US-based Ciena Corporation, the network specialist, has announced it has been selected by Saudi Arabia’s telecoms operator Mobily to build a highly resilient, adaptable and scalable nationwide network to effectively address dramatic traffic growth and support the roll out of new services  while reducing overall operational costs.

Mobily selected solutions from across Ciena’s portfolio including Carrier Ethernet Service Delivery, optical transport and switching and management and maintenance services to bring Ethernet services to the network edge and integrate packet-optical switching and transport through the network core.

The Middle East is driving major growth across the telecommunications landscape with significant increases in mobile and fixed broadband penetration and regional IT projects as well as investments in new regional and international markets. As Saudi Arabia’s fastest growing mobile communications and technology provider, owning more than 40 per cent of the country’s mobile market, Mobily is focused on supporting high-bandwidth applications and enabling the reliable delivery of consumer and business services, including mobile TV, video on demand and high-speed Internet access. To maintain its market leadership position, Mobily realised the need for a substantial infrastructure investment and selected solutions from Ciena to form the foundation of its new network.

Ciena’s Packet-Optical Transport platforms will provide up to 10-fold capacity increase, enabling Mobily to scale and optimise its network to support the delivery of advanced services and applications. In order to better manage the growth in traffic, Ciena’s Packet-Optical Switching solutions will utilise OTN and distributed intelligence to increase network automation and resiliency. Additionally, a range of switches from Ciena’s Carrier Ethernet Service Delivery portfolio enable the operator to cost-effectively support Carrier Ethernet-based mobile backhaul as well as Ethernet aggregation and delivery of high-velocity business and transport Carrier Ethernet services to its customer base.

Seamless path
“As our capacity needs and services portfolio mature, our Ciena-based next-generation network will be instrumental in ensuring we address our customers’ critical business challenges and evolving demands from the network edge all the way through to the core,” said Abdul Aziz Al Tamami, chief operations officer at Mobily. “After evaluating all of our options, we selected Ciena for its ability to extend the value of our current network investment while providing a seamless upgrade path to 100 Gbps and a smooth transition to OTN, positioning us well for further growth in high-bandwidth services.”

Ciena’s Saudi Arabia manager Yasser Alobaidan commented: “With applications such as video, teleconferencing and cloud computing driving bandwidth growth, there is an ever-rising demand for capacity in the Middle East. Our relationship with Mobily demonstrates Ciena’s commitment to the region by providing a future-proof network that will scale to support this provider’s impressive growth and enable quick turn up of new services.”

At a meeting to announce the selection of Ciena were Al Tamami, Alobaidan and other senior officials including Mohammed Basafi  (Mobily) and Eric Sele and Omar Alsaied (both from Ciena).