Etisalat chairman Mohammad Omran said the new strategy of Mobily for the next five years aims at strengthening, “Mobily” leadership in broadband services and applications, as a pioneer in this technology in the Middle East, in line with global trends in mobile communications. “The New strategy will focus on the integration of communication services or what is referred to GED “Growth Efficiency Differentiation “, stressing that Etisalat will utilize its know -how and experience to give Mobily its utmost support in this regard:” said Mohammad Omran in his address during Mobily's “WE CARE” event. Omran described Mobily as one of the most successful investments for the group, commending the professionalism of Mobily's executive management and its vision that resulted in achieving significant growth for the company with net income of more than three billion Saudi Riyals in 2009. Mobily successfully completed trials for the coming upgrade of its state of the art evolved high-speed packet access (HSPA+) network testing speeds of 42 megabits per second (Mbps). The 42 Mbps speed, expected to be rolled out in major cities in the interim, will be the first major speed upgrade since Mobily became the first operator in the region to launch HSPA+ towards the end of 2009 at speeds of 21 Mbps, and closed the year with one million customers subscribed to its high-usage bundles, and an overall customer base 18.2 million. Mobily's state of the art High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network now covers 90 percent of all populated areas in the Kingdom, representing 414 cities, regions and areas; almost giving anyone who needs Internet mobile broadband always-on connectivity. Mobily's HSPA network has given a much needed boost to household Internet usage in the Kingdom with household penetration rates more than doubling from around 14 percent for end of 2008 results to 32 percent for yearend 2009, according to the Communications and Information Regulatory Commission's annual report. The report said out of 1.41 million wireless broadband subscriptions, one million were on Mobily's network, giving the company a market share of 70 percent market of all wireless subscriptions and 36 percent of all broadband connections in the Kingdom. Mobily was the first Saudi operator to launch BlackBerry platform to businesses at the end of 2006, and was also the first Saudi operator to bring BlackBerry Internet Service to the masses in mid
