WAM Abu Dhabi, 2 June 2012 (WAM) - 268 public schools across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi are all set to benefit from high-speed advanced Internet connectivity as the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), in collaboration with Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) announces the completion of an ICT Infrastructure and Technical Support Project.

The AED 330 million project aims to improve the quality of learning outcomes across schools by integrating the latest technology and offering both wire and wireless high-speed Internet connectivity.

The announcement of this achievement was made at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday evening and was attended by both Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) and Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) representatives, including Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili- Director General of ADEC, Mohammed Salem Al Dhahiri- Executive Director School Operations, Salem Al Sayari- Executive Director Support Services Sector from ADEC, and Mohammad Omran- Chairman of Etisalat, Eng. Saleh Abdullah Al Abdooli- CEO of Etisalat and Ahmad Abdul Karim Julfar- Chief Executive Officer, all from Etisalat Group.

ADEC and Etisalat honored Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (ADSIC), Abu Dhabi General Services Company (Musanada), Cisco Systems Inc. and the project's team members.

During the honoring ceremony held to celebrate the project's completion, Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Director General of ADEC, said: "ADEC is keen to equip schools with the latest technology that helps organize the relationships between ADEC headquarter (HQ) staff, school teachers, administrative staff and students, while implementing effective policies, plans and programs that will help elevate the quality of education." ADEC has selected Etisalat in order to offer high quality support services designed to help end users save time and address technical problems effortlessly.

ADEC's Director General added that ADEC public schools are currently connected to a fiber optic network that provides both wire and wireless high speed internet services to support new educational initiatives such as iClass, E-learning, and other IT applications and initiatives.

"Teaching and administrative staff will be able to carry out their duties using all ICT services and systems smoothly with no unforeseen failures. Such support will generate solutions in a speedy manner for technical problems to ensure that workflow is not interrupted. Proactive support services will be provided through three regional support centers connected to ADEC HQ in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Gharbia," said Dr. Al Khalili.

Eng. Saleh Abdullah Al Abdooli, CEO of Etisalat, said that technological development in today's world is widely used by students. The educational sector should be in line with such developments that have significantly changed research resources and educational means in the last five years. Digital tools and social networking applications are actively used to obtain information; thus provision of a network that could meet customers' needs is of paramount importance.

Learners must be able to access latest educational technology and digital knowledge to be an integral part of a rapidly changing world, added Al Abdooli.

"Thanks to its qualified staff, Etisalat was able to effectively carry out the ICT project as scheduled. Not only did the service provider connect the fiber optic network, but it designed, managed the project and installed the wire and wireless networks as well," he pointed out.

"More than 13864 internet access points have been installed; the biggest number ever existed in one project in the Middle East. The project needed 1.7 million working hours to be accomplished and cables with length equal to the distance between Abu Dhabi and London were installed," added Etisalat's CEO.

WAM/MAB