JEDDAH, 3 April 2007 — Imagine that you could control necessary daily operations via cell phone. The operations range from turning off your lights to performing on the spot direct payments at a commercial store without needing to carry a wallet. Imagine that you could check on the goods in your warehouse by using your phone or check on your child at his or her nursery via video at your work place.
Telecommunication experts attending the “Jeddah Forum for 3.5G Technology and Beyond” held yesterday said mobile technology is going through a dramatic change and what seems out of reach today is predicted to become reality in the next year or two
In Japan today you can visually check on your children in the nursery while you may be miles away, said Klaus H. Middlet, vice president of Ericsson marketing and strategy in the Middle East. He added that in other places of the world today you can monitor traffic congestions via cell phone on your way to work thanks to third generation technology. Cell phone services not so long ago were confined to voice calls and SMS messages. Today with third generation technology, you can see the other party on line, watch TV, surf the Internet and play video games with other users. The one-day forum organized by Mobily, Ericsson and Sony Ericsson was attended by the mayor of Jeddah, Adel Fakieh.
“Most of the new services are operating now in various parts of the world and other services will see the light in next two years,” said director of Mobily Networking Development in the Kingdom, Hassan Bamatraf. Today there are ten channels available to view via cell phone thanks to third generation and Bamatraf said, “There are more on the way. The 3.5G technology offered by Mobily is estimated to be five times faster than the normal 3G,” he said. The forum which was open to the public aimed at creating public awareness of third technology and its offered services. It also gave a view of a rapidly developing industry and its future possibilities in the way we live our daily lives. A large number of telecommunication specialists attended the forum including the head of Mobily in the Kingdom, Khaled Al-Kaf who said that Mobily was keen to provide the latest technology before any other company.
Saudi Telecom co. (STC) has the largest mobile phone network in the Middle East with more than 14 million subscribers. It is facing tough competition from Mobily, the Kingdom’s second mobile service provider. Mobily launched its 3.5G services on June 27, 2006, covering 19 cities in the Kingdom. The service is expanding to new cities.
Today Mobily has 800,000 active subscribers in the 3G and 3.5G, thus claiming to be the biggest 3G mobile operator in the Middle East. With the introduction of 3G or 3.5G services, mobile markets across the Kingdom and elsewhere in the Middle East have opened up to fierce competition. The rivalry is expected to become greater with the expected introduction of a third mobile service operator. A consortium led by Kuwait’s Mobile Telecom Co. (MTC) made the highest bid for the third mobile license with an offer of SR22.91 billion ($6.11 billion).
Saudi Arabia is the Middle East’s fastest growing telecom market with total revenues from both mobile and landlines reaching SR34.2 billion ($9.1 billion) in 2005. Forecasts indicate that the number of mobile phone and Internet subscribers will double in the next five years. According to one study, total expenditure within the sector could reach SR225 billion ($60 billion) by the year 2020. At present there are 18 million mobile phones and four million fixed phones in the Kingdom.