Zain Signs US$935-mil. Mobile Network Contract with Nokia Siemens

Zain won Saudi Arabia's third mobile licence under its original name, MTC, in 2007 and is currently in the process of starting operations (see Saudi Arabia: 26 March 2007: MTC Kuwait Wins Third Mobile Licence for US$6.1 bil.). The five-year contract will make Nokia Siemens Networks the sole supplier for a full turnkey 2G and 3G mobile network, including core and radio networks, operations and business support systems, applications and a full suite of services, including managed services. The manufacturer will also provide the latest 2G and 3G mobile network technologies, including HSDPA and HSUPA, based on the latest base-station design and distributed architecture for both radio access and core networks, according to the 3GPP release 4 standard. The company will also provide a wide range of operations and business support system (OSS/BSS) solutions that will help Zain reduce operating expenses and manage the network and service quality for its subscribers. Nokia Siemens Networks will also provide Zain with its convergent pre-paid solution, charge@once select, for voice and data.

Nokia Siemens Networks will also supply the industry-leading MSC Server mobile softswitch for cost-efficient voice and data services, as well as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which enables a wide range of rich communications services based on the Internet Protocol. In addition to this, the vendor is providing a new design of base station, called the compact Flexi base station, which enables the operator to save significantly on capital and operational expenditure and allows for a fast roll-out. With the distributed architecture of its mobile softswitch and multimedia gateway, Nokia Siemens Networks is able to offer Zain in Saudi Arabia a cost-optimised core network solution with a fast roll-out to enable new advanced services for subscribers. Dr. Marwan al-Ahmadi, chief executive officer (CEO) for Zain in Saudi Arabia, said, “This huge project will radically change the face of mobile communications in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and sets the benchmark for future mobile communications in the region…We see Nokia Siemens Networks as our preferred partner in supporting our global expansion plans and in creating the largest and most advanced networks in the world”. Ahmed Othman, head of the Zain/Celtel customer business team for Nokia Siemens Networks added, “our managed services solution is designed to ensure that Zain benefits from a reduced time to market, faster revenue generation and high network quality and availability”.

Outlook and Implications

The contract with Nokia Siemens covers all the essential operational and management services required to roll out a 2G and 3G network. In addition to the standard requirements, the new design of base station provided will help speed up the roll-out phase to ensure Zain starts services as soon as possible. The supplier is providing the network operator with the management systems required to let Zain provide a high-speed mobile network that will eventually allow it to deploy a range of value-added services, resulting in greater revenues for the operator. Incorporated in the network roll-out is the IMS, which consists of, amongst other protocols, session control, connection control and an applications services framework, along with subscriber and services data. It enables new converged voice and data services, while allowing for the interoperability of these converged services between internet and mobile subscribers. The IMS has the potential to provide full duplex video telephony, multimedia advertising, multi-party gaming and push-to services, such as push-to-talk, push-to-view and push-to-video.