Jordan’s Ministry of ICT Dials Up Cisco for National Broadband Network
Jordanian Government Implements Major Country Transformation Initiative
Cisco, today, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Jordan’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT) with respect to the implementation of a national broadband network. The three- year project to build the Cisco® IP Next-Generation Network will be coordinated in conjunction with Cisco's certified resale and system integrator partners in the region.
The Government of Jordan is acting on its long term vision to provide Jordanian citizens with access to Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and strongly believes the Cisco will play an important role in helping to make this happen. Jordan’s schools, universities and colleges need to be connected via networks at a level and speed that can support the rapid growth of network traffic demand over the long term. Equally important, the country’s knowledge stations, which provide convenient and affordable public access to computers and the Internet, need improved network support.
Consequently, in 2001, MoICT started to explore how to implement the required connectivity. As a result, the government launched the “Connecting Jordanians Initiative” (CJI) which aims to deliver the government’s drive to make computers and networks more widely available to the public. The need for a broadband fiber network was determined to be a major requirement for the success of the CJI initiative and subsequently, MoITC entered into discussions with Cisco.
“The global economy is increasingly becoming more open and competitive. Countries that are more innovative and productive are capturing a greater share of the world’s trade, investment and jobs and for this reason His Majesty King Abdullah II is focused on ensuring that Jordan quickly becomes a knowledge-based economy and society. Working with Cisco to develop and build our nationwide broadband infrastructure will enable us to achieve this goal for Jordan,” commented His Excellency Eng. Basem Al Rousan.
Also in 2001, the foundation for transforming Jordan into a knowledge base economy, the National Broadband Network Program (NBN Program), was established. The program is now the core enabler for all the national projects initiated by His Majesty to transform the Kingdom. These include e-Health for the health sector, Jordan Education Initiative for the educational sector, and e-Gov for the government. The NBN Program contributes to the development of the Jordanian educational system by promoting the use of ICT in universities, schools, community colleges and other learning resources across the Kingdom. The Jordanian Kingdom will lay the foundation for new ICT services through the development of the fiber optic broadband networks allowing communities to access the internet and new services and applications.
“Country transformation and success in a knowledge economy demands increasingly higher skill levels encompassing information and communications technologies and the network is a central part of this transformation,” said Ziad Mortaja, regional general manager and director for Cisco North Africa and Levant. “Through long-term commitment and investment by the parties, Cisco can help the Jordanian government, businesses and citizens build the future through the intelligent application of information communications technology, using the network as the platform,” Mortaja concluded.
