Zain Jordan is preparing to launch fourth-generation, or 4G, mobile telephony services that offer users internet broadband speeds of up to 100 MB per second.
Chief executive Ahmad Al Hanandeh told Zawya in an exclusive interview that Zain created a "revolution" in the Jordan telecommunications market when it launched 3G services. The number of subscribers to HSPA+ exceeds 700,000, including 230,000 subscribers to the home internet broadband devices via peripheral connection. The rest use the 3G service through mobile cell phones.
Al Hanandeh said Zain has the largest market share among mobile phone companies operating in Jordan, where its subscriber base exceeds three million users, comprising a 37% share of the market.
Excerpts from the interview:
When is Zain planning to provide 4G services in Jordan?
The Jordanian market came out of the competition in voice services, to enter the golden age for the deployment of internet services, which drives companies to change economic strategy to rely on revenues from value-added services.
The trend for the deployment of internet services in the Jordanian market promotes significantly Zain's interest in the provision of fourth generation, technology-based services for LTE (Long term Evolution), which allows high speed and large capacity of the internet.
Zain Jordan's advanced technological infrastructure allows us to implement 4G services within 40 days of receiving the access license from the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.
We have targeted a spend of JOD 80 million on the development and expansion of our network in the kingdom during 2012, targeting voice networking and broadband, increasing the number of towers to more than 2,000. This follows an investment of JOD 100 million in 2011. If you look at the past 16 years, Zain Jordan has invested more than a billion US dollars in growth.
What are the challenges facing the telecommunications market in Jordan?
The challenges are concentrated in the technological development that provides services and communication technologies, forcing companies to keep up with such challenges. The main challenge is the great change that has occurred in the behavior of subscribers, trending towards more reliance on the internet via mobile devices, especially smart phones and tablets, and the increasing user demand for e-content and applications and social networking.
How will Zain meet these challenges?
We are investing in strengthening our internet offering by intensifying, increasing and diversifying the content and existing applications, to provide more content quality, and providing Arabic content that fits the local communities. During the past year, we launched 3G services with speeds of up to 42 Mbps, and we cover comprehensively all governorates of the kingdom.
© Zawya 2012
