Mobily Saudi Arabia awards $150 mln GSM contract to Motorola

Motorola, Inc. has signed a contract valued at $150 million with Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) to further expand the operator’s GSM coverage in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Saudi Arabia.

Under the terms of this turnkey expansion contract, Motorola will deliver its GSM infrastructure solutions as well as comprehensive services, including network planning, optimization, operations and maintenance, to enable Mobily to increase its subscriber base capacity within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“The network expansion that was put in place for the Northwest and Southwest regions of the Kingdom by Motorola last year has already helped Mobily to increase its subscriber base capacity, which will enable us to meet our business objectives,” said Khalid Al-Kaf, CEO of Mobily.  “We trust Motorola to continue providing us with high performance GSM solutions,” he added.

Motorola began working with Mobily in 2004, supporting its business goal to reach more than 3.5 million nationwide subscribers by the end of its first year of service in May 2006.

“This latest contract recognizes Mobily’s confidence in Motorola’s GSM solutions to meet the customer’s evolving feature, performance and network reliability requirements.  Furthermore, this additional turnkey expansion project will enable Mobily to get the most from its infrastructure investment, while enabling the operator to focus on its core business,” said Ali Amer, vice president sales, Middle East, Africa & Pakistan, Motorola Home & Networks Mobility.

Mobily is the official brand name of Etihad Etisalat, the new mobile service provider in Saudi Arabia. The ownership of the company is two-fold: Saudi ownership, comprising public investors holding 20% of the company’s shareholding, while private investors own a 45% stake. The balance of 35% is owned by Etisalat of UAE.

Mobily has more than 4.5 mln subscribers in its first operational year, and has been able to cover all the cities and major towns, as well as the highways in the Kingdom.