Mobily grants $160m deal to Ericsson

Mobily has granted mobile network gear maker Ericsson a $160m contract to expand the data business the second largest Saudi mobile phone operator bets on to drive profit growth.

"The contract awarded to Ericsson will increase network capacity and triple mobile broadband speeds, giving Mobily's customers a faster broadband Internet experience," Mobily said in a statement.

Mobily claims that its high speed packet access (HSPA) network is the busiest on the face of the planet with 800,000 active subscribers consuming more than one gigabyte of data a month, and contributing to an overall mobile data exchange of 42 terabytes a day.

With voice services penetration well above 100 percent, Mobily will focus on selling more data services to both corporate customers and households to maintain high profit growth, a company executive told Reuters.

"We are upgrading capacity on our network to maintain current customer experiences ... and in anticipation of the needs of coming customers," said Abdulaziz Al Tamami, Chief Operations Officer of Mobily. (Reuters)

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