Etihad Etisalat Company ( ar, شركة إتحاد إتصالات) is a Saudi Arabian telecommunications services company that offers

fixed line A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...

mobile telephony Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the li ...

, and

Internet services An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

under the brand name Mobily ( ar, موبايلي). The company was established in 2004, and in the summer of that year, won the bid for Saudi Arabia's second GSM licence. Mobily launched mobile services in Saudi Arabia on 5 May 2005, breaking Saudi Telecom's

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

in the wireless business.

History

Etihad Etisalat Co. was incorporated as a

joint stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders are ...

under

royal decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...

no. M/40 dated 18 August 2004. The company won the bid for Saudi Arabia's second GSM licence in the summer of 2004. The licence is valid for 25 years. Etihad Etisalat began its constituent activities on 14 December 2004 upon the publication of its incorporation.

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

firm

Etisalat Etisalat by e& is an Emirati-based multinational telecommunications services provider, currently operating in 16 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It is the 18th largest mobile network operator in the world by number of subscri ...

holds a 27.45% stake in the company, the

General Organization for Social Insurance The General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) is a Saudi Arabian government agency concerned with social insurance Social insurance is a form of social welfare that provides insurance against economic risks. The insurance may be provid ...

(GOSI) holds 11.85% and the rest is held by other investors and by public shares. Etisalat Etihad held an

Initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

in October 2004 that was massively oversubscribed (30 times). Police had to be called in to respond to unrest among investors fighting over application forms.Ettihad Etisalat IPO descends into chaos
telegeography.com, 25 Oct 2004 The GSM Associations "GSM Association Newsletter" Dec. 2004 edition described Mobily as the fastest growing mobile operator in the Middle East & North Africa. In 2006, Mobily reached more than 4,800,000 subscribers. As of 20 January 2007, mobily had 6 million subscribers and 0.5 million 3G users. Etihad Etisalat launched GSM mobile services under the brand name Mobily on 5 May 2005, breaking the

Saudi Telecom Company Saudi Telecommunication Company (stylized as stc) (Arabic: شركة إتصالات السعودية ) is the Saudi digital enabler of telecommunications services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and among the operators in the Middle East. The comp ...

's monopoly in the wireless business. The company had spent 6 months preparing for the launch, and acquired 1 million subscribers within the first 90 days of launch. The company launched 3.5G services on 27 June 2006 and 4G services on 13 September 2011. After 10 years of managing Mobily's services, in February 2021, Nokia extended its partnership with Mobily and signed a 3-year agreement that allows it to manage and maintain the radio and transport networks in Riyadh and other regions. In May 2013, it was reported that Mobily is working on a way to intercept encrypted data sent over the Internet by

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Viber Viber, or Rakuten Viber, is a cross-platform voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM) software application owned by Japanese multinational company Rakuten, provided as freeware for the Google Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS a ...

WhatsApp WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows us ...

, and other mobile apps, and to bypass the protections built into the SSL and

Transport Layer Security Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, but its use in securi ...

protocols.Moxie Marlinspike
A Saudi Arabia Telecom's Surveillance Pitch
May 13, 2013

Network technology

Radio frequency summary

References

External links

* {{Etisalat 2004 establishments in Saudi Arabia Telecommunications companies established in 2004 Companies of Saudi Arabia Companies listed on Tadawul Companies based in Riyadh Mobile phone companies of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabian brands Etisalat

History

Network technology

Radio frequency summary

See also

References

External links