JEDDAH, 19 May 2007 -- Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) today broke new ground with 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, a statement issued by the company said.

Customers seeking blazing broadband speed in the Kingdom only need three things: a call to Mobily's customer care center, a connect card or similar HSPDA compliant device and HSDPA coverage.

Five minutes later and any Mobily customer has up to 1.8 megabits/second, almost twice as fast as any conventional broadband connection available in the market.

HSDPA, which stands for high-speed downlink packet access, is supported by a variety of mobile telephones already in the market and specialized connection devices such as Huawei E620 mobile connect card. Among mobile phone handsets that support HSPDA are the Nokia N95, the Nokia 6120, the Sony Ericsson Z750, and the Motorola RAZR2 V9 and can connect at HSDPA version 1 (at a speed of 1.8 Mbps).

Earlier 3G phones will also provide fast mobile Internet speeds at 384 Kbps.

Mobily customers, who connect to Mobile Internet using Global Packet Radio Service (GPRS), EDGE-GPRS, or the 3.5G based HSDPA, have three new data bundles available to them at competitive rates, starting at SR100 for the 1 gigabyte bundle (34 megabytes a day), SR200 for the 5 gigabyte (170 megabytes a day) and SR350 for an unlimited package --  considered a first for Middle East mobile phone operators.

Customers who have already subscribed to current bundles Internet 5 (SR10) and Internet 20 (SR25), which offer 5 megabyte and 20 megabyte bundles, respectively, have the choice of continuing to use these bundles or migrating to the new better value packages at no extra cost.

Each one gigabyte of download bandwidth equals 1,024 megabytes, where each one megabyte includes 1,024 kilobytes. Customers who connect through regular dialup for two to three hours a day average downloads of 20 to 30 megabytes per day.

Customers can use the bundled megabytes for WAP browsing off their mobile phones or as a substitute to traditional connectivity by connecting their mobile phones, or a PCMCIA connect card to their laptops or desktop computers.

Connection speeds vary depending on the area customers connect from and the kind of handset they use.

Customers connecting from areas with HSDPA coverage can expect connection speeds of up to 1.8 kilobits/second, with connections mostly averaging at 512 kilobits/second.

© Arab News 2007