RIYADH: Mobile broadband subscription has shown tremendous growth in Saudi Arabia, according to figures released by Etihad Etisalat (Mobily).
Mobily said after 24 months of operations, it had 600,000 mobile broadband subscribers representing 126 percent growth on 2008 yearend results of 266,000 subscribers and 445 percent growth when compared to 2008 second quarter results. Basically, mobile broadband subscribers are any Mobily customers who connect to the Internet using any of the three high-volume monthly bundles — 1 GB, 5 GB or unlimited bundle.
For May alone, daily mobile data consumption reached 37 terabyte, and over one petabyte of traffic exchanged over the month, doubling consumption as compared to yearend 2008 daily performance of 18.5 terabytes a day, allowing Mobily to maintain its position of having the busiest mobile data network on the face of the planet. “History is about to repeat itself. In the late 1990s and the early 21st century, mobile phone subscriptions overtook fixed line subscriptions,” said Khalid Al-Kaf, managing director and chief executive officer of Mobily. “Very soon, that same thing will happen with mobile data. Mobile data and wireless subscriptions will overtake fixed line data subscriptions, in numbers of customers and in revenue,” he added. “We live in a fast paced and dynamic world. People want broadband service and want it today. Mobile and wireless can deliver,” Al-Kaf pointed out.
In March, Mobily said it had upgraded its mobile data network to support high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) technology as a first operator in the region and the Middle East to match the high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) segment of its network, and offer a full high speed packet access (HSPA) mobile broadband experience to its customers in the more than 220 areas it covers with 3.75G.
