Motorola wins first commercial EDGE contract in Europe, Middle East and Africa

The contract will allow MTC to provide advanced, high-speed mobile services such as audio and video streaming, mobile web browsing and multimedia messaging to its one million wireless subscribers across the country.

'This EDGE contract in Kuwait represents a landmark for Motorola in EMEA and demonstrates our ability to provide operators with the right mobile data solutions for their market as they migrate to next generation networks and services,' said Jeff Cherif, vice president and general manager for the Middle East and Africa region (MEA) for Motorola. 'It is especially important for operators in the Middle East to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market and EDGE allows them to capitalise on the growth opportunities enhanced data rates will provide.'

'Our goal is to provide the most innovative services and an excellent user experience to our customers, while keeping in line with our financial objectives. With EDGE, we can boost data performance of our existing network and offer customers the enhanced services they require,' said Dr. Saad Al Barrak, director general, Mobile Telecommunications Company. 'We have worked with Motorola for 10 years and its innovative approach and extensive knowledge of the Middle East market made it our partner of choice for this project.'

The agreement covers the immediate delivery of hardware, software and services required for the increasing GSM traffic. Phase one of the EDGE network deployment in Kuwait is already operational.

EDGE is part of Motorola's comprehensive portfolio that delivers flexibility in line with operators' financial needs. All Horizon II Macro base stations are EDGE capable through software upgrade, evidence of Motorola's intent to provide the lowest total lifetime cost of network ownership. Boosting the data performance of an operator's existing network helps with financial return objectives while better network performance also provides a better end user experience. With Motorola's data portfolio, operators can deliver 3G-like services while maximising the return on their 2.5G investments.

Today's announcement is part of an ongoing relationship with MTC. Earlier this year, Motorola was selected as the supplier of GSM base stations and infrastructure for Atheer Telecom, a consortium of Iraqi investors led by MTC of Kuwait. Atheer Telecom's GSM network will provide communications services to the Iraqi people in the Southern region. This is one of the three regional networks that will form Iraq's first national mobile telecommunications network.