Multi-Year Agreement to Generate Potential Revenue of USD60 Million for Comba Telecom
Award-Winning Wireless System and Cutting-Edge Solutions Set to Advance Mobile Connectivity, Bolstering Smart Connectivity across the World
(9 January 2018, Hong Kong and Doha, Qatar) – Comba Telecom Systems Holdings Limited (“Comba Telecom” or “the Group,” Hong Kong stock code: 2342), a global leading wireless solutions provider, today announced that it has been selected as a preferred vendor for Ooredoo Group (“Ooredoo”), a major international telecommunications operator with headquarters in Doha, Qatar. Ooredoo is a leading multinational company with operations spanning the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
Accordingly, Comba Telecom signed a group-level global Frame Agreement (FA) for five years with Ooredoo, effective immediately. According to the agreement, Comba is to provide a large percentage of the forecasted volume of base station antennas and associated ancillary products, such as jumpers, combiners, couplers and splitters, to Ooredoo in up to ten geographic markets. Over the next five years, the supplied equipment would help advance and expand Ooredoo’s macro networks capabilities and deliver ubiquitous 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G connectivity to end-users, enterprises and government organizations.
Driven by a growing mobile-first, digitally savvy young generation and with more affordable and functional smartphones becoming available, the Middle East North Africa region has fast become the new hub for advanced mobile broadband networks. In fact, the mobile broadband market in the Middle East is expected to grow by almost 140% between 2016 and 2022, increasing from 1.1 billion to 2.6 billion connected users.1
Mobile broadband operators in the region, therefore, are facing commercial and technical pressure to continually enhance their services to deliver best-user experiences. As the need for enhanced performance increases, mobile operators must conduct network upgrades which incorporate the latest technologies in base station antennas and associated ancillary products.
Mr. Simon Yeung, Executive Director and Senior Vice President of Comba Telecom and President of Comba Telecom International, said, “We are extremely honoured to be named as a preferred vendor to Ooredoo. The award and contract win are built on our track record of success in providing full turn-key in-building solutions to Ooredoo since 2011. Today we have achieved a breakthrough, extending our relationship across the seven key national markets in the region and ten globally.
“As a leading global wireless solutions company with strong R&D capabilities spanning regions, we are confident that our award-winning BTS solutions and associated ancillary products will help mobile network providers such as Ooredoo enhance their network performance, delivering ultra-fast, stable and seamless mobile services to their end-users, and ultimately bolstering the region’s smart connectivity development.” Yeung added.
Mr. Waleed Al Sayed, Ooredoo Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer, said: “We’re delighted to announce our new agreement with leading wireless solutions provider Comba Telecom. This agreement enables us to deploy new antennas that will support the underlying enabling technologies such as higher order sectorization, carrier addition, carrier aggregation and massive MIMO, as we upgrade our radio networks from 2G to 5G technology. With this agreement, Ooredoo now has access to robust state-of-the-art antennas that are capable of delivering super-fast connections to our customers, enabling them to enjoy the internet even more.”
1 Source: Ericsson Mobility Report_2017 June https://www.ericsson.com/assets/local/mobility-report/documents/2017/ericsson-mobility-report-june-2017-raso.pdf