Saudi Telecom Company (STC) president delivers key note speech at ICT Conference, Egypt

Also present at the confernerce was Mr Anas El Feqqy, Minsiter of Information, Dr.Tarek Kamel, Minsiter of Communications as well as a whole host of foreign ministers, CEO's and other dignitaries.

The theme for Eng.Al Daweesh's speech was two fold, STC's perspective on Telecom/Media Convergence and STC mobile content evolution. The president took the conference through an enlightening presentation on what the future holds for STC, including some of the forthcoming new services and product launches including its partnerships with regional television stations offering interactive services:

STC has over 30 active partners and is the first in the region to introduce SMS to Radio service with MBC FM. STC has plans to launch a wide array of 3G services including: Live TV, Vidoe Calls, Hagh Speed Data Access and full LBS (location based services) with rich media maps capability. He also shared with his peers STC news services from Al Jawal who have developed the services targeting various customer segments, some of these include: Jawal Al Andiya, providing soccer fans with information on the main Saudi soccer teams and Jawal Al Riyadiah, offering sports breaking news, games schedule, international & local sports news.

The Middle East region has a number of opportunites for converagence in the ares of infrastruture, technology or service provisions. However the success of such ventures would depend on the availaiblty of a number of critical success factors in the enviorment including; Broadband access technologies, Wireless & mobile technologies and Digital asset management and it is thanks to companies like STC how have leading this development within the region and are firmly committed to continuous development and innovation.

Recently STC and Malaysia signed an MOU to bid for the third license in Egypt, with its population of 73 million and the two present mobile networks have close to 13 million subscribers between them and the country has all the resources and a highly developed infrastructure, therefore, represents a major subscriber base for STC if it is successful in this bid and it would bring the same array of services it already currently offers its customers in the KSA.

Speaking after the conference Al Daweesh commented, "Adapting in real time to an ever changing economy is a major challenge for all companies. An economic challenges of course, but even more so a human one. Our expedience of the in this market is unrivalled and we believe this challenge can be met, both on a business and social level, through the work we currently do to help our nation and this will never change. Should we win the license in Egypt we would implement the same strategies here, the business is supported by a unique combination of skills to make progress each and every day to help us met the challenges of today's world. He continued "It is our duty to creatively leverage new technologies for the good of our customers and to succeed as an organization while adding value to the economy and to the society we operate from within, driving today's communications forward and helping source tomorrow's growth, for everyone".

Since the beginning when it was it first offered mobile services through its Al Jawal offering STC has grown phenomenally each year, bringing the Saudi people a wider choice services to help them in their ever dynamic and evolving lifestyles.