LTE Roaming Expands to Middle East with SAP and Etisalat Deal

This week, multinational software corporation SAP (News – Alert) AG announced its new LTE roaming peering hub and its partnership with telecom operator Etisalat UAE.

SAP Mobile Services, a division of Germany-based SAP (short for systems, applications and products in data processing), is an international front runner in “mobile interconnection and mobile consumer engagement services…[and] provides mobile operators with unparalleled capabilities in global messaging interconnect, data roaming and an array of IPX-based services.”

SAP Mobile Services is hoping to deliver LTE (News – Alert) roaming to all its mobile operators by expanding the global peering community and to create a seamless global roaming experience through its new roaming peering hub.  The first company to join in is Etisalat (News – Alert), one of the Middle East’s major telecommunications operators.

“The agreement will also help SAP Mobile Services to establish a strong and steady growth in the Middle East and take LTE roaming services to a new level, building on the existing peering between the two companies,” Ali Amiri, executive vice president, Carrier and Wholesale Services Etisalat UAE, said in a prepared statement.

The internetwork packet exchange (IPX) peering agreement with Etisalat expands upon a pre-existing agreement between the two companies. Through this new partnership, SAP Mobile Services will be able to establish strong ties and steady growth throughout the fifteen Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries Etisalat operates in. The peering will also help Etisalat by enabling it to quickly launch LTE roaming and interconnect with SAP Mobile Services’ IPX community.

Both companies are happy with the agreement.  Matthew Tonkin, vice president, Sales, IPX, SAP Mobile Services, says that collaboration with Etisalat will help SAP reach the Middle Eastern community, and that “the next 12 months will see an acceleration of LTE network deployments.”