Nokia wins 100-million-euro Kuwaiti mobile deal

Finnish mobile telephone giant Nokia won a 100-million-euro (125-million-dollar) deal from Wataniya Telecom to upgrade the network of Kuwait's number two mobile operator.

A signing ceremony confirming the deal was attended by Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen who is in Kuwait on a four-day official visit.

The deal, slated to be completed early next year, involves supplying state-of-the-art radio and core networks technology to upgrade the Kuwaiti company's network.

"This relationship gives us a platform to provide the most advanced, capable and reliable network services in the region," Harri Koponen, CEO and general manager of Wataniya, told a press conference.

Earlier this year, Wataniya signed a deal with Sweden's Ericsson worth 90 million dollars for modernizing its network in parts of Kuwait.

"This deal will complement the Ericsson contract and will help upgrade the whole network," Wataniya chief strategy officer Niklas Sonkin said.

Wataniya Telecom, which began operations in late 1999, now has 860,000 customers in Kuwait and a total of more than three million users in Iraq, Tunisia and Algeria besides Kuwait, Sonkin told AFP.

The contract signed with Nokia is the first phase of a major modernization deal, Nokia senior vice president, Networks, Walid Moneimne said, but declined to provide details on the second phase.

Nokia is currently operating in six Arab countries, Iran and Pakistan, he said.

Moneimne expected that 150 million new mobile users will be added to the Middle Eastern market within four years.

Kuwait Mobile Telecommunications (MTC) is the first mobile operator in the Gulf emirate with about 1.2 million clients.

It also operates in Jordan, Bahrain, southern Iraq and Lebanon. It recently bought 85 percent of Dutch-owned Celtel in a 2.84-billion-dollar deal. Celtel operates in 13 African countries.

MTC and Wataniya are both listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, standing second and fourth respectively in terms of capitalization. They have combined assets of well over 13 billion dollars.

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