ISLAMABAD (WiMAX Day). Motorola announced yesterday a network agreement with Pakistan’s major cellular service provider, Mobilink. Under the agreement, Motorola will deliver the design, equipment, and support services of an 802.16e-2005 WiMAX network in Pakistan. Motorola will also supply customer premises equipment (CPE) units.

The agreement represents no debut for Motorola in Pakistan. According to Motorola, it has been in collaboration with Mobilink for 14 years, since Motorola first helped bring a GSM network to Pakistan in 1994. Zouhair Khaliq, Mobilink’s CEO, credits Motorola with having supported the company in growing Mobilink’s subscriber base to over 29 million subscribers to date.

The latest WiMAX deal means Mobilink gets to more easily extend its service portfolio beyond cellular to high speed broadband and VoIP services.
The network will cover major urban areas including Lahore and Islamabad and will also include broadband access in geographic areas where broadband coverage was not previously available, according to the announcement.

Neither does the deal mark Motorola’s first in WiMAX networking in Pakistan. Last year, Motorola was awarded the role of primary supplier to Wateen Telecom in Pakistan to plan, design and deploy a nationwide WiMAX network. Wateen Telecom-Pakistan, part of Warid Telecom International, is an Abu Dhabi Group company.

Mobilink is owned by the Egyptian telecoms giant Orascom Telecom, which also operates networks in Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe.

According to the announcement, Motorola will finance the total amount of the purchase price.