Leading Middle East Telco Mobily Seeing Success with Pioneering Cellular-to-Wi-Fi Offload Strategy Using Accuris Networks Solution

DUBLIN & RIYADH, Saudi Arabia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Accuris Networks (www.accuris-networks.com), an innovator in Wi-Fi offload and roaming, announced it has been working with one of Saudi Arabia's leading mobile service providers, Mobily (www.mobily.com.sa), on a groundbreaking cellular-to-Wi-Fi offload strategy that appears to already be delivering results. Mobily is using AccuROAM™ from Accuris Networks, a Wi-Fi offload and roaming platform that gives subscribers automatic and secure access to Wi-Fi hotspots by using subscriber SIM credentials as the means of authentication.

“By enabling 'Wi-Fi roaming that behaves like roaming on mobile networks, Mobily has not only cut the investment costs of keeping up with demand, but is giving its customers better service, which is a major corporate goal.”

This cellular-to-Wi-Fi offload approach was chosen early in 2012 to help Mobily contend with enormous data demand and sub-optimal 3G coverage due to high user utilization. AccuROAM is a critical element in a Mobily broadband service that uses Wi-Fi in 1,500-2,000 Hotspots covering a wide range of businesses. AccuROAM provides a secure authentication framework without the need to enter cumbersome user names and passwords. It enables any Wi-Fi to work as a full extension of GSM or CDMA networks for billing, policy and authentication.

For the past two years, Mobily has been expanding its Wi-Fi strategy to help deal with growing capacity demands. The company's new approach parallels dramatic growth in the use of smartphones, with users now able to authenticate and join the spreading Wi-Fi footprint seamlessly.

During the first week of the Wi-Fi offload effort, Mobily had 65,000 unique connected users and 410GB of data consumed.

"Mobily is way ahead of other regional mobile carriers in its innovative use of Wi-Fi offload," said Larry Quinn, executive chairman of Accuris Networks. "By enabling 'Wi-Fi roaming that behaves like roaming on mobile networks, Mobily has not only cut the investment costs of keeping up with demand, but is giving its customers better service, which is a major corporate goal."

The effects of Mobily's strategy can already be seen in its most recent financial results. Mobily posted a net profit of SR 1.878 billion ($500m) for the fourth quarter of 2012, a rise of 11% compared to SR 1.697 billion for the same quarter in 2011, and an increase of 24% over the previous quarter. According to Mobily, the volume of data traffic over its wireless broadband network reached 750TB a day, compared to 163TB in 2011 and 85TB a year earlier.

"Mobily’s differentiation is to offer the best mobile broadband experience possible. To achieve this goal while supporting capacity growth at lower cost, we chose Accuris Networks, the only company enabling Wi-Fi offload with SIM. Other ways of connecting Wi-Fi to the main network are inferior, requiring user names or passwords. As our happy customers can attest, our way is better."

The AccuROAM-enabled architecture being offered by Mobily ensures the fastest and easiest deployment method, which also means the fastest and least costly for subscribers. At the same time, this solution increased reliability for those mobile users accessing 3G or Wi-Fi in case there is an outage of one of the networks. Accuris Networks’ AccuROAM platform was also recently awarded "Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough" by the GSMA at the Global Mobile Awards 2013, announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

About Accuris Networks: www.accuris-networks.com

About Mobily: www.mobily.com.sa