Riyadh-based HOI is partnering Michigan-based Viper Networks to deploy Viper’s smart poles and smart city solutions throughout Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern and African markets. The agreement includes installation and commissioning of 5G GSM smart poles on behalf of mobile operators and tower companies, as well as smart city, smart lighting and urban policing and security technologies.

Smart cities solutions will also be offered and deployed within new and older municipalities and large developments, in line with Viper’s current deployments in several cities in the US.

The implementation will be carried out by Viper’s international operations arm, Apollo International.

All the smart functionalities will operate on a single Apollo platform with an intelligent operation central command. As currently envisaged, this could cover, stream and monitor many Saudi Cities on a real-time basis. The first pilot project should be deployed during the third quarter of 2023 in Saudi capital Riyadh.

For Viper and Apollo the agreement could lead to the deployment of tens of thousands of state-of-the-art Smart Light LED poles. In addition to the Company’s Smart Cities solutions that offer services such as street lighting management network, including street surveillance through concealed cameras; detailed surveillance through face and license plate recognition technology; concealed radars for detecting traffic violations; Wi-Fi offerings to citizens, LED digital boards for displays of commercial advertising and/or messages to citizens; and IOT sensors for numerous smart applications and data analysis.

The Saudi government has set a goal of making all of its cities smart by 2030, and it is investing heavily in smart city technologies.

Current Saudi smart city developments include: the King Abdullah Economic City, a planned city on the country’s Red Sea coast being developed as a smart city, which will use smart technologies to manage its infrastructure, transportation, and energy systems; the Riyadh Metro, a new rapid transit system currently under construction in Riyadh, that will use smart technologies such as facial recognition technology to track passengers and prevent fare evasion; and the Smart Riyadh Initiative, a government-led initiative to make Riyadh a more liveable and sustainable city. The Smart Riyadh Initiative includes smart city projects such as a smart traffic management system, a smart waste management system, and a smart lighting system.