RIYADH - Motorola Inc. has reported that is has won a $335 million contract with Zain in Saudi Arabia to deploy and manage a mobile phone network.
 
Zain, which operates mobile services in over 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East, will reportedly start operations this year, having paid $6.1 billion for its mobile license in Saudi Arabia.

"We look forward to the launch of Zain in Saudi Arabia and to offer our customers in the Kingdom the voice quality and innovative data communication services that they have come to expect from our networks throughout the region," said Dr. Marwan Alahmadi, CEO of Zain Saudi Arabia.

In January, Zain Saudi Arabia also gave Nokia Siemens a $935 million contract for a mobile network.

The two contracts will provide a network capable of managing up to 8 million mobile phone users, Ahmadi said.

"With Motorola's solid understanding of our business objectives, we are confident that the company can deliver the services we need, efficiently, on time and cost effectively, to launch Zain's mobile communications  to customers in Saudi Arabia. Motorola's experience encourages us to believe that we will meet our challenging targets here," he added.

Network deployment is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2008. Zain's Saudi customers will reportedly also have access to high-speed mobile Internet access and multi-media applications and services.