MOBILY has awarded Ericsson a deal to modernize, expand and consolidate the mobile soft switch and IP-STP network. The choice is made to modernize central office deployments in general which will ensure growth for services such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE), deployments Virtual Network Functions (VNF) and cloud. Ericsson will deploy its BSP 8000 platform, which is prepared for cloud and virtualized control and payload network functions. The modernization will deliver scalable processing capacity while providing superior packaging density and low power consumption. Through its NEBS3 compliance, Ericsson BSP 8000 is designed to operate in demanding environments and it can run several applications in the same system, both in native and virtual deployments. Eng. Maziad Alharbi, Chief Technology Officer at Mobily, said: "Having worked closely with the Ericsson teams for well over a decade, we trust them to help us in our network evolution by providing state of the art information and communication technologies. Our partnership will enable us to deliver enhanced network performance, higher capacity and a consolidated network which will bring efficiency in our operations." Ali Eid, Head of Ericsson Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Palestine, said: "As one of the leading mobile operators in the Middle East, Mobily was amongst the earliest to adopt mobile data and experience fast growing traffic. As Mobily continues its journey to transform into an ICT player, we will continue to support its transformation with our cutting edge technologies." Saudi Arabia is the leading country in the Middle East in terms of mobile data growth. In 2015 it was around 100%. As high rates of growth in Mobile data traffic continues, mobile operators are challenged to cope by embracing new solutions that optimally use spectrum and network resources and to offer highest throughput and capacity to their customers.
