Nokia and Telecom Egypt intend to build the first cloud infrastructure in Egypt exclusively for Internet of Things (IOT) services.

According to a statement issued by Nokia, Telecom Egypt will use Nokia's Worldwide IOT Network Grid (WING) as a Service as the platform to launch IOT services for the enterprise segment later this year.

The statement reads: "Telecom Egypt will be able to tap into the growing IOT market fast and cost-effectively due to the Nokia WING one-stop model, which includes a worldwide IOT Infrastructure-as-a-Service and pay-as-you-grow business model. WING enables Telecom Egypt to provide global IOT service at almost local prices as opposed to more expensive roaming prices."

As part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Nokia and Telecom Egypt will also explore joint marketing initiatives and will work to accelerate the development of an IOT partner ecosystem in the country.

"A number of IOT use cases drive automation, which will help enterprises cut their operational expenses, enhance productivity and bring new services to market faster," the statement continues.

In November 2018 Telecom Egypt adopted Nokia's Photonic Service Engine (PSE) technology to double backbone capacity on its Delta Region DWDM backbone network.

According to Nokia, commercial deployment of the new high-speed services started in June 2018 and represents the first 200G long distance, single carrier transmission service in Africa.

Of the IOT services deal, Adel Hamed, Managing Director & CEO of Telecom Egypt, said: "We are excited to collaborate with Nokia for this IOT initiative. We have worked with Nokia in the past and we are confident that Nokia WING will enable us to bring world-class IOT use cases to our enterprise customers in Egypt and later in the region."

Ankur Bhan, Head of WING business at Nokia, said: "We are pleased to announce this collaboration with Telecom Egypt to enable next generation of IOT services for Egypt and the African market. Our cloud-native IOT proposition and pay-as-you-grow business model makes it possible for Telecom Egypt to move fast to address the vast IOT market opportunity in Egypt."