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First phase of Etisalat’s Saudi mobile project to be operational in March

Mohammad Omran, president and chief executive officer of Etisalat, told this correspondent yesterday that the Etisalat-led consortium has already selected the manufacturers and are targeting to start providing services by early March next year, covering 14 major Saudi cities.

He said: “For the first stage of the project we have selected Ericsson, Alcatel, Motorola and Hawawi of China as well as some IT providers, while at later stages we will look for other manufacturers as well.”

The gateway to the biggest GSM market in the Middle East was opened to Etisalat in August, following a meeting of the Saudi cabinet. The consortium led by the UAE-headquartered communications giant won cabinet approval for its bid to operate the Kingdom’s second mobile service.

The decision was announced after Saudi Arabia’s Cabinet of Ministers endorsed the decision of its regulatory authority, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), to opt for the Etisalat consortium’s $3.457 billion offer that includes GSM and 3G licenses, clearing the way for Etisalat’s rapid GSM expansion, its provision of enhanced customer services and the transfer of its enabling technologies to the largest market in the region.

Omran said: “For time being Saudi contract is the largest we have, but in future we expect some other bigger projects to come. We evaluate some other areas of investments outside Saudi Arabia like in Asia and Africa and will announce them once we finalise them.”

The work on the project for second and third generation of mobile systems in Saudi Arabia, which has the highest GDP in the Middle East, has already commenced. “In fact, we have began to work on the project during the tendering stage. We have an aggressive plan and we be ready to start services as scheduled,” he said.

He said: “The Saudi market is considered to be one of the most demanding for services and technologies. Etisalat has devised plans to meet these requirements, including deploying the most advanced technologies and providing the latest services in line with the CITC guidelines and the Saudi market’s specific requirements. Our initial focus will be on expanding the reach of GSM services to ensure that we are moving forward as quickly and efficiently as possible.”