Page 21 - SAMENA Trends - February-March 2021

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Mobily Takes Its Online Payment Solutions to the
Cloud

Saudi Arabian mobile network operator, Mobily, has gone live with will continue the evolution of its mobile network infrastructure.
the Optiva payment solution on Mobily private cloud. The move “Mobily will dramatically increase its business and operational
will allow Mobily to benefit from the speed, agility and digital-first agility, flexibility and responsiveness by leveraging the cloud. This
focus of Optiva’s online payment solution. Mobily has always is vital to our increased growth — to meet digital market demands
been among the region’s most technologically ambitious telcos today and maximize our ability to seize new revenue opportunities
and was the first operator to launch 4G services in the region, long-term,” said Alaa Malki, CTO of Mobily. Mobily’s subscribers
back in 2011. Since then, Mobily has kept itself ahead of the curve will benefit from the upgrade to cloud-native technology on the
in terms of network innovation. With its move to cloud, Mobily private cloud and a consolidated payment solution platform,
which will allow them to access online e-vouchers to top up their
accounts. The move to the private cloud will also provide Mobily
with increased platform performance, and reduced operational
expense. “Mobily’s success during our 8-year partnership
has been a result of Mobily continually exceeding customers’
expectations and investing in innovation. This fosters a culture
of close collaboration, which allows Optiva to be a partner in
supporting Mobily to achieve its business goals and expand its
market opportunities,” said John Giere, President and CEO of
Optiva. Mobily provides the full range of mobile, fixed line and
fixed wireless access telecommunications services across the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It presides over one of the region’s
largest FTTH networks and boasts an impressive array of data
centers.

Mobily Reports a Surge in Profit to SAR783m in 2020

Saudi Arabian mobile network operator Further, EBITDA increased to SAR5.350 million in 2019. CAPEX for 2020 remained
(MNO) Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has billion in 2020, up by 8.2% y-o-y, while flat, at SAR2.792 billion (SAR2.760 billion
published its financial results for the interest and financial charges decreased in 2019).
twelve months ended 31 December 2020, from SAR929 million to SAR561 million
reporting a 4.4% year-on-year increase in the period under review, reflecting the
in revenues to SAR14.046 billion (USD3.7 company’s efforts to reduce funding
billion), up from SAR13.450 billion in 2019. costs by refinancing of a big portion
The company claims that the positive of its debts at the end of 2019 and the
result was due to the growth of data and decrease in the interest rate. Net profit,
wholesale revenues, and growth of its meanwhile, improved to SAR783 million
Business unit, in addition to the expansion in the twelve months ended 31 December
and improvement of its subscribers base. 2020, compared to a net profit of SAR31

Mobily and CSG Extend Digital Transformation Agreement

Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has announced corporate strategy, technology innovation solution that optimizes Mobily’s ability to
a multi-year extension to its partnership and advancement of our service offerings increase process agility and go-to-market
with CSG. Mobily will deploy CSG’s to our rapidly growing customer base. It flexibility, while lowering expenditures.
innovative suite of revenue and customer also supports our overall transformation The CSG solution will shift Mobily’s billing
management solutions to accelerate goals of being an agile and dynamic and revenue management operations to
growth, introduce new products and company that capitalizes on opportunities a consolidated managed services model,
services and evolve the customer presented by 5G and beyond, whilst replacing existing legacy systems with one
experience through traditional and digital providing a unified customer experience that digitally transforms Mobily’s systems
channels. Alaa Malki, CTO at Mobily, said: across all Mobily communication and business operations.
Our partnership with CSG supports our channels.” CSG will deploy a full-stack

21 FEB-MAR 2021