Case Study: Mobily achieves cellular-to‑Wi‑Fi offload to reduce cellular capex and improve mobile broadband experience with HPE Aruba Networking

Mobily - Customer Case Study

Mobily, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest mobile operator, has aggressively pursued broadband services (3.5G, LTE) and operates 350–400 public Wi‑Fi hotspots across venues from cafes to stadiums. After a surge in data usage driven by unlimited plans and multi-technology subscriptions, Mobily needed to control cellular capex and preserve quality of experience, so it launched a pioneering cellular-to‑Wi‑Fi offload strategy.

Partnering with Aruba Networks, Mobily built a managed offload solution combining a hotspot portal monetization model and a seamless offload network using EAP‑SIM/WISPr and Hotspot 2.0 trials, reusing 3G backend systems for authentication while routing traffic over a dedicated internet core; Android devices were supported via WISPr clients on Google Play. The soft launch drew 18,000 unique users and 31 GB on day one; Mobily aims to offload at least 20% of mobile broadband traffic and to refine KPIs and Hotspot 2.0 roaming to improve user experience and reduce opex/capex.

Mobily