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Parallel Wireless has won a contract from Zain, a mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, to modernise their existing 2G and 3G networks

A GSMA report revealed that mobile broadband connections in the Middle East and North Africa were equal to 2G before the end of 2016, with 3G becoming the dominant mobile technology at the end of last year.

This has created a challenge for local mobile network operators, requiring them to support both technologies while preparing their networks for 4G and 5G.

Zain stated that the aim is to fully virtualise 2G and 3G networks through Parallel Wireless’ unified 2G/3G/4G/5G mobile architecture, which will result in cost savings and operational efficiency.

Hisham Allam, Group CTO of Zain, said, “We believe that virtualised Open RAN offers tremendous growth opportunities for the company to reduce costs and drive new revenue growth.”

“Our selection of Parallel Wireless as a strategic partnership enables us to build an efficient, unified, cost-effective network to better serve our customers with video, gaming, health, IoT, and education services. Parallel Wireless provided a level of expertise and innovation across unified fully virtualised Open vRAN that allowed us to experience significant savings,” he added.

Amrit Heer, head of business development, EME, Parallel Wireless, commented, “Operators on six continents have realised the transformative cost-saving benefits that Parallel Wireless virtualised Open RAN can deliver to their networks and their bottom line.”

“We are excited to partner with Zain, a truly innovative operator that is a first-mover in their region, to deliver a unified network to allow their customers to experience the new services that will be possible over all generations of technologies, 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G,” he concluded.

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