Zain KSA Launches Nokia Deepfield Analytics in Over 100 Saudi Cities

Nokia announced on September 29, 2026, that Zain KSA has launched Nokia Deepfield Cloud Intelligence across its network, which covers more than 100 cities in Saudi Arabia. In the release, datelined Riyadh, Nokia said the deployment gives the Saudi operator real-time, end-to-end visibility intended to enable faster troubleshooting, improved service assurance and a more resilient digital infrastructure across the Kingdom.

According to Nokia, the system delivers real-time, application-level visibility across Zain KSA’s network and is designed to improve the digital experience for consumers and enterprises across the country. The company said the cloud-native analytics platform allows proactive optimization of high-bandwidth, latency-sensitive services while improving efficiency and cost control, and that it builds an AI-ready data foundation for the operator.

The announcement comes as data consumption in Saudi Arabia continues to accelerate, driven by video streaming, cloud services, AI workloads and emerging digital applications, Nokia said, adding that telecommunication providers face challenges in delivering high performance while operating more secure and reliable networks. The company said traditional monitoring tools provide limited insight into network flows and application behavior, and that the Deepfield platform addresses this by correlating global internet context with large volumes of network telemetry, turning the data into what Nokia described as contextualized, actionable intelligence that supports proactive optimization and data-driven decision-making.

Cloud Genome and Probe-Less Analytics

With the platform in place, Zain KSA can monitor and ensure the performance of critical OTT and cloud services across its entire network, Nokia said. The granular visibility into applications and services allows engineering teams to identify congestion or latency issues before they affect customers, supporting a seamless, low-latency experience for services such as video streaming and cloud gaming, according to the announcement. Central to the deployment is Deepfield Cloud Genome, which Nokia described as a continuously updated map of the internet that identifies applications and services across more than 30 categories using over 100 AI/ML rules.

Nokia’s Deepfield Cloud Intelligence product page describes the system as a next-generation, software-based network analytics platform that replaces hardware-based deep packet inspection (DPI) probes with a petabyte-scale big data system providing a multidimensional view of every flow on a network, encrypted or not. Nokia states that legacy hardware probes are prohibitively expensive to scale and incapable of providing end-to-end visibility, and that over 90% of internet traffic is encrypted and delivered via complex cloud and OTT services. According to the documentation, Cloud Genome constantly crawls and analyzes billions of internet endpoints, content delivery networks (CDNs) and cloud services, and the probe-less design identifies applications and services based on network context and origin rather than packet-payload inspection, which Nokia says makes encryption irrelevant to traffic classification.

The page describes several operator use cases, including pinpointing the source of congestion and performance degradation before committing to capacity upgrades, and examining the composition of peering and transit traffic to identify misrouted partner traffic. Nokia cites Netflix, YouTube and Disney+ as examples of OTT services whose performance the platform can monitor and quantify across an entire network. The company also states that Cloud Intelligence is the foundational module of the Deepfield platform and can be extended with Deepfield Subscriber Intelligence for per-subscriber analytics or Deepfield Defender for AI-driven DDoS protection, with the modules sharing the same platform, data engine and user interface.

Executive Statements

Sultan Mohammad Alsabhan, Vice President of Technology Operations at Zain KSA, said: “Integrating Nokia Deepfield Cloud Intelligence gives us deeper, real-time visibility into traffic patterns and enables more precise performance optimization across critical applications and services, enhancing the user experience.” He described the deployment as another step in building a more intelligent, AI-ready network that supports customers’ evolving needs and strengthens Zain KSA’s role in enabling the Kingdom’s digital future.

Mikko Lavanti, President of Nokia Middle East and Africa and Managing Director of Nokia Regional Headquarters in Saudi Arabia, said the deployment “equips Zain KSA with the insights needed to improve service quality, optimize network investments, and accelerate its evolution toward a software-driven, AI-ready network.”

Nokia said the platform’s large-scale analytics and cloud-native architecture provide Zain KSA with structured data, enhancing its digital ecosystem and supporting advanced analytics, AI and new digital services aligned with Saudi Vision 2030.