Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has chosen Huawei to supply kit for the deployment of what is claimed to be “the Middle East’s largest pre-commercial LTE network in Saudi Arabia.” The first phase of the project has been delivered successfully, according to a Huawei statement, offering peak downlink data rates of up to 100Mb/s per user with commercial LTE datacards in the field. This pre-commercial LTE network is expected to complete its roll out by the end of 2010, covering major metropolitan areas such as Riyadh and Dammam. Worldwide, Huawei touts deployment of over 60 LTE commercial and trial networks. Meanwhile STC said late Monday its first-quarter net profit fell 29 percent to 1.77 billion Saudi riyals (US$472.5 million) from SAR2.49 billion in the year-earlier period, missing analyst forecasts.