From a small-scale IT integration to global powerhouse

Our Correspondent / EMIRATES BUSINESS

Established in 1993, and headquartered in Valletta, Malta, InfiNet is one of the world’s largest privately owned Fixed Broadband Wireless Access (FBWA) design and manufacturing companies. In addition to their headquarters in Malta, the company have a state-of-the-art R&D facility in Ekaterinburg, Russia and a direct presence in sixteen countries (including the UAE and Saudi Arabia).
With deployments in over 120 countries across the globe, InfiNet has estimated its global share of the sub-7 GHz market to be 15 percent. It is expected the figure to double by 2018 as they embark upon a major geographic expansion, consolidating the company’s position in regions where it is already present as well as the new and emerging markets.
Kamal Mokrani, Global VP at InfiNet Wireless, told Emirates Business, “In terms of the Middle East, we have established our direct presence in 2010 with our own team in Dubai, which is a major trading hub for us in the region. We are also particularly strong in Saudi Arabia, which is our largest and most strategic market in the region as far as our revenue streams are concerned. This presence is further extended through our relationships with dozens of local partners located in all corners of the Middle East.”
Starting as a small-scale IT integration and telecoms design enterprise in 1993 has grown into a global powerhouse, whose solutions are used by thousands of users from all sectors of the industry. The founders had an ambitious goal — to harvest the strong R&D resources they identified from day one and turn the ideas they generated into wireless solutions that would improve the daily lives of people around the world.

Core Competency
InfiNet continuously strive to find new ways of delivering ongoing unique value both to their channel partners and customers. This has resulted in the company establishing a long tradition in innovating wireless technologies, driven primarily by their focus on meeting ever changing market needs and listening closely to the external and internal stakeholders. InfiNet deliver industry-leading performance, unparalleled reliability and lowest cost of ownership of a complete family of high-capacity wireless solutions, enabling their customers to build future-proof infrastructures and generate sizeable profits for their business.
“Looking at it from a purely technical perspective, InfiNet has created a sustainable competitive advantage based on the fact that we have developed a number of features which other companies simply do not have. For example, we have optimised our technology to carry video streams much more efficiently than anybody else. One has to understand that transmitting voice signals, video streams or data packets require a fundamentally different R&D approach in each case. For video specifically, not only are we able to compress the signal without loss of resolution using our own algorithms, but also have developed a number of proprietary protocols which allow us to maintain real-time transmission, giving the remote end an almost perfect visual image without pixilation or jitter,” said Mokrani.
Another major technical breakthrough in InfiNet’s history was in 2015, the introduction of the new InfiLINK XG family of products, a true testament to their commitment to providing best-in-class wireless solutions. The XG is a record-breaking and innovative Point-to-Point solution in the sub-7 GHz frequency band, boasting the best-in-breed spectral efficiency, higher-than-ever-before processing power and distance vs performance ratio. Reaching a peak of 480 Mbps of net throughput in 40 MHz of spectrum, and more than 100 Mbps in only 10 MHz, it is the highest performing Point-to-Point system available in the marketplace today.
Company Goals
Sharing about InfiNet’s work in the region, Mokrani said, “If other Middle Eastern cities take a cue from what we did with du in the UAE and ITC in Saudi Arabia, I am very optimistic the region will advance at a much quicker rate, bridging the digital divide and joining more connected regions as technology leaders.”
Despite, witnessing a major decline in capital expenditure in the Middle East because of the very low oil prices, InfiNet expects many new projects to be developed in the coming months, which will help them successfully position their solutions and consolidate their presence in the region. Each country in the Middle East region has its own characteristics and challenges, ranging from the tenuous geo-political climate in the region to internal unrest and uncertainties fuelled by the record-low oil prices.
“Our next big areas of focus in this region will be homeland security, education and the Oil & Gas sector. These are the areas where we strongly believe that budgets will be made available by the relevant government bodies to ensure sustainable growth of their respective economies. Such forecast growth will undoubtedly drive our future budget and allow us to get even closer to our customer base and invest in a stronger local presence to support their requirements,” concluded Mokrani.