Saudi mobile telephone firm Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) said it had awarded Samsung Electronics a $100 million (Dh367m) deal to expand the WiMax network of its subsidiary Bayanat Al Oula.
The network would be the biggest of its kind in the Middle East both in terms of geographic coverage and user capacity, said Salim Saasouh, Samsung's Middle East and North Africa regional manager for telecom and network business.
WiMax is a telecommunication technology that provides wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes, from point-to-multipoint links to portable and fully mobile internet access.
Mobily, which bought Bayanat in 2007 for SR1.5 billion (Dh1.5bn), would finance the expansion through a syndicated loan, its Chief Executive Khaled Al Kaf, said.
The deal would expand Bayanat Al Oula's high-speed broadband service to 20 cities from the four previously covered by the firm. Mobily stock closed down two per cent, however, tracking the telecoms and information tehcnology index. The Saudi all-share index ended up 0.06 per cent.
"Bayanat's existing WiMax network serves 30,000 subscribers. With this expansion, we will be able to increase Bayant's WiMax capacity by at least three times," Kaf said.
Samsung will deliver 1,400 stations to increase Bayant's overall number of WiMax stations to 1,800, he said. Samsung will deliver the network before the end of 2009.
Mobily, which already provides mobile broadband services, hopes the deal would widen the base of its broadband clients.
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