Telecom Lead Middle East: IBM has signed a five-year
contract worth $280 million with Saudi mobile service provider Etihad Etisalat
(Mobily) to manage its information technology operations.
The contract will be self-financed and will lead to
improvements in Mobily’s products as well as making the company more flexible.
IBM leads the outsourced telecom networking services market in
2011. IBM is ahead of HP. Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks are in third
and fourth positions. Huawei is growing fast and close to its competitors.
EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) is the largest market for
outsourced services, but China and India are propelling Asia Pacific.
Mobily has reported a 22 percent rise in second-quarter
profit to 1.42 billion riyals last month, while its 2011 annual profit was 5.08
billion riyals, Reuters reported.
Parent firm Etisalat could increase its 28 percent stake in
the telco as the United Arab Emirates’ firm focuses its attention on high
growth, high population countries like Saudi.
Recently, Mobily has selected Gemalto’s Machine Identification Module
(MIM) for deploying machine-to-machine (M2M) services. This will be the
first implementation of dedicated M2M technology in the Middle East. The
Gemalto devices will be installed for upcoming Saudi M2M projects in the power
management and transportation industries such as smart grid metering and fleet
tracking.
Mobily and Huawei have set up service delivery platform in the
Middle East. In 2011, Mobily announced it would undergo a business
transformation to provide innovative services to its customers while
streamlining overall operations and management processes. The technology behind
the resulting SDP platform has been engineered for the operator by Huawei.
Recently, Zhone announced that its MXK OLT will help Mobily
deliver affordable and reliable high-speed Internet access and advanced video
services in its new FTTx offerings utilizing GPON technology.
