April 21, 2010 - Huawei today announced that it has been appointed by Saudi Telecom Company (STC) to deploy the Middle East' s largest pre-commercial LTE network in Saudi Arabia.

The first phase of the project has been delivered successfully, offering peak downlink data rates of up to 100Mb/s per user with commercial LTE data cards in the field. This pre-commercial LTE network is expected to complete its roll out by the end of 2010, covering major metropolitan areas such as Riyadh and Dammam. The network has been tailored to improve user experience, decrease cost per bit and increase spectrum efficiency.

In addition, Huawei has deployed its industry-leading IP microwave products of RTN900 series into STC' s LTE backhaul, which are capable of fully supporting the bandwidth demands of commercial LTE usage now, and in the future.

Dr. Zeyad Al-Otaibi, CTO of STC, commented on this partnership, saying: "We are pleased to collaborate with Huawei on this LTE project, which will allow STC to better understand this emerging technology and allow us to offer our customers next generation mobile broadband services in the future."

Ying Weimin, President of LTE Product Line, Huawei, said: "Huawei projects data services will increase 500 to 1000 times in the next decade. With surging demand for data applications, the entire industry is facing the significant challenge of how to effectively deploy and operate a profitable mobile broadband network. What we have accomplished in building this LTE network, together with STC, demonstrates that it is indeed possible to develop and operate a mobile broadband network that delivers the quality and connection speeds necessary to satisfy user demand, while containing operational expenditures that drive profitability. This represents a significant step forward for the entire industry."