Page 82 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2022

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Zain KSA Deploys Huawei's New 5G RAN Product

MetaAAU

Zain KSA in cooperation with Huawei
deployed the third-generation 5G RAN
product MetaAAU for the 5G carrier
aggregation coverage extension. Zain KSA
is serving a growing 5G customer base
with plans to become a one-stop digital
partner and business technology provider
in Saudi Arabia. To provide more capacity
to 5G users, Zain KSA incorporated an
additional 5G carrier, seeking to support
more 5G use cases, including cloud
computing, IoT, AI, and machine learning
solutions while continuing to deliver
excellent user experiences. By integrating
MetaAAU into its 5G network, Zain KSA
will enable more users to benefit from its
wide range of services after expanding
coverage and capacity and increasing
the network speed. MetaAAU is the latest
and most advanced product of Huawei's
third-generation 5G RAN product series. match up to Saudi Vision 2030’s goals of greatly improve our customer experience
It achieves best performance and lowest transforming the Kingdom into a digital across several fields including business,
power consumption by applying a wide economy hub powered by Industry 4.0 e-commerce, and gaming. President of
range of leading wireless technologies and supporting a high quality of life for its Huawei 5G Product Line, Ritchie Peng said,
and represents a key path for evolution to communities. Building on our elaborate 5G Huawei has made deep efforts in Massive
5.5G network. MetaAAU introduces the infrastructure, we launched the 5G carrier MIMO technology. MetaAAU is our third-
new extremely large antenna array (ELAA) aggregation feature in 2020, achieving generation Massive MIMO product and a
architecture, multi-channel technology, and ultra-fast Internet speeds of 2.4 Gbps. Now major product in Huawei's third-generation
innovative algorithms to double the scale with the accelerating industry ecosystem 5G RAN series. Its extremely large antenna
of arrays compared with the previous- development, and as more and more 5G array technology makes it possible to
generation AAU. This solution can improve smartphones support this feature, we are use higher frequency bands and higher
network performance while slashing extending the population coverage of 5G bandwidth to serve the mobile industry
energy consumption. Zain KSA’s Chief dual carriers and bringing the ultra-fast in the future. We will continue to provide
Technology Officer, Eng. Abdulrahman user experience to more customers. In innovative solutions to help Zain KSA to
Hamad AlMufadda said, this new upgrade addition to the carrier aggregation benefits, build the leading performance network and
to our 5G network serves our strategic goal the innovative MetaAAU product will provide a better user experience to end
to deliver world-class 5G experiences that support enhanced coverage capability and users.

Zain Saudi Arabia Moves Forward with Tower Sale

Zain Saudi Arabia has transferred ownership holding company for Zain Saudi’s tower Board of Directors approved the binding
of a subsidiary, Zain Business Ltd, to the infrastructure units. Under the agreement, offer submitted by a PIF-led consortium
Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), all these units will be transferred to GLI to acquire an 80% stake in the 8,069-tower
paving the way for the sale of the cellco’s within 18 months of financial completion, passive infrastructure in a deal valued
tower infrastructure which was approved in by which time at least 3,000 sites should at SAR3.026 billion. The PIF is expected
February this year. As reported by MENAFN, already be transferred over. As part of the to take a 60% share, with Sultan Holding
a statement to the Saudi stock exchange on asset purchase agreement, Zain Saudi Company and Prince Saud bin Fahd bin
Sunday disclosed that the PIF has changed will receive a cash amount of SAR2.4 Abdulaziz each obtaining 10% shares and
the transferred division’s name to Golden billion (USD639 million) and a 20% stake Zain initially retaining 20%, although the PIF
Lattice Investment (GLI), which will be the in GLI. In February Zain Saudi Arabia’s will have a call option on this portion.

82 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022