Korea’s Samsung has done a deal with Bayanat Al-Oula for Network Services, an emerging alternative telecom services provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that will lead to the largest mobile WiMAX network being deployed in the Middle East.

Under the terms of a new agreement, Samsung will supply mobile WiMAX equipment and devices to Bayanat Al-Oula over a two year period. Bayanat Al-Oula plans to launch commercial mobile WiMAX services in four major cities - Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Makkah – this year. Services will then be expanded nationwide.

“We envision that Mobile WiMAX will revolutionise data services in the same way that mobile network technology revolutionised voice services,” said ceo of Bayanat Al-Oula, Abdulmajeed Elshawa. “Data services, such as high-speed Internet access, video and audio streaming, and wireless VPN connectivity will transform the way end-users use these services and significantly enhance their value.”

Mobile WiMAX service was first commercialised in South  Korea in June of 2006, and Samsung itself is now supplying equipment for trials and commercialisation in Italy, Japan, the USA and South America (Venezuela and Brazil). The Korean vendor says mobile WiMAX adoption is expected in other Middle East nations following the lead of Bayanat Al-Oula.

In other mobile WiMAX news, Navini Networks has announced that it has been contracted to supply equipment to Bulgarian operator Max Telecom to build a nationwide network, kicking off in the country’s capital Sofia later this year.  “Rather than event-driven pricing, we plan to offer fixed price data subscriptions with VoIP bundled”, commented Max Telecom ceo Krassimir Stoitcheff. “Once consumers in Bulgaria experience personal broadband, it will change their lifestyles, their behaviours.”

Last week Navini also said that it would be supplying IEEE 802.16e equipment to US operator Horizon Wi-Com for use in a network to be built across the north eastern region of the USA.
John Williamson