type public traded as tadawul 7020 isin sa000a0dm9p2 industry telecommunications founded 14 december 2004 ; 11 years ago 2004 12 14 headquarters saudi arabia area served saudi arabia key people sulaiman abdulrahman algwaiz chairman ahmad farroukh ceo faiz awad chro kais ben hamida cfo services fixed line mobile phone and internet service provider revenue sar 6.7 billion 30 june 2016 operating income sar 284 million 30 june 2016 profit sar 35.4 million 30 june 2016 owners etisalat 27.45 % gosi 11.85 % website www.mobily.com.sa etihad etisalat co. arabic is a saudi arabian telecommunications services company that offers fixed line mobile telephony and internet services under the brand name mobily arabic . 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 in the wireless business . the company launched 3.5 g services on 27 june 2006 and 4g services on 13 september 2011 . contents 1 history 2 growth 3 advanced exploitation 4 network technology 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit etihad etisalat co. was incorporated as a joint stock company under royal decree no . m 40 dated 18 august 2004 . 1 the company won the bid for saudi arabia s second gsm licence in the summer of 2004 . 2 the licence is valid for 25 years . 3 etihad etisalat began its constituent activities on 14 december 2004 upon the publication of its incorporation . 1 united arab emirates firm etisalat holds a 27.45 % stake in the company the general organization for social insurance gosi holds 11.85 % 2 and the rest is held by other investors and by public shares . etisalat etihad held an initial public offering 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 . 3 etihad etisalat launched gsm mobile services under the brand name mobily on 5 may 2005 breaking the saudi telecom company 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 . 2 4 the company launched 3.5 g services on 27 june 2006 and 4g services on 13 september 2011 . 5 growth edit 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 . mobily introduced in 2004 the first telecommunication franchise business model in the persian gulf region the fully branded outlet fbo assuring rapid and cost effective expansion of its network of outlets . since entering the saudi market in 2004 mobily adopted a solid expansion strategy based on a direct and indirect sales channels . this strategy allowed mobily to quickly expand and establish the mobily brand throughout saudi arabia and as a result achieve its set target for 2006 both in terms of sales and revenue targets unfortunately this has been achieved with other services and coverages being compromised as a result . mobily s employees include a sales team via its own flagship branches fully branded outlets co branded outlets kiosks and thousands of dealers scattered throughout the country covering the majority of the population . this network of outlets and dealers was a major factor in mobilys rapid growth and customer acquisition . as a result mobily has earned a significant market share since launching operations on may 25 2005 . the company has launched a mobile push to talk service ptt under the brand name mobily hawwel in saudi arabia . the ptt service provides users with a different user experience to the traditional voice service delivering a walkie talkie like experience only one person can talk at a time . however it is not limited in distance as with normal walkie talkies as the conversation is carried across the mobile gsm network . this service is being offered for the first time in the country . the service can provide a one to one voice service or up to 10 people at the same time as group calling allowing a user to know who is online through small icons appearing with certain colours . mobily said that the service will be available for post paid and pre paid subscribers at monthly fees . mobily hawwel conversations are encrypted over gprs data or 3g network to avoid cross talk or listening in . this will be accomplished with the execution of an ambitious expansion plans for its own network of flagships as well as introducing a new franchise retail concept mini fbo . the new concept mini fbo will complement the existing mobily retail and channel partner outlets and will cover more than 60 cities and towns which will help achieve its targets both in terms of sales and customer experience . those outlets as is the case with the mobily flagships will provide the full range of products and services to the current and future customers of mobily . on september 13 2011 mobily launched td lte 4g services becoming the first operator in the middle east and north africa to do so . 6 in july 23 2016 mobily had officially launched aae 1 submarine cable in jeddah ; in presence of he minister of communications and technology dr. mohammed bin ibrahim al suwaiyel . advanced exploitation edit in may 2013 it was reported that mobily is working on a way to intercept encrypted data sent over the internet by twitter viber whatsapp and other mobile apps and to bypass the protections built into the ssl and transport layer security protocols . 7 8 network technology edit network status date gsm live active may 2005 hspa live active 27 june 2006 hspa live active november 2009 lte test february 2010 lte live active 13 september 2011 the first phase of 4g coverage included the cities of najran jazan al kharj ras tanoura algurayat and aldudamy . the second phase included hail al baha al mujamaaa and wadi al dawasir and the third phase covered riyadh jeddah and dammam . see also edit bayanat al oula for network services communication in saudi arabia censorship in saudi arabia references edit a b company details . www.tadawul.com.sa . retrieved 2016 10 02 . a b c mobily mobily at a glance . www.mobily.com.sa . retrieved 2016 10 02 . a b ettihad etisalat ipo descends into chaos telegeography.com 25 oct 2004 mobily hits one million user mark announces expansion plan and new offers telegeography.com 23 aug 2005 mobily announces 4g lte service in saudi arabia stc and zain too saudimac . 2011 09 13 . retrieved 2016 10 02 . mobily launches 4g services arab news sep 13 2011 dan goodin dear hacker please help us eavesdrop on our customers arstechnica may 13 2013 moxie marlinspike a saudi arabia telecom s surveillance pitch may 13 2013 external links edit mobily homepage retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mobily & oldid 744266240 categories 2004 establishments in saudi arabiacompanies established in 2004companies of saudi arabiacompanies listed on tadawulmobile phone companies of saudi arabiahidden categories use dmy dates from october 2016articles containing arabic language text navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages bahasa indonesia edit links this page was last modified on 14 october 2016 at 04 54 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license 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