Saudi Arabian operator Mobily plans to launch LTE by the Q3 2011, according to Khalid Al Kaf, the company's CEO.

According to ITP, Al Kaf said, "We will be building the largest LTE network in the region. We expect to launch LTE by the third quarter of this year and we expect to create a trend for the technology as we did with HSPA+."

Mobily had awarded two contracts for the construction and rollout of its LTE infrastructure in several of cities and regions in the Kingdom. Operator had signed contracts with Samsung and Huawei for the commissioning of its networks in 30 plus cities and an upgrade of Bayanat Al Oula’s existing WiMAX infrastructure.

The LTE based infrastructure is expected to allow Mobily to provide higher data communication speeds to meet the developing aspirations of Mobily’s growing broadband base, last reported as five million customers, among them 2.3 million subscribed to Mobily’s high-volume data bundles.