Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company Group MTC has signed contracts with Motorola in the Middle East and Africa worth more than $30 million as part of a network expansion initiative.
MTC will deploy Motorola solutions to boost the capacity, availability and voice quality of its network in Kuwait, while enabling 2.5 G expansion capabilities for its more than 1.5 million subscribers.
MTC, which has been a Motorola customer for more than a decade, will now be among the first telecom operators in the Middle East to deploy Motorola’s Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) solution. The end-to-end AMR offering is designed to improve voice quality across MTC’s entire network, especially in more remote areas, at the edge of MTC’s coverage range, as well as in buildings.
“In a competitive telecom market such as Kuwait, subscribers must have the access, voice quality and network availability to meet their communications needs. The Motorola solutions and services that MTC is deploying will enable us to offer those key deliverables to a wider base of mobile users,” said Khaled Al Hajeri, chief technology officer for MTC Group.
A significant element in the MTC upgrade includes Motorola services and support to ensure that MTC is fully optimising its GSM and GPRS networks. These solutions enable MTC to benchmark its network performance against that of the world’s leading telecom operators, and improve its subscribers’ communication experience by tweaking applications and enhancing network utilisation.
As part of its upgrade initiative, MTC will deploy Motorola’s Network Support Programme (NSP). Using NSP, MTC can better focus on its core business issues while managing network availability and helping to reduce subscriber churn – a key consideration in Kuwait’s competitive mobile market.
MTC has also opted for Motorola’s GPRS network optimisation service and related value-added services.
“The MTC group will continuously perform ‘health checks’ across all of its networks implemented in 2001,” said Al Hajeri.
Commented Ali Amer, director of sales in the Middle East and the North and French Africa region, Motorola Networks: “As a long-standing customer of Motorola’s, MTC Kuwait is establishing itself as a world-class telecom operator, with a focus on best practices and customer satisfaction. This extensive upgrade is expected to boost subscriber confidence by enhancing the efficiency of MTC’s network.”
MTC was founded in 1983 and is today one of the largest mobile operators in the Middle East and Africa, offering a plethora of world-class voice and data services to over 9.5 million customers spread across 18 countries - Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, MTC’s market capitalisation exceeded $9 billion as at July 1, 2005. The public holds 75 per cent of the shareholding with the Kuwaiti government holding the remainder. Consolidated revenues were KD322.327 million ($1.009 billion) and consolidated net income was KD120.24 million.
