Since the dawn of history, the city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia has always been the spiritual center of the Abrahamic faith.
Today, the world’s 2 billion Muslims genuflect in its direction during prayers. But in the last few months of the year, Islam’s holiest city becomes even more vital, as an estimated 3 million pilgrims make their once-in-a-lifetime obligated journey to the site and other sites best known as The Sacred Sites of Hajj. All of this happens according to a well designed plan where all the 3 million pilgrims move together as they visit each of these sites. Some of which are as small as 1 km2.
Saudi Arabia’s Mission Critical
In response to this huge event, the Saudi Arabian government has developed mega-infrastructure projects in Makkah, Madinah and the rest of Hajj Holy Sites, with core focus on a full spectrum of multiple service utilities, including security, crowd management, municipalities, healthcare, transportation and on-going construction projects focusing on expanding the capacity of Holy Sites.
Towards Realizing National Transformation Program 2020
As a result and at the threshold of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and Saudi’s national transformation program 2020, the Hajj and Umrah sector is currently experiencing unprecedented dynamics leading STC Specialized, the Critical Communications arm of the Saudi Telecom giant: STC replacing the Bravo network, to strive towards putting in place an expansion approach with an emphasis placed on increasing the shift from the culture of standard communications to the culture of critical communication by opening up its scope for additional gains in performance–enhanced technology, fostering agility, implementing quality and performance standards with a view to scaling up availability and capacity, improving operational efficiency and increasing Hajj and Umrah system-wide coordination.
STC Specialized Preparations before Hajj
This is acheived by STC Specialized through a number of procedures preceding Hajj. Including strengthening and enhancing its TETRA network throughout the Holy Sites and improving its infrastructure to ensure continuity of its services for all workgroups during the Hajj season.
Earning the Trust of Our Clients
This has led all of our clients in the Hajj season, be it private contractors working on Hajj’s mega projects or companies that service the pilgrims or relevant public and government entities supervising, crowd-managing and securing Hajj, to fully trust STC Specialized, the new name in the Critical Communication industry, for the quality managed to be provided and to take us as their success partners.
“As the only licensed in critical communication in Saudi Arabia, we managed to make a significant presence and very prominent markings in our very first Hajj,” says Dr. Fahad Mushayt, the CEO of STC Specialized.
He further explains: “STC Specialized has continued the legacy of Bravo even after STC’s successful acquisition and went even further with the help and supervision of the mother company, STC, to a whole new level of security, reliablity and efficiency”.
Numbers of Significance
Adding to what the CEO said, Hesham Almomen, the Vice President of Technology further explains: “This Hajj was a huge success and a great season for STC Specialized and mission critical in all of Saudi Arabia in general and in Makkah and Hajj Holy Sites in particular, as more than 50 critical cyber attacks were intercepted successfully during the 6 days of Hajj, making our network invincible and completely secure and reliable.”
Hesham, continues: “The number of calls made through STC Specialized has roofed to reach 98k in 2018, compared to only 19k before the acquisition. The success rate of calls was a solid 100 per cent.”
Moreover, 210 is the total number of TETRA sites that have successfully backboned all above numbers & statistics. However, none of the numbers of success mentioned above could have been a reality without the help of more than 50 STC Specialized staff members who continued working in Hajj and on site were the real contributors and creators of STC Specialized Hajj momentum.
Led by STC Specialized CEO Dr. Fahad Mushayt, the staff members were working closely on site during Hajj to bring quality, success and real-time support to our clients.
In addition, among many activities that STC Specialized Hajj team managed to do was conducting visits to many of STC Specialized clients in Hajj. The visits were successful as they aimed to collect reviews, share knowledge and listen to clients’ suggestions and wishes in order to enhance customer experience in future Hajj seasons.
STC Specialized Future Hajj Plans
STC Specialized as a national licensed operator in Saudi Arabia, offering not only services and mission-critical solutions but also instant collaborative wireless communication systems to various industries. STC Specialized plans to continue operating the secure mobile communication system to offer permanent connectivity to more Hajj partners covering different industries, including hospitality, transportation, catering, banking, and all sorts of businesses that work seamlessly to enhance pilgrims’ experiences, wellbeing and safery.
This will mainly be translated into more customized offers and smart plans that can fit exactly into clients needs and serve the purpose and core of their Hajj related businesses. Of course, this will take place without affecting the quality of the service provided.
Our Partners are Key to Our Success
Since organising the Hajj entails growing logistical challenges as the number of pilgrims continues to increase yearly and more than two million Muslims have come to Makkah in this Hajj, and since the Saudi Government is prompting to further strengthen security measures to ensure the pilgrims´ well-being, STC Specialized‘s need to expand and grow an improved network in Hajj has never been more important and a genuine need.
This has led STC Specialized to grow greater interest in partnering with the best in the industry around the world to cater for the country’s need in its most important seasons.
One of STC Specialized’s most recent partnership with Airbus (Defense and Space) which was an important factor leading to STC Specialized huge success this season.
On that matter, says Dr. Fahad Mushayt, STC Specialized CEO: “Airbus D&S is a renowned expert in the field of professional communication. The company has tirelessly supported us so that we can meet our objectives to provide unfailing services. We hope to continue cooperating with Airbus D&S in the coming years.”
STC Specialized Focused to Realize Saudi Vision 2030
With the Saudi Vision 2030 in sight, STC Specialized has drawn itself a roadmap with one aim: Fulfilling and catering for the country’s Hajj needs by 2030 which projects an approximate number of 6 million visitors a year by that date. This will also include a more diversified market and portfolio of clients, appealing products, greater access to its services and innovative ways of communication and more importantly more partners that can help us uplift our clients’ experiences and position Criical Communications right where it should be. The heart of modern day businesses and organizations.
