Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has added 200 new locations in five cities across the Kingdom to its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network as part of its ambitious growth plans.

STC said it was the first operator in the region to launch and adopt the 4G technology and presently covers key areas including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Jubail, Al Khobar, Al Ahsa.

The LTE network offers download speeds of more than double that of 3G and is designed for data, rather than voice.

STC said it has further increased the 4G coverage with deployment in new locations at Makkah, Madinah, Abha, Khamis Mushayt, Dhahran.

With this expansion, the total locations covered in the Kingdom have exceeded 600 offering users the best coverage in addition to higher speeds than the existing ones available in other networks, it added.

The Saudi company said it has ambitious plans to deploy advanced technologies during the next phase taking customers from 2G and 3G to the mobile Broadband networks:  HSPA+, 4G LTE with unprecedented speeds where new expansion of the 3G advanced network offers speeds reaching 84 mg/sec while the 4G advanced technology offers speeds starting with 100 mb/sec reaching to more than 1000 mb/sec during the next few years.

STC began deploying this new technology since the beginning of 2010 when it announced the successful trials of the technology making it is the solution for mobile telecommunications in the next era.

This technology enhances the capacity and effectiveness of the networks with real speeds reaching more than 100 mbps when receiving data, it added.-TradeArabia News Service