Kuwait Telecommunications Company, a world-class digital leader providing innovative services and platforms to customers and enabling the digital transformation in Kuwait, and a subsidiary of stc Group, announced that it has re-branded from ‘VIVA’ to ‘stc’, in line with the new strategy focusing on the digital transformation and enriching the customer experience through innovative solutions and services. This move will bring into stc a significant change across its operations in the State of Kuwait and mark another step forward for its brand achievements.

Since its inception in 2008, the company accomplishments have transformed the Kuwaiti telecom market, including changing wireless pricing models and fees. In 2014, the company was listed on Boursa Kuwait, marking a new phase in its expansion. Since then, the confidence of its shareholders has only increased.

Through excellence in service, transparency and proactivity, stc is leading the industry by providing a range of high-quality services and information solutions, focused on the global digital transformation in the telecom arena. As the fastest-growing and most advanced telecom operator in Kuwait, the company’s customer base has exceeded 2 million.

The company has succeeded in attracting private sector investments, driving the economy and repositioning the telecom sector as one of the most vital and active sectors in the evolution of global technology, focusing on the growth and the process of digital transformation and providing the best digital solutions to the Kuwaiti market, with an aim to support the vision of His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah for Kuwait 2035, in positioning Kuwait as a major financial and commercial hub in the region.

The company has invested in building its most advanced 5G network, and it owns currently the largest network that covers up to 100% of the population areas in Kuwait. It aims through this new technology to resolve the various issues that have developed due to the wide popularity of 4G LTE, including the need for higher speeds and lower latency. 5G will provide fiber like service experience to VIVA users, while enabling new digital services to emerge such as AR/VR immersive experience, cloud gaming, autonomous drone, driverless cars, and a wide range of IoT uses.

In 2019, the company has acquired 100% of the share capital of the Internet Service Provider General Trading and Contracting Company (Qualitynet) in Kuwait. This acquisition has reflected positively and significantly on both customers, benefiting from innovative and high quality products and services.

It strives to provide its customers, both consumers and enterprises, with a unique set of products and services that cater to their needs, and offers them various opportunities in the fields of communications, entertainment, information, digital services and data transmission, and provides the best customer experience round the clock.

On this occasion, Eng. Maziad Alharbi, stc CEO stated: "We have been very keen to establish our footprint in the Kuwaiti market during the first decade, and we are planning in the coming decade to create new opportunities, enable the digital transformation and develop our strategy to be launched in 2020, supported by our mother company, stc Group.”

He added: "The mother company has launched this brand with a new spirit and shape that reflect the digital transformation and enhance the stance of the company and its subsidiaries by implementing the strategy and aspirations of the stc Group in the region with regards to digital transformation and enriching the customer experience, through the solutions and services that we intend to introduce. So today we are proud that we have become a unified brand amongst the group companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the State of Kuwait, which will enhance the value of the brand of "stc" as one of the most expensive brands in the Middle East. Moreover, the positioning of stc among the 50 best companies in the world providing digital solutions is an added value for us as we count on the expertise and great capabilities that the mother company maintains in this field which will be positively and significantly reflected on both customer categories, individuals and enterprises.”

“We promise our customers to enrich their lives by providing a pool of world-class unique and distinctive services, which will help us define our vision and enhance our performance, as well as enable our business platform and refine our expertise and competencies to achieve our goals. We will use the energy of our new stc identity to make a leap in the telecommunications market, and this change will boost the brand towards becoming one of the top leading mobile telecommunications companies in the local and regional market. In the frame of the significant impact of technology on the financial industry and development, and in line with the strategy of the new company, stc seeks to offer digital financial services “Fintech” in the future in the Kuwaiti market, after obtaining the necessary approvals from regulatory authorities as we count in this field on the expertise of the mother company stc that offers a range of such services as ‘stc Pay’."

He concluded: "I would like to hail the positive and organizational role played by Communication and Information Technology Regulator Authority (CITRA) in the State of Kuwait, which contributed in enhancing the position of the Kuwaiti telecommunications sector on regional and international scales. CITRA strives through its strategy to transform Kuwait into a regional data center, by investing in the fields of communications and information technology. Hence, we would like at stc to offer all the support to implement this strategy as we believe it has a substantial positive impact on the development of the industry, information technology and digital solutions.”

“We succeeded in creating job opportunities and focusing on Kuwaitization plan which has reached 65%, by attracting top talents through partnerships and collaborations in the Kuwaiti market. stc is committed to a rich Corporate Social Responsibility ‘CSR’ program and has launched multiple initiatives for supporting talent in the fields of healthcare, sports, entrepreneurship, education and environment.”