Atheeb’s KSA WiMAX network “weeks” from launch

Saudi Arabia’s Atheeb Telecom is “weeks” away from launching its mobile broadband network in the Kingdom, according to the company’s CEO.

Atheeb Telecom is one of three companies licensed to operate a new fixed-line network in Saudi Arabia, and it plans to be the first to offer a nationwide WiMAX network.

Dr Ahmed Sindi said that he expects corporate registration of Atheeb Telecom to be issued “in the next week or so”, with a stock exchange listing “in a month’s time” and a launch of the service to follow soon after.

“Our launch is very much on target. It will launch very soon - we’re talking weeks. Our network is about 95% ready in Jeddah and Riyadh,” Sindi told CommsMEA.

“We have five more cities to follow maybe a month to a month and a half after that, including Mecca, Medina and Ta’if, and once the five cities are covered we will have close to 65% of the population covered. Very soon we will announce the second phase of the project, and that will give us up to 85% coverage, which will be implemented this year.”

Although the economic crisis has prompted some operators to scale back high cost capital expenditure projects, Sindi said that it has not affected plans for Atheeb’s network.

“Saudi Arabia is one of the Gulf countries that have been hardly touched by the economic crisis,” he said. “I know that banks are not as easy with credit as before, however, we already have our required funding in full in place.”

According to Sindi, the network is capable of delivering speeds of up to 8Mbps, but he said that Atheeb will advertise speeds of 1-2Mbps to avoid encouraging “unrealistic expectations”.

“We will not make the mistake of 3G providers who advertise 7.2 Mbps and then you get dial-up speed, because they assume only one person is connected to the base station.

“It was a problem for customers in Saudi Arabia, where some of the operators were advertising unrealistic speeds. And as a result, the reaction of the public was very negative. We have learned from that mistake.”

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM