Covering a territory of more than 1 million square kilometers across Asia and Africa, Egypt, a big developing country with 74 million people, is at the crossroad of Asia and Africa. In recent years, the country has witnessed rapid growth in the mobile telecoms industry. As of May 2007, there were 22.1 million mobile subscribers in Egypt with a 30% mobile penetration rate. The annual growth rate increased by 36.5% from the same period last year, and is proof of the huge potential in Egypt.

To encourage the development of the Egyptian mobile telecoms industry, the Egyptian Government initiated a public bidding for the country's third mobile communications service license in June 2006. Etisalat won the bid, and paid 16.7 billion Egyptian pounds (US$2.9 billion), eight times more than the base price. The highly competitive bidding revealed the confidence that carriers worldwide had in the Egyptian telecoms market.

An Etisalat "Egyptian Dream"

Etisalat is a household name in the Middle East and North Africa regions. Etisalat used to be the only mobile communications carrier in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and has a mobile penetration rate of 130%, the highest among all countries in the Middle East. In the global telecoms industry, Etisalat is widely recognized for its innovations and high profits. It built the first 3G network in the Middle East in 2004. In June 2007, Etisalat took the lead again by completing the largest high-speed packet access (HSPA) network in the Middle East. Not satisfied with its domination in the domestic market, Etisalat has gradually shifted its focus to the overseas market and has conducted several successful operations in many countries, becoming one of the most influential multinational carriers in the Middle East.

Etisalat has been showing a keen interest in the prosperous telecoms industry in Egypt. Armed with extensive experience in successfully running 2G and 3G networks, Etisalat has great confidence in its ability to improve the quality of communications in Egypt.

Having won the bidding for the license in July 2006, Etisalat then went on to create a complete plan for building an HSPA network, and providing services under the Misr brand name.

The Etisalat Misr network, which covers 85% of the territory of Egypt and 60 million people, became a dream project for communications equipment vendors throughout the world immediately after it was announced. Almost all mainstream mobile equipment vendors participated in the bidding. When Etisalat was competing for the mobile operations license, Huawei helped Etisalat in terms of network and business planning and offered strong technical support, and this turned out to be positive forces in helping Etisalat win the license. When Etisalat was preparing for network construction, Huawei provided a competitive network construction scheme and solution. With localized delivery capabilities and an end-to-end solution, Huawei can deploy a network quickly and efficiently, saving on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and network time-to-market. Moreover, the innovative solution led to outstanding network performance, which laid a solid foundation for Etisalat's success.

In October 2006, Etisalat announced that Huawei was selected to construct the Etisalat Misr network, which included 2G Base Station Subsystems (BSS) and 3G UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Networks (UTRAN) with a total capacity of 10,000 carrier frequencies.

National 2G/3G Integrated Network Successfully Launches

For the Etisalat Misr network, which covers the whole of Egypt, a good equipment supplier was merely a preliminary step. Great efforts were needed for site acquisition, engineering implementation, equipment installation, network optimization, and network maintenance. Being a newcomer in the Egyptian telecoms market, Etisalat was faced with many challenges. In the highly competitive market where 300,000 new monthly subscribers were served by two existing cariers, Etisalat was eager to quickly commercialize the Etisalat Misr network to break into the market. The short project implementation period brought about a huge amount of pressure to deliver. As Etisalat continues to expand internationally, it has made reasonable investments in new networks, and all these were obligatory considerations in project implementation.

Etisalat Misr is one of the rare large-scale 2G/3G integrated networks that require commercial use alongside actual implementation. While deploying the network as quickly as possible, Huawei's project team also considered protecting Etisalat's long-term investments, and the GSM network equipment provided by Huawei supports a smooth evolution to a 3G network. The BSC6000, a high-density Base Station Controller (BSC), was designed on an All-IP platform and supports overall evolution to the 3G era. The BSC and the Radio Network Controller (RNC) share the same platform, while the Local Call Local Switching function (LCLS) can save up to 30% in transmission resources.

For the 3G network, the Etisalat Misr uses of a lot of distributed Node Bs, whose small size facilitates installation. The Remote Radio Unit (RRU) is connected by optical fibers and can be directly mounted onto the iron tower, saving up to 30% feeder loss. The Base Band Unit (BBU), which is only 1U in height, can be directly inserted into the 2G macro BTS cabinet, significantly reducing costs.

In May 2007, Etisalat announced the commercial launch of the Etisalat Misr large-scale 2G/3G integrated network. Thanks to the fast and high-quality deployment by Huawei, Etisalat Misr made a remarkable debut in the Egyptian telecoms market.

Forging a Refined Network with EOT Service

It is known to industry insiders that although 3G network construction has become hugely popular worldwide, there are only a few 3G networks that are actually profitable, and the number of successful large-scale 2G/3G integrated networks is even fewer. The Etisalat Misr, however, is a rare exception. Since its HSPA network's commercial launch in May this year, more than 1 million subscribers were attracted in a mere 50 days! This can be attributed to both the successful marketing strategies of Etisalat and the efforts of Huawei's EOT (Establish, Operate and Transfer) project team.

Huawei provides overall network operation and management services for the Etisalat Misr network, including network monitoring, handling customer complaints, second-tier maintenance and technical support, network management, network optimization, and spare part management including warehouse and logistics. Due to Huawei's EOT management services, Etisalat Misr is able to ensure the quality and efficiency of network maintenance, and subscribers' complaints have significantly decreased. The significant increase in network quality has provided strong support for the marketing strategies of the Etisalat Misr.

As the first HSPA network in Egypt, the Etisalat Misr provides innovative services and is dedicated to enriching communications and life of the Egyptians. The Etisalat Misr will devote itself to making continuous efforts and creating endless miracles in Egypt.