Capacity booster

It was telling how last month Egyptian market leader Mobinil u-turned and agreed to acquire a 3G licence, having originally shunned the idea, deeming access to the spectrum to be too expensive.

Incumbent Egyptian mobile operators Vodafone and Mobinil were offered 3G licences for a figure amounting to 20% of the amount bid by new entrant Etisalat for its combined 2G/3G licence. Etisalat ultimately pledged US$2.9 billion for its licence, requiring the incumbents to stump up in the region of US$580 million each, which Mobinil initially stated was too high and deemed not to be central to its ongoing development.

Mobinil's Alex Shalaby has since reconsidered, stating the strong growth in subscribers this year has led to the operator outgrowing its allocated 2G spectrum sooner than had previously been expected. 3G spectrum will thus act as a capacity boost, a recurring theme with respect to a number of Middle East operators' outlook for the technology.

In January, Qtel CEO Nasser Marafih told CommsMEA that the operator's 3G network was an asset that he believed would drive much value creation in Qatar's telecoms sector.

 

"We came to market with a unique launch strategy for 3G," explained Sheikh Fahad Bin Jassin Al-Thani Al-Thani, Qtel's executive director of wireless services. "We came along as part of the second wave of operators in the region to launch 3G, which has given us extra capacity for voice as well as for value added services," he added.

As opposed to making access to 3G a niche proposition, Qtel has been working hard to develop it as a mass market offering, having given its subscriber base access to the 3G network without even having to change their SIM cards. "There was no need for USIM cards. All a subscriber required was a 3G handset, and they could become a 3G subscriber," Al-Thani stated.

The positive effect of this 3G strategy is self-evident. Qtel was reported to operate the most loaded 3G network in the world on a per-subscriber basis even ahead of the beginning of the Asian Games held in Doha in December 2006. As much as 25% of the operator's total traffic was trafficking over its 3G network, a figure unheard of even in parts of the world where 3G was introduced many years ahead of places such as Qatar.

In Kuwait, market leader MTC announced the deployment of its nationwide 3G mobile broadband network in January.

The network, which is High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) enabled, was a part of a three-year multi-million dollar managed optimisation services agreement between Motorola and MTC-Kuwait to upgrade the Kuwaiti mobile operator's network.

"Enhanced speed, quality and variety are what our mobile-centric subscriber base is looking for in Kuwait when it comes to broadband services. The high performance network solution will enable MTC to provide customers with a compelling portfolio of services such as video conferencing, which is steadily gaining popularity here in the Middle East," said Barrak Al Sabeeh, general manager of MTC-Kuwait.

According to Al Sabeeh, the new network would enable MTC-Kuwait to address new opportunities for multimedia services, expanding capacity, availability and broadband capabilities to support more voice and data transmission in the country.

Given the strides that Kuwait rival Wataniya has taken in developing the technical specification of its network, it is no wonder that MTC Kuwait - the pioneer of 3G in the Gulf - has also been aggressively improving the capabilities of its own network.

Kuwait's population may only stand at 2.5 million, but the country's two mobile operators have approached the development of the market as if it were 10 times that size.

One of the major focuses for Wataniya has been customer service, emphasised through its campaign known as the ‘Red Carpet' policy. With this strategy, the operator is bidding to provide a level of service and customer satisfaction second to none in the region. Based around a state-of-the-art call centre, Wataniya customers - both business and personal - are guaranteed 24/7 access to support and services.

In 2005 Wataniya entered a deal worth US$125 million with Nokia for the implementation of advanced technologies to enhance the operator's network. Included in the deal was Nokia's High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) solution, a software upgrade to the WCDMA network, permitting data speeds of up to 2Mbps in the first phase. Nokia's end-to-end offering can enable advanced services such as push to talk, video calls and video sharing.

The deal with Nokia was upgraded in October 2006, with the supplier awarded a contract to expand its HSDPA radio and core network, increasing its capacity and extending the network coverage to new areas.

In addition to the HSDPA radio network, Nokia provided Wataniya with a core network upgrade, including packet core equipment and the Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch; as well as a range of services, including network planning, consulting, system integration, implementation, pre-launch optimisation, maintenance, and care services. Deliveries for the contract have already begun.

Wataniya Telecom CEO and general manager Harri Koponen arrived in Kuwait in the second half of 2004, and immediately began a radical transformation of Wataniya's network in Kuwait. Siemens had, up until then, been the main infrastructure supplier, but this network was subsequently ripped out and Wataniya brought on board Nokia and Ericsson as its equipment partners.

October 2006 also saw Wataniya enhance its partnership with Ericsson, with the Swedish supplier signing on to provide radio equipment and implementation services for the 3G/HSDPA network, enabling the operator to introduce a new generation of mobile broadband services including high speed internet access.