THE Saudi Telecom Company (STC) Group, along with the Maxis and Oger Groups, and part of their global synergy creation activities, have selected Ericsson as one of their preferred global vendors for network infrastructure. The agreement will allow Ericsson to offer its portfolio of network infrastructure equipment though a global price structure based on total business in Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey. The STC Group along with the Maxis and Oger Groups have reached a leading position in the global mobile and fixed telecommunication markets. In 2010 the groups jointly launched a series of global initiatives focused on capturing synergies across their 9 operating companies and on working with best-in-class global suppliers to become preferred partners based on value creating agreements. One of the initiatives is to focus on technology infrastructure synergies, with an objective of developing a global price book and formalizing volume discounts based on overall groups scale. "We drive synergies from scale and scope but also from knowledge and foresight to accelerate creativity, development and innovation," commented Ghassan Hasbani, CEO STC International. STC is the leading provider of telecommunications services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that provides mobile, landline, Internet and other data services, to residential and business customers. Also STC has become a global competitor through successful expansion in a record years' time to become among the largest operators in the Middles East, Africa and South East Asia. – SG
