Nokia and Zain KSA have successfully completed Saudi Arabia’s first live Cloud RAN site, marking a significant achievement in the country’s 5G innovation journey. The trial, which took place from December 24, 2024, to January 26, 2025, utilized Nokia’s 5G anyRAN solution and achieved peak download speeds of 1.5 Gbps on Zain KSA’s 5G core network.
This live Cloud RAN site demonstrates the advantages of cloud-native architectures, including enhanced efficiency, lower total cost of ownership, and faster deployment times. These improvements enable Communications Service Providers (CSPs) and enterprise customers to scale their networks more efficiently while supporting the development of new digital applications.
Aligned with Saudi Arabia’s national digital transformation goals, this successful trial provides a flexible platform that can integrate solutions from various vendors. The project sets the stage for enterprise and private wireless applications across numerous industry sectors, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s leadership in technology.
Eng. Mohammed AlNujaidi, Chief Technology Officer of Zain KSA, commented, “At Zain KSA, we are committed to delivering transformative digital experiences that empower our customers in a fast-evolving market. Collaborating with Nokia on the Kingdom’s first live Cloud RAN site allows us to explore innovative service models, reduce network costs, and quickly respond to the needs of both enterprise and individual consumers. The added network agility will support a variety of new use cases, emphasizing our role in advancing Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation.”
Mohammad AlTayeh, Customer Team Head at Zain Group, added, “The deployment of the Kingdom’s first live Cloud RAN site underscores Nokia’s commitment to delivering next-generation networking solutions. By adopting a fully cloud-native approach, we not only achieve the performance of purpose-built RAN but also establish a future-ready platform capable of supporting AI-RAN, Open RAN, and even potential 6G innovations. Our partnership with Zain KSA highlights how cloudification optimizes resources, reduces total cost of ownership, and opens new growth opportunities across multiple sectors in the Kingdom.”
