Saudi Mobily to Invest $1.1 Bln In Wireless Expansion

Mobily, Saudi Arabia's second mobile phone firm, said on Saturday it would spend at least 4 billion riyals ($1.07 billion) in the next two years building broadband and wireless networks.

Mobily, which lost a bid this year to run one of Saudi Arabia's fixed-line networks, has invested 5.2 billion riyals building its mobile phone network in the world's biggest oil exporter, since 2005, Chief Executive Khaled al-Kaf said.

"We will aggressively invest in fixed-line substitution," Kaf told Reuters by telephone.

Mobily would invest "at least 2 billion riyals a year" in 2008 and 2009 in mobile and broadband infrastructure, Kaf said.