RIYADH, 20 May 2007 -- Mobily, Saudi Arabia's second largest telecom company, plans to award a SR1 billion ($266.7 million) contract to expand its third generation wireless network heading to the technology of broadband, the company said yesterday.
The existing infrastructure, set up by Ericsson Nokia and China's Huawei, covers 19 Saudi cities.
"The expansion will cover the rest of Saudi cities," Mobily's Chief Executive Officer Khaled Al-Kaf said in a statement, without naming the bidders or saying when the contract would be awarded.
Mobily competes against Saudi Telecommunications Co. (STC) in the mobile market. Mobily claims a 34 percent market share two years after it started operations in the Kingdom.
Of Mobily's 6.2 million customers, 1 million are 3G users, making it the largest of seven firms that provide third generation wireless services in the Middle East and North Africa, the company said. The 3G expansion is also designed to capture the growing demand for the internet access, it said.
Mobily began selling wireless internet subscriptions yesterday at tariffs that were lower than Saudi Telecom's proposed high-speed internet charges.
Mobily announced on Friday the launch of three high-value data mobile Internet bundles, among them an unlimited download package -- a first for the Saudi Arabian telecommunications market and the Middle East. Today customers seeking blazing broadband speed in the Kingdom only need two things: a call to Mobily's Call Center, and a connect card. The new discount covers 2.5G, 3G and 3.5G networks anywhere in the Kingdom.
Mobily customers will have a speed up to 1.8 megabits/second, almost twice as fast as any conventional broadband connection available in the market.
High-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) is supported by a variety of mobile telephones already in the market and specialized connection devices such as Mobily connect card. Among mobile phone handsets that support HSPDA are Nokia N95, Nokia 6120, Sony Ericsson Z750 and the Motorola RAZR2 V9.
© Arab News 2007
