Etisalat and Sharjah Roads and Transport Authority (SRTA) have teamed up to enhance their cooperation in a number of smart services and solutions to enhance sustainable transport in the Emirate of Sharjah.

Under a partnership agreement, the parties will jointly develop and establish a long-term strategic collaboration, with Etisalat appointed as the transport authority’s digital, ICT and smart solutions service provider. Both are set to embark on a joint project to fulfil SRTA’s existing and future requirements, transforming its services into smart services.

The agreement was signed by Masood M. Sharif Mahmood, CEO, Etisalat UAE, and Yousef Khamis Muhammad Al Othmani, Chairman, SRTA, in the presence of senior officials from both parties, on the sidelines of GITEX Global in Dubai.

On this occasion, Abdulaziz Hamad Omran Taryam, General Manager - Northern Emirates, Etisalat, said, “Etisalat is keen to enable SRTA’s access to the latest technologies and smart solutions to help realise its sustainable transport objectives. These efforts epitomise Etisalat’s strategic vision of ‘Driving the digital future to empower societies’. We look forward to working closely with the SRTA in developing technologies and initiatives to address its existing and future requirements.” From his side, Al Othmani stressed the importance of government partnerships to enhance the development process in the Emirate of Sharjah, enabling institutions to unify their efforts to execute development projects according to the highest international standards and to meet the needs of citizens and residents in all sectors.

He pointed out that the strategic MoU with Etisalat, embraced recently by the Sharjah Executive Council, is a continuation of the existing relations and cooperation between the authority and Etisalat, resulting in several achievements that aim to facilitate the lives of the residents and visitors of the emirate. The partnership will also contribute to opening horizons for upcoming projects, characterised by the use of the latest technologies and the best ways to enable the authority to harness artificial intelligence to fulfil its future projects.

TDRA telecom infrastructure: The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) is showcasing an interactive presentation entitled “TDRA everywhere”, as part of its participation in GITEX Technology Week 2021, which runs until 21st October at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

“TDRA everywhere” shows the high readiness of the telecommunications sector in the UAE in the event of any malfunction in global cables that could result in interruption of Internet service or communications. It highlighted that the telecom structure in the UAE is interconnected with the world through 13 submarine cables, which means the distribution of usage loads among them in the event of defect in one of the cables, in addition to the availability of satellite communications services and land cables, which are an alternative to submarine cables.

Through this presentation, TDRA takes its stand’s visitors on a creative virtual journey to learn about the strategic role of the telecommunications sector in mitigating the effects of crises and emergencies in all its forms, and overcoming those effects to ensure life continuity.

Speaking on the occasion, Abdulrahman Al Naser, Senior Manager of Telecom Infrastructure and Standards at TDRA, said, “Nowadays, the telecommunications sector plays a key role that increases in times of emergencies, crises and disasters of all kinds, whether they are natural such as hurricanes, floods, etc., or the result of human action such as traffic accidents, fires and others.

“In the UAE, the role of the telecommunications sector is integrated with other sectors to provide a safe, stable and resilient society in which its various members can work, learn and innovate, and because the role telecom may not be visible to members of society, we offer, in our current participation in GITEX Technology Week, an interactive entertaining experience based on gamification. It shows visitors the importance of the telecommunications sector in overcoming various types of risks and threats that could compromise the safety and security of community members and institutions.” The project is divided into four parts: the telecom sector saves lives, mobile telecom networks, the continuation of communications services in the event of power loss, and the global communications sector.

Each part of the journey shows the expected challenges and solutions provided by the telecommunications sector to overcome the challenges. The visitors go through an interactive simulation experience that shows the importance of telecom in various aspects of life, and the journey ends by delivering a message to the visitors summarising the experience they lived.

The first part of the project “the telecom sector saves lives” highlights FAZAA’s eCall system, which sends a direct message in the event of a traffic accident to the competent authorities, including information about the driver, passengers, the accident location and the expected condition of the injured, in order to ensure the fastest possible response.

The second part of the project sheds light on the mobile communication network stations on vehicles, which are used in case of emergency to enhance the coverage of telecom networks in areas of crisis. The third part of the project showcases buildings equipped with backup power units, which contribute to continuation of work of the communication network stations in the event of a sudden power loss. The fourth part of the project showcases submarine cables and TDRA’s plans if one or a number of cables are exposed to malfunctions or technical problems.

Hub71 support startups growth: Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide tech startups with support to build scalable and secure cloud-based services that accelerate their growth. Announced at GITEX Technology Week, the collaboration offers Hub71 startups access to AWS Activate, a program that provides tools and resources to help startups innovate and scale faster. Through AWS, startups can experiment frequently and optimize business performance, while reducing technology costs. Hub71 startups will benefit from AWS Activate credits worth up to US$100,000 for each, in addition to AWS Support credits. They will also have access to technical support and architectural guidance from AWS Cloud support engineers, as well as technical and business success training by AWS experts.

AWS recently announced it will open data centres in the UAE in the first half of 2022, as part of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s (ADIO) efforts to attract investments that build technology capabilities in the emirate. The new collaboration with Hub71 comes as an extension to the collaboration between AWS and ADIO across Abu Dhabi’s knowledge economy on various ecosystem and education initiatives, training, and startup enablement programmes.

Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, said: “Abu Dhabi is on the cusp of widespread digital transformation that will positively impact all innovation-focused businesses in the emirate. The collaboration between ADIO, AWS, and Hub71 intensifies Abu Dhabi’s support for startups, ensuring that innovators and entrepreneurs can take full advantage of the wave of digitisation sweeping across all sectors and take their businesses to the next level. From technical guidance to infrastructure requirements, startups will have complete access to all the support they need to succeed. In parallel with Abu Dhabi’s innovation focus, ADIO is committed to providing businesses of all sizes with an enabling environment to pursue impactful solutions.”

Jida Itani, Chief Operating Officer, Hub71, said: “Our support infrastructure for the startups community continues to expand the more we learn about our founders’ needs. Joining forces with Amazon Web Services unleashes a multitude of opportunities for our startups, who will be able to take more advantage of cloud solutions as they look at scaling their businesses. Marc Andreessen once said in an interview that ‘software will take over the world’, and today we see that, with all our successful startups with robust tech stacks that are shaping the technological landscape and contributing to a notable economic shift.”

WAM