10 During the second half of 2011, a number of Middle Eastern


operators have been vying for the opportunity to become the fi rst player to launch LTE services in the region. But the marketing


messages have raced ahead of the reality and the result in some cases has been confusion in the market. By Dawinder Sahota


The race for fi rst place


The Middle East is one of the most diverse regions in the world. While some markets show a healthy appetite for the newest and most innovative technologies, economies are weaker in other markets, and consumer trends and the state of the telecoms sector reflects this. Progress has been made across the


region, in terms of advancing technological capabilities and internet usage, and mobile broadband is gaining traction. Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts for that mobile broadband penetration across the Mid- dle East will hit 72.3 per cent in 2016. This is a substantial increase from the 3.9 per cent penetration of the regional population recorded by Informa at the end of 2010. As in other parts of the world, 2G and 3G


account for the vast majority of connections. But in some of the more mature Middle Eastern markets, oeprators have now begun to provide LTE services, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading the way. For the past few months, the Middle East


has seen a battle of egos among carriers, as several have vied to become the first in the region to launch LTE services. The situation


even reached a stage where some opera- tors were advertising their LTE services to consumers before they were even ready to launch them, such was the perceived kudos associated with being the first operator to bring LTE to the region. Ismail Patel, research analyst for broad-


band and internet for the Middle East at In- forma Telecoms & Media, explains: “Saudi operator Zain rushed in to tweet in Arabic: ‘For the first time in the Kingdom and the Middle East, Zain brings superfast Internet with 4G LTE technology’, coupled with a banner of a Zain-branded train whizzing past.” At the same time, Patel says, an- other Saudi operator, Mobily, had been on the verge of its own launch. When it came, though, Mobily’s 4G was a WiMAX fixed wireless residential broadband offering. Complicating matters yet further, the


market’s third player, STC, entered the fray by publishing a banner of a 4G LTE thundercloud on its website, adding that its customers can now enjoy LTE in 400 loca- tions in the country. “In reality these are just words, with no services available to customers yet,” says


Middle East Market Review | November 2011


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