Mobily doubles HSPA+ broadband speeds to 42 Mbps

Saudi Arabia’s Mobily has completed trials of its HSPA+ network with testing speeds of 42 megabits per second, in preparation for rollout to major cities across the kingdom. This is the first major speed upgrade since the launch of the region’s first HSPA network in the second half of 2009 at speeds of 21 Mbps.

Mobily, a subsidiary of the UAE’s Etisalat, ended 2009 with one million subscribers to its high-usage bundles and an overall base of 18.2 million mobile customers. The operator’s HSPA network currently covers 80 per cent of all populated areas.

According to the Communications and Information Regulatory Commission’s annual report, household Internet penetration rates doubled from around 14 per cent at the end of 2008 to 32 per cent at year end 2009. Wireless broadband grew 488 per cent to 1.41 million wireless broadband subscriptions, representing 51 per cent of all broadband connections, in comparison to 47 per cent being ADSL connections.

Of the 1.41 million wireless broadband subscriptions, Mobily dominated with one million customers equating to a 70 per cent market share, as well as a 36 per cent market share of all broadband connections in the kingdom.

Mobily’s HSPA network exchanged 1.23 petabytes of traffic in December 2009, up 283 per cent year-on-year from 0.51 petabytes in December 2008.