Zain said it will leverage its “experience in network deployments across challenging territories” to support Facebook’s Telecom Infra Project (TIP), after the Kuwaiti operator became a new member last week.

The company became one of 11 new members to commit to the initiative during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, joining 450 members already involved in the project.

TIP is an engineering focussed drive involving operators, infrastructure providers, system integrators and other technology companies, to develop more flexible ways of constructing telecoms networks, and was launched by Facebook last year.

Commenting on Zain’s participation, CEO Scott Gegenheimer said collaboration was now key to meeting some of the challenges facing operators today.

“It could be argued that scaling tradition telecoms infrastructure to meet the ever increasing demand for broadband data is not moving as fast as it needs to ensure customers receive the mobile experience they demand and deserve,” he said. “Zain recognises there isn’t a single solution for this, and that no one company can tackle the problem alone.”

He added Zain’s commitment to TIP also extended to the challenge of connecting those across the world who still do not have access to the internet, and called on others to join the effort.

“We have high expectation that this initiative will result in bridging the digital divide by greater inclusion, and call on more of our regional and industry peers to join us in this initiative.”

Other new members which joined the effort last week are Airtel, BT, Afrimax, Etisalat, Dish, Microsoft, Millicom, Nextel, Reliance Jio and TIM.