His Excellency, Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazleh, Founder of Talal Abu Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) and Chairman of the Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN) with His Excellency, Prof. Ali al-Qaisi, Chairman of the Jordanian Universities Network (JuNet) and Mr. Sami Smeirat, Chief Enterprise Officer of Orange Jordan have signed an agreement to connect Jordanian universities with the European Academic and Research Network (GÉANT) in order to provide them access to the research and education resources in Europe and the rest of the world.
HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman of ASREN highlighted the importance of connecting research and education institutions at the national, regional and global levels to enable collaboration with research and education communities and to provide access to research and education resources.
He added “this connection comes in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Program (EUMEDCONENCT3) co-financed by the European Union and managed by the European Network GÉANT in cooperation with ASREN which works on connecting the Arab research and education communities to the rest of the world”
HE Prof. Ali Al-Qaisy, Chairman of JUNet said: “connecting the Jordanian universities is a new support to the researchers in Jordan as they used to face many difficulties in the past when they try to access computing resources, data repositories and scientific applications and services”
Mr. Sami Smeirat, Chief Enterprise Officer of Orange Jordan added “We are proud to extend our strategic agreement with ASREN and sign with JUNet to serve the education and research community in Jordan. Orange will continue to support the research and education in Jordan by providing them with best and state of the art services”
Orange Jordan Chief Enterprise Officer Sami Smeirat expressed his pride in extending this strategic partnership, through connecting the project with the most advanced international data transfer and raising the high-capacity connection to 1 Gigabyte, as it will lead to great strides in the fields of research and learning. Smeirat reaffirmed Orange Jordan’s dedication to supporting all segments of the economy in order to enhance its business and company position, which, through modern technology, will contribute to the development and elevation of the quality of education, transforming it to a knowledge-based economy. He added that this step falls in line with the company’s corporate social responsibility strategy which stems from the company’s five year corporate strategy Essentials 2020, which places customer service, education and entrepreneurship in society at its core and aims to provide an unmatched customer experience, accompanied by the transformation of Orange Jordan’s enterprise customers, further enhancing the spirit of the renewed Orange brand that is based on connecting its customers to all that is essential to them based on their needs.
Mr. David West, Project Manager of the EUMEDCONNECT3 Project added, “We believe that connecting Jordanian communities with their counterparts in Europe is very important and will create more opportunities for them to collaborate and conduct join research and education activities”
Orange – Jordan will upgrade this link from one hundred fifty Megabit to one Giga bits per second to the Jordanian Universities Network (JUNET) and the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) in Jordan. This will be a dedicated circuit which will connect the Jordanian Universities Network directly to the European research and education network (GÉANT) via the first Arab point of presence in London which is managed and operated by the Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN).