Telecom Lead Middle East: Mobily has selected Ericsson to provide Evolved Packet Core networks in the western region of the Kingdom.
The Ericsson EPC solution enables Mobily subscribers to have the ability to access and consume four times more data.
Last month, Mobily, Saudi Arabia’s second-biggest telecoms operator said higher data revenues have pushed its first-quarter net profit by 11 percent to SR1.34 billion from SR1.207 billion in the prior-year period.
Mobily, an affiliate of Etisalat, said its revenue reached SR5.63 billion against SR5.01 billion. This stems from the growth in sales of smart phones and the increase in data revenues, which accounted for 30 percent of turnover.
As per the agreement, Ericsson will upgrade the EPC network with the Evolved Packet Gateway based on the SSR 8000 family to support LTE and prepare the network for Voice over LTE.
Nasser Al Nasser, chief operation officer, Mobily, said: “To provide our customers with an unparalleled mobile-broadband experience, we constantly look for ways to efficiently maintain and increase network availability and enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) to support LTE.”
The enhanced capacity of the network will allow Mobily mobile customers to use and consume bandwidth-hungry applications and services while maintaining high quality of experience for all users.
Ericsson’s core network solution will equip Mobily with the latest technology to increase data bandwidth, provide an unprecedented customer experience and increase revenues.”
Better access to 4G/LTE, designed to transfer large amounts of data efficiently, is considered the most advanced ICT technology today, and will allow Mobily to meet growing consumer demands for innovative, complex mobile broadband services.
As part of the agreement, Ericsson is also providing systems integration, design and managed services, extending the scope of the existing managed services partnership with Mobily that was started in 2005.
To date Ericsson has taken 51 contracts for the SSR 8000 Smart Services Router, which is one of the key components of its 4th Generation IP network vision.
