Zain Group, a leading innovator in mobile telecommunications in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, has launched its 3G services in Iraq beginning this year. Launched as '3.9G' service, the service provider marked the official launch with a video call on New Year’s Eve to the Iraqi Minister of Telecommunications, Hassan Al Rashid.
Three leading global technology solution providers, namely Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia Networks were commissioned early in 2014 to expand and upgrade Zain Iraq’s network thus allowing the operator to quickly roll-out 3.9G commercial services across the country upon granting of the license. Zain Group said that it has invested USD 5 billion in the roll-out and development of the mobile network in the country.
According to a statement by Zain, the launch came following the finalization of an agreement with Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) on November 10, 2014, which culminated in Zain Iraq making an initial 25% payment towards the overall 3G spectrum fee of US$307 million.
Zain Group CEO, Scott Gegenheimer
Today marks a new era of mobile telecommunications in Iraq as the introduction of high-speed mobile services will have an enormous impact on Iraq’s economic prosperity, enhancing local activity and act as a stimulus in attracting new investment into the country, further creating jobs and increasing national output.
Zain Iraq Chief Operations Officer, Wael Ghanayem
Zain Iraq has invested heavily in expanding and upgrading the network and now customers in Iraq can enjoy and benefit from widespread 3.9G coverage. Given the country’s low broadband penetration rate of 15% and our solid customer base of over 13.3 million coupled with the rollout of new individual and corporate mobile services accompanying the high speed technology, we foresee significant growth in all our key financial metrics through the introduction of 3.9G in the country.
