-end logistics time as well as reduce the environmental impact of logistics by having a local center instead of a global model. Nokia will work in partnership with a local firm, Saak International on the initiative.

“We are pleased that Nokia has chosen Saudi Arabia as a regional hub for its maintenance operations to serve enterprises and service providers not only in our Kingdom but also across the MEA region,” said Bassam Al Bassam, Deputy Minister for Telecom and Digital Infrastructure at MCIT.