TAWAL is a key player in the Saudi telecom infrastructure industry, well-positioned to lead in providing reliable and cost-efficient ICT infrastructure.
During LEAP23, Telecom Review had an exclusive interview with CEO Mohammed Alhakbani in which he shared the importance of the company’s participation in this year’s global tech event and what expansion strategies it is focusing on as a leading towerco in the Kingdom, among other insights.
What is TAWAL showcasing at LEAP 2023? How meaningful is your participation in this event?
We’re extremely delighted and honored to be part of the LEAP event for the second year in a row. It’s very important for industry leaders to participate in this global tech event and help enable the Kingdom’s vision of becoming a leader in the digital economy.
For our showcase this year, we’re focusing on smart cities. We’re showing the latest of our smart furniture with innovative solutions, including smart poles. All of these are geared toward smart cities and smart development areas. Moreover, we have our core services and products as a pioneering towerco in the Kingdom.
What key partnerships will TAWAL announce at LEAP, and how will these impact your growth in 2023?
We’re happy to be signing several deals and partnerships with the likes of Saudi Downtown, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Aramco. These agreements, among others, are part of our engagement this year.
This will impact our growth in 2023, as it is a must for TAWAL to become a one-stop shop for our customers and clients through our comprehensive portfolio, offering different services and products.
Can you explain TAWAL’s expansion strategy further and how you are looking into different markets as a towerco?
TAWAL’s vision is to become the leading ICT infrastructure provider in the region. Accordingly, we are focused, first, on serving the local market efficiently, and we are very successful in doing that, with more than 16,000 towers and managed service agreements (MSAs) signed with all operators. At the same time, we have started our ambition to enter different markets in the region. We have already started our operations in Pakistan, and we’re continuously pursuing other opportunities in other locations.
From an industry leader's point of view, what is your outlook on KSA's ICT industry, particularly when it comes to rolling out 5G and developing smart cities?
The Kingdom is very ambitious in its vision. The digital economy is one of the key enablers on its digital transformation journey. What the digital economy requires is an efficient and scalable infrastructure, and we’re proud that TAWAL is working on enabling that. Moreover, 5G plays an important role in achieving that goal, and through our state-of-the-art solutions, we stay close to operators and support them in making 5G deployments happen.