Nokia said Zain Saudi Arabia is deploying its FastMile technology to provide better experience to mobile phone users on 4G network.

Zain Saudi Arabia is deploying the technology in the western and southern region of the country and also in the cities of Jeddah and Makkah. Zain Saudi Arabia will be deploying the FastMile solution in both rural and suburban areas, where no fiber or copper network is available, using the 1800 MHz band.

This is for the first time that a telecom operator is deploying the Nokia FastMile technology in the Middle East and Africa region. During trial, the technology recorded speeds of 20 Mbps and provided 4G macro network coverage to reach users located in a challenging environment.

Nokia FastMile allows service providers to improve in-house coverage and provide ultra-fast mobile broadband speeds to end-users by cost effectively re-using an existing macro network infrastructure. The increase in data throughput will enable Zain to build additional revenue by launching innovative services, as well as help attract new subscribers.

“We are enthusiastic about the success of Nokia FastMile trial and the deployment of technology, which will help us address the problem of poor in-house coverage and provide a much-improved user experience,” said Sultan Abdulaziz AlDeghaither, chief technology officer, Zain Saudi Arabia.

Ali Al Jitawi, head of the Zain Saudi Arabia customer team at Nokia, said FastMile provides operators with an innovative way to re-use existing networks to meet growing broadband requirements.