Huawei ramps up Middle East efforts

Chinese equipment vendor Huawei has been stepping up its efforts in the Middle East after partnering with UAE incumbent Etisalat to improve the competencies and capabilities of the operator’s staff, and recently partnering with Saudi operator STC to roll out an LTE-TDD service in the country. Huawei has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Etisalat to help set the foundations for intensive internships aimed specifically at staff enrolled in the operator’s Leadership Development Programs. The internship program will consist of a series of joint activities in which senior officials from Huawei and Etisalat will join forces to tailor development of each trainee’s chosen career path, conducted over a period of two to three months. “Etisalat would like to build on the current business partnership with Huawei and take that into the next level toward achieving our strategic goals of developing and progressing Etisalat staff and promoting knowledge based culture, which will lead us to our ultimate goal of placing the UAE as a hub for telecommunication and IT in the region” said Faiez Awadh, senior VP for human resources at Etisalat. Albert Liuzebin, managing director of Huawei’s Etisalat global key account, added: “For both Huawei and Etisalat, creating a platform through which to share experiences and best practices will be invaluable in driving the advancement of the telecommunications sector.” Huawei also announced that it supplied Saudi operator STC with LTE-TDD equipment last month. The company provided its end-to-end SingleRAN LTE solution for STC; a solution comprised of Huawei’s radio access network SingleRAN solution, its convergent core network SingleEPC solution, its E398 LTE TDD/FDD dual-mode commercial USB dongle, and its E392 LTE TDD/FDD/GSM/UMTS/CDMA multi-mode USB dongle. “We are confident that our end-to-end SingleRAN LTE solution will improve STC’s overall competitiveness and will further consolidate its market leadership in the mobile broadband era,” said Deng Taihua, President of WiMAX/TDS/LTE at Huawei. Problems with the allocation of LTE spectrum in Saudi Arabia mean that operators in the country cannot follow their preferred choice of launching FDD-LTE in the 2.6GHz band, as it is currently being used by the military.