Nokia and STC announced a partnership to operate STC’s Technology Innovation Center in Riyadh.

Abdullah Alowini, VP, Technology Strategy and Architecture at STC, and Khalid Hussain, Saudi Country Senior Officer at Nokia, signed an agreement in the presence of Haitham Al Faraj, SVP, Technology and Operations at stc, and Amr K. El Leithy, head of Middle East and Africa Market at Nokia.

The five-year project will see Nokia carry out several programs to help STC develop at least four innovative use cases every year to support STC’s business goals.

Nokia will also support STC with the development of innovative use cases for upcoming technologies.

STC will also join Nokia’s Open Ecosystem Network, a digital collaboration platform which brings companies together to help them innovate and develop new ideas. This is where the center’s digital community will be hosted.

STC has partnered with Nokia to achieve innovative use cases, utilizing Nokia’s expertise in the latest technologies such as 5G, Mobile Edge Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Platform, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

Nokia will also raise STC engineers’ capabilities to develop an entrepreneurial mindset that will help them build use cases in line with unique requirements of Saudi Arabia.

Nokia will conduct several competitions to stimulate new ideas and use cases. A winner will be selected at the end of every challenge, contest or hackathon, based on the concept or business viability. This will help STC develop new revenue generation streams.

In addition, Nokia will conduct several activities, including new product development practices, lean start-up methodologies, internal innovation enablers, service design, co-creation, cross-pollination, and technology scouting, to stimulate new ideas.

The innovation center will be equipped with the latest technologies and will leverage Nokia’s Open Ecosystem Network. It will provide an opportunity for STC employees to interact and benefit from Nokia’s international partner network. The exchange of ideas and interaction with global subject matter experts will help develop innovative services and products.