stc Group, one of its largest and most important projects, inaugurated Center3 Company, the digital regional center for the Middle East and North Africa. The new company will be the owner of the digital infrastructure assets owned by the stc group, including data centers, submarine cables, international points of presence and Internet exchange points, in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Muhammad bin Khalid Al Abdullah Al Faisal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of stc Group, and His Excellency the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al Sawaha And a number of Their Excellencies and Senior Executives of stc.
Center3 will be a group of carrier-neutral data centers and a provider of international communication for the telecom sector through a submarine fiber-optic network, and aims to develop digital business and enhance investment opportunities in international communication services and data centers by providing the latest communication and hosting technologies and raising the capacity of data centers to meet the needs Markets of Asia, Africa, Europe and the rest of the world.
The stc Group launched Center3 to enhance the digital system, which in turn will contribute to strengthening the Kingdom’s position as a regional digital center. This launch comes in line with our strategy to expand in scope and markets and achieve digital empowerment.Eng. Ulayan Al-Wateed, CEO, stc Group
At Center3 we aim to build an integrated ecosystem of cables and data centers that seeks to attract big data, supercomputers, and local and international service providers.Center3 will provide data center services, international communication and Internet exchange services through its assets. We will work to achieve the company’s vision of making the Kingdom the main digital hub linking Asia, Africa and Europe, as well as leading the largest share of Internet exchange and data traffic in the region.Fahad Al-Hajri, CEO, Center3
With the launch of Center3, stc Group has completed the digital system contract by launching a number of companies in the fields of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, Internet of things and digital infrastructure. Which contributes to transforming the digital industry in the Kingdom into a leading industrial power and a global logistics center, and the development of the local industrial sector, which puts Saudi Arabia at the forefront of global countries, through the transformation of business environments and the local community to be digitally connected in order to achieve digital economy and progress.
During the previous LEAP International Conference, the group had announced the launch of the initiative to establish a MEAN Hub for the Middle East and North Africa region, with an investment of $1 billion, with the aim of enabling growth in the Kingdom’s economy and GDP. This came in cooperation with regional and international partners, to link the center to three continents, taking advantage of the strategic location of the Kingdom, and to promote investment in international communication services and data centers. It will include the installation of a number of highly efficient cables to meet the future requirements of cloud services, by investing in an advanced fiber-optic network that ensures continuous service availability. The group had also inaugurated the submarine communications cable “Saudi Vision Cable”, a high-speed submarine cable in the Red Sea through its first landing station in Jeddah, which extends over a distance of 1,160,000 meters, and provides high-speed access across the borders of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through four landing stations: Jeddah, Yanbu, Duba, and Haql.