18/20 My city - Bahrain:Layout 1 · largest and most significant industry event, the ... the brand...

chaos BY DESIGNA Zain Magazine | Spring 2008 Issue 03

Zain Debuts in BarcelonaMOBILE BROWSING •

WiMAX • KSA UPDATE • CELTEL TANZANIA •BAHRAIN • BRANDING IRAQ

3 CHAOS SPRING 2008LETTER FROM THE CEO

Welcome to the third issue of our corpo-rate magazine Chaos by Design. Today,we stand proud of what we’ve

achieved as Zain Group. Since we rebranded inSeptember 2007, we’ve rooted ourselves firmlywithin our core values of Radiance, Heart andBelonging to achieve what is truly outstandingprogress. Chaos by Design is here to reflectthat. So sit back and take the time to discoverthe Zain Group through its successes, its peo-ple and its countries, so that you can see whatwe’re all about.

I am proud to announce that in the fiscal year2007, Zain recorded the highest ever net profitsin our company’s history. Our customers, our rev-enues, and our profits are all up compared to2006. Soon Zain will increase the company’s capi-tal by $4.3 billion that will bolster the group’sambitions to become one of the top ten mobilegroups in the world by 2011 in terms of marketcapitalization.

Elsewhere, Iraq mobile operators MTC Atheer andIraqna have united as Zain, allowing 7 million Iraqisto join Zain’s 45 million worldwide mobile customersacross the Middle East and Africa, where our Celteloperations continue to reach new milestones withNigeria alone reaching 11 million customers.

Zain made a spectacular debut at the world’slargest and most significant industry event, theMobile World Congress on February 11-14, 2008in Barcelona. This was the first time we show-cased our corporate brand to an internationalaudience. Zain took over and totally rebranded amulti storey restaurant named ‘La Font dePrades’ in an historic Spanish town area veryclose to the 3GSM Convention centre in theheart of Barcelona. Aptly named “Zain House”,it catered for all Zain personnel and the 2,000 orso vistors over the four-day event.

Six months after our brave rebranding, all thefeedback has exceeded our expectations as thebrand has consolidated itself in the hearts andminds of our customers. Meanwhile, we lookforward to the launch of the Ghana and KSAoperations very soon.

Zain has grown into a powerful entity. With avision for a global future that we have builtthrough seeking unswerving performance andsustainable realization, we are now aiming toachieve global presence. We present you withstories that echo our core values, because wewant to show you that, although we come frommany diverse nations, we can achieve globalexcellence together.

Happy reading! Dr Saad Al BarrakCEO-Zain

An exciting period of growth and change

4 CHAOS SPRING 2008 CONTENTS

Letter from the CEO

ZAIN NEWSFaces and highlights

REACHING THE TOPMaxim Chaya Lebanon’s intrepid explorer whoconquered EverestShada HassoonThe Iraqi singer who capturedthe heart of a nation Michael EssienGhana’s soccer maestro makingit big in Europe Nahed TaherPioneering Saudi woman banker

MY CITYManamaA trip down memory lane

REAL LIVES The MasaiThe proud tribal people ofAfrica’s Rift Valley

TALKING TELECOMZain is on the move Zain CEO Dr Saad Al Barrak talks about the new brand, anew strategy and a bright future

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CORPORATE SPIRITTanzania hits the markChaos by Design talks to countryGM Bashar Arafeh about thegiant steps made by the opco

Country facts: TanzaniaIslands, volcanos and vast gameparks make up this great nation

Blanket coverageChaos by Design talks to GeorgeHeld, One Network’s projectmanager, about the expansion ofthis groundbreaking initiative

Saving lives on the lake Zain, Ericsson and GSMA makeLake Victoria a safer place to liveand work

Connecting communities What network providers can dofor Africa

The Celtel challengeSponsoring the battle to find thesmartest campus

7 Habits author in BahrainZain hosts world renowned consultant Dr Stephen Covey

Record Breaking IPO Huge response to share offeringreflects confidence in KSA move

Zain House in BarcelonaCompany has exceptional presence in world’s leadingmobile event

Iraqi conversionZain celebrates rebranding another exciting market

5 CHAOS SPRING 2008CONTENTS

Contributors:Mathias Klein, Adam Pletts,Anne Renahan, ThomasSchellen, Norbert Schiller,Stephanie Tournear Photography:Norbert Schiller private collection, FocusMideast,Zain Group, Reuters

Editing:EditMax

Color Separation andPrinting:Raidy Printing Group,Beirut, Lebanon

Produced by: Zain Group Communicationand Investor RelationsDepartment in collaboration withVinehouse Media

P.O. Box 22244 Safat, 13083 KuwaitTel.: +965 464 4444 www.zain.com [email protected]

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Zain CEO honored by Arab AdDr Saad Al Barrak named Arab AdMan of the Year

MOBILE LIFEThe new internet highway Are cellular phones becoming thebrowsing tool of choice?

Hear no evil, speak no evil A short history of the mobilephone

A world at our fingertips The advent of mobile TV is upon us

WiMAX lives!Wireless technology hits Bahrain

Trivia to inspire

FOR THE RECORD2007 statsZain announces an exceptionalyear of growth with higher revenues and more customers

6 CHAOS SPRING 2008 NEWS

Zain News... faces, highlights

ernmental bodies and organizationsaround the world,” he said, addressing300 business leaders and Indian PrimeMinister Dr. Manmohan Singh.Asserting the importance of creating anew international entity that unites allmajor private sector companies, AlBarrak suggested “The United WorldBusiness” (UWB) as a name for the pro-

posed body. He pointed out that its busi-ness decisions and activities should bebased on noble goals that seek nothingbut achieving joint interests rather thanmonopolistic interests “The world economy is now bearing thebrunt of the negative influences of politi-cal agendas that usually seek to controland influence the decisions of interna-tional bodies and organizations, espe-cially in the light of the fact that the gov-ernments of major industrialized coun-tries usually seek to impose their ownagendas that do not take the interests ofthe developing countries into considera-tion,” Al Barrak explained.“It has become crystal-clear to all thatthe ‘ship’ of the international economyhas become in dire need of having itscurrent captain changed if we reallywant it to continue its journey towardsthe shores of stability and safety,” headded, pointing out that the privatesector is capable - with its noble goals- of taking charge of that ‘ship’, re-draw the map of joint interests andredistribute them fairly.

ANOTHER GLOBAL FIRST FROM ZAIN Bahrain set another telecommunica-tions first with the launch in Septemberof Zain@home, the world’s first nation-wide WiMAX network.The technology liberalises the fixed

OMAR SHARIF TEAMS WITH ZAIN In September 2007, movie legendOmar Sharif became the voice of theadvertising campaign for newly brand-ed Zain, when he recorded threevoiceovers – in Arabic, English andFrench – in a studio in Paris. The 60second television and radio spot, pro-duced by Saatchi & Saatchi Levant,brings to life the Zain brand values ofradiance, heart and belonging.Building on the Zain brand theme – AWonderful World – the campaign sug-gests the richness of life. The night skyis portrayed as ‘my roof’, fields of flow-ers as ‘my perfume’ and the ocean as‘my pool’. The television spot endswith the words, ‘It’s not what you lookat, it’s what you look for.’“This is a bold move away from con-ventional product, service and com-modity branding to a position wherethe brand makes a positive impact andreal contribution to the lives of our cus-tomers,” said Zain Group CEO Dr SaadAl Barrak. “The brand theme of ‘AWonderful World’ captures the energy,inspiration and diversity of the Group’scustomers, employees and other stake-holders. The new logo and its colourfulidentity reflect Zain’s freshness, boldnessand vitality. The swirl communicates theidea of an aura, something important tohuman life echoing growth, progressionand diversity.

A PRIVATE SECTOR UNAttending the annual McKinseyCompany’s Directors Conference inNew Delhi in October, Zain GroupCEO Dr. Saad Al Barrak, launched abold initiative calling for the establish-ment of an international body to gath-er and unite all private sector compa-nies of the world under one umbrella,just like the UN. “We do believe that the private sectorshould play an active and main role inmanaging the world economic affairsaway from political interests and con-flicts that usually overwhelm most gov-

Omar Sharif

Dr Saad Al Barrak advocates a private sector UN

7 CHAOS SPRING 2008NEWS

telecommunications market in theKingdom means that Zain’s pioneeringoperation in Bahrain has shifted frombeing a mobile services provider to anintegrated telecommunications operator. “Zain@home epitomises our focus onenriching the lives of our customers,”said Dr. Ahmed Al Shatti, ZainBahrain’s chief operating officer at aRamadan festive event. “Our successlies in interpreting technology so thatit impacts our customers in a way thatimproves their quality of life.” (seeWiMAX Lives on pages 84-86 for thefull range of Zain@home services)

AFRICA ABOLISHES ROAMING ASZAIN’S ONE NETWORK EXPANDS November 2007, saw 400 million cus-tomers across 12 countries connectedacross Africa in an area more than twicethe size of the European Union, whenZain subsidiary Celtel Internationalannounced the extension of ‘OneNetwork’, the world’s first borderlessmobile network in Africa to an additionalsix countries to include Burkina Faso,Chad, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.These countries now join the Republic ofCongo, the Democratic Republic ofCongo, Gabon, Kenya, Tanzania andUganda in the network which was initiallylaunched in September 2006.The move now offers the possibility fornearly half of Africa’s population to makecalls at local rates across 12 countriesand since its launch more than 3 millionpeople have used the service.

Celtel’s customers can now use bothprepaid and postpaid services in the12 countries and can top-up their pre-paid phones with locally-bought airtimecards which can be bought at more than500,000 points of sale. The One Networkservice is automatically activated uponcrossing into any one of the other coun-tries, with no prior registration requiredor sign up fee charged.“The innovation behind and the expan-sion of the world’s first borderless mobilephone network is a reflection of our ded-ication to the African continent and itspeople.” said Zain Group CEO Dr SaadAl Barrak. “We have revolutionarisedtelecommunications in Africa and weintend to roll out this service to more of

our operations on the African continentand in the Middle East.”Tito Alai, Chief Commercial OfficerZain Group said “One Network is nowavailable to more of our customersand makes it easier for them to com-municate with their family, friends andbusiness colleagues, making their lifebetter.”In September 2006 the internationallyrespected magazine, The Economist,said ‘Celtel has, in effect, created aunified market of the kind that regula-tors can only dream about in Europe.’

AFRICA WANTS MORE MIDDLE EASTINVESTMENTAfrican leaders met with Zain CEO DrSaad Al Barrak in November to discussopportunities in accelerating econom-ic growth through the further develop-ment of mobile telecoms infrastruc-ture. A recent research study by theLondon School of Economics showedthat an extra 10 mobile phones per100 people in a typical developingcountry leads to an additional 0.59percentage points of growth in GDPper person. Other research indicatedthat for every job created in themobile telecom sector, up to eightother jobs are created in different sec-tors of the economy.Dr Al Barrak met HE President JakayaKikwete of Tanzania at State House inDar es Salaam before proceeding toUganda for the Commonwealth

Dr Saad Al Barrak announcing the end of roaming charges in Africa

Annoucing the arrival of WiMAX in Bahrain


Zain CEO, Dr. Saad Al-Barrak, said:“On one hand, increasing the compa-ny’s capital will provide Zain with theliquidity that is necessary to enable itto meet its commitments to its stake-holders according to our ambitiousstrategies. On the other hand, thisincrease will play a significant role inreducing the borrowing costs of ouroperations in the short term and allowus to leverage for the future when theright opportunities arise.” Al-Barrak went on to explain thatincreasing the company’s capital willhave a very positive impact on theGroup’s future profit levels especiallythat Zain has recently carried out sev-eral large and significant expansions ofoperations in strategic markets in theMiddle East and Africa. He added thatas Zain now has a footprint in 22 coun-tries and a subscriber base of over 43million, the recommended capitalincrease will certainly help the Group’sambition to be one of the top-10 tele-com companies in the world by 2011.

UNITY IN IRAQ Two Iraqi mobile telecommunicationsnetworks - MTC Atheer and Iraqna -change their names in January to Zain(www.iq.zain.com). The re-branding fol-lowed MTC Atheer’s recent acquisitionof a 15-year nationwide license inAugust 2007, for $1.25 billion and MTCAtheer’s acquisition of Iraqna onDecember 31, 2007, for $1.2 billion.Serving over seven million customers,

Zain in Iraq became the fifth Groupoperation to be re-branded joining theGroup’s other operations in Kuwait,Jordan, Bahrain and Sudan that weresuccessfully renamed Zain onSeptember 8, 2007. Iraqi customersnow benefit through synergies of thecommon products and services thatare currently offered by the Zain Groupand of those that will be developed inthe future. “In recent years through the provision ofessential telecommunication servicesand extensive community support, bothMTC Atheer and Iraqna have played crit-ical roles in the reconstruction of Iraq,”said Dr Saad Al Barrak, Zain CEO.“Together as Zain, and as one largeroperation utilizing the Group’s world-wide resources, we will be even betterpositioned to serve the people of Iraq.Zain’s unrelenting commitment to thefuture prosperity of Iraq goes hand-in-hand with our aspirations of being a top-ten global operator.”Mr Ali Al Dahwi, general manager of Zainin Iraq, said: “By adopting the new cor-porate brand name of Zain we have theopportunity to bring the benefits of thedepth and breadth of products and serv-ices available across the Group’s compa-nies to the people of Iraq. Customers willexperience and enjoy the same quality ofreliability and standards of excellencefound in other Zain operations. In addi-tion, the joining of Iraq’s two leadingmobile companies with all our experi-ences to date and combined resources

Business Forum (CBF), where he alsomet HE Yoweri Museveni, President ofUganda and a number of other AfricaHeads of State, CommonwealthMinisters, CEOs of major corporationsand other VIPs. His discussionsfocused on the Zain Group’s commit-ment and contribution to the Africancontinent as well as theCommonwealth’s African memberstates comparative advantages inareas such as services, information andcommunications technology, bankingand financial services, manufacturing,agriculture, and natural resources.

CAPITAL INCREASEIn December, the Board of Directors ofthe Zain Group recommended a cashdividend of 90 fils per share and a 50%stock dividend (bonus shares) for thefiscal year. During the same meeting,the Group’s Board recommended toincrease the company’s paid in capitalby 75%. The anticipated capital increasewill result in proceeds of 100 fils parvalue and 750 fils premium per share onthe new shares to be issued. “The recommendation to increase thecompany’s capital aims to furtherenhance the Group’s key strategy ofbecoming one of the leading globalmobile telecommunications compa-nies,” declared Zain’s Chairman, AsaadAl-Banwan. “Zain has consistentlygained a reputation as a frontrunnerwhen it comes to seizing and acquiringnew investment opportunities in theregional markets. Maintaining andincreasing shareholders’ equity remainsa priority while the company continuesto grow and expand.”

Accelerating economic growth in Africa

Zain in Iraq’s GM Mr Ali Al Dahwi at the rebranding event in Baghdad


will enhance our capabilities of expand-ing and upgrading our network acrossthe whole of Iraq.”

ZAIN’S HIGH STANDARDS January saw the Zain Group sign, inKuwait City, a 3-year ‘framework’ agree-ment with DNV (Det Norske Veritas) thatwill help ensure that Zain’s operations inthe Middle East and sub-Saharan Africaare fully compliant with the rigorousinternational ISO standards. Zain assessed six world-leading organ-isations as candidates for the task ofhelping ensure that their processesand procedures for the 22 Zain opera-tions in the Middle East and Africawould effectively gain certificationacross all critical business areas andfunctions. There are four certificationsthat all Zain operators will seek toachieve ISO 9001 Quality with TL9000Telecommunications Leadership; ISO14001 Environmental ManagementSystem; ISO 27001 InformationSecurity Management System and BS25999 Business ContinuityManagement.Zain operations in several countriesare already ISO certified in a numberof areas, but this agreement with DNVprovides for a common approach toprocess and standards assessment,giving high level management visibilityacross all Zain operations.

“The Zain Group vision is to be aglobal top ten mobile telecommuni-cations operator by 2011,” saidHaitham Al Khaled, Zain’s ChiefStrategy Officer. “To be a globalleader we have to operate to thehighest possible international stan-dards and this agreement sets aglobal benchmark for our core busi-ness processes. Our customers willalso benefit from high integrity sys-tems and processes where theirfinancial data is secured to the high-est international standards.”

ZAIN’S GROUPS RECORD YEAR2007 saw the Zain Group record thehighest ever net profits in the historyof Kuwait’s private sector history withrevenues of $5.91 billion (KD1.677billion) for 2007, an increase of 32%compared to 2006. The consolidatedEBITDA increased by 25% comparedto last year and reached $2.56 billion(KD 725.34 million). Zain alsoannounced a milestone consolidatednet income of $1.130 billion(KD320.45 million) compared to$1.015 billion (KD 294.98 million) in2006 an increase of 11%. Earningsper share stood at $0.61 (172 fils)against $0.55 (159 fils) in 2006, anupsurge of 11%. Zain’s customerbase also grew, reaching 42.4 million(including 3 million Iraqna cus-

tomers, acquired on December 31,2007), an increase of 56% on 2006.“Once again we have seen outstand-ing success over the course of a yeardelivering strong and sustainablegrowth across the board” said AsaadAhmed Al-Banwan, Chairman ofZain. “These impressive results reflectthe exceptional operational efficien-cies in a company that is rapidlyexpanding across two continents.”

IPO SUBSCRIBERS GO CRAZY FORZAIN IN KSASubscriptions for the IPO of “Zain SaudiArabia” reached 1.78 billion shares withmore than 8.5 million Saudi citizens sub-scribing. This represented a coverageratio of 283% and total revenues of SAR17.83 billion ($4.76 billion). In terms of thenumber of subscribers, it was the fourthhighest IPO subscription in the history ofthe Saudi market and one of the largestin monetary terms.The company offered 630 million sharesin the IPO, which began on February 9,2008 and ended February 18, 2008 inaddition to the 70 million shares thatwere allocated to the Public PensionAgency (PPA). Banque Saudi Fransi, the FinancialAdvisor, lead manager and lead arrangerfor the IPO, completed the allocation of700 million shares successfully for a totalamount of SAR 7 billion ($1.87 billion).Anyone who subscribed to the minimum50 shares got the 50 Shares he sub-scribed for, and any individual who sub-scribed for more than the minimum 50shares i.e. 100 or more, received an allo-cation of 83 shares. Any surplus wasrefunded to subscribers accounts byFebruary 24, 2008.“The IPO was very successful, and thatthe IPO is the largest in the SaudiArabian market in terms of the numberof shares offered (700 million shares),which represent 50% of the total sharesof the company’s capital,” said JeanMarion Managing Director of BanqueSaudi Fransi, adding, “the IPO hasattracted considerable subscribers sinceday one and recorded transactionsthrough electronic channels, includingthe Internet banking, telephone bankingand ATM’s reached about 84% of thetotal subscription requests.”

Zain signs on to the international standards agreement in Kuwait

12 CHAOS SPRING 2008 REACHING THE TOP

much as his climbing success that hasled many people to call him a hero.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Chaya –who says in his popular internet blog,The Three Poles – that he has “yet toexperience something more rewardingthan inspiring others” – has alsoembarked on other adventures.

He successfully completed a 47-dayexpedition to the South Pole on foot, ajourney of more than 1000 kilometers inDecember 2007, meaning that he hadachieved the second objective of hisThree Poles Challenge, which he plansto complete by reaching the North Polein early 2009. If he does this, he’ll breaksome more records, and become onlythe eighth person in the world to con-quer all three challenges.

Chaya keeps himself busy: he is a corpo-rate ambassador for leading Lebanesebank, Banque Audi and when he’s notscaling dangerous mountains or bravingarctic temperatures, he gives motivation-al talks to children, encouraging them topursue their dreams. As he said in arecent interview with a Lebanese web-site: “A little hardship is not a bad thing,especially when you make it to the end.”

Maxim ChayaOvercoming massive challenges

on his climb up Everest,Maxim Chaya made history

when he became the first Lebaneseto plant his country’s flag on top ofthe world’s highest mountain on amemorable May morning in 2006.Scaling the icy 8,848-meter peak wasa supreme accomplishment in itselfbut the fact that Chaya also stoppedto try to save a fellow climber’s life onthe way up makes his achievement allthe more astonishing.

Forty-six-year-old Chaya has said that hisjourney – part of the Seven SummitsChallenge – will stay with him forever,leaving ‘deep imprints’. Requiringabsolute physical and mental strength,the momentous ascent saw theLebanese climber struggling with highpressure, short oxygen supplies andfreezing temperatures so deadly theycould have left him paralyzed, as well ashaving to deal with the psychologicaldifficulties of the fearful, overwhelmingsilence that he said mingled with thescreams of wolves or bears, as he hung

near the world’s highest peak – trying tosave the life of a British mountaineer.

David Sharp was close to death by thetime Chaya reached him; frozen fromthe elbows and knees down, and believ-ing that nothing could be done to savehim, several other climbers had chosento ignore his plight, hiking on past himwithout even attempting a rescue.

For Chaya, however, such thinking wasout of the question. According to anAustralian climber who witnessedChaya’s rescue attempt, the Lebaneseclimber spent 90 minutes trying to saveSharp’s life and was ‘absolutely devastat-ed’ when he realized there was nothinghe could do to help him.

The incident sparked a huge controversyamong climbers as to the rights andwrongs of abandoning stricken col-leagues, but for Chaya, there was simplyno point in debating the issue: compas-sion was always going to be moreimportant than breaking records orachieving personal goals, and it is this as


collectively encouraged the public tovote for the “daughter of theEuphrates,” who was cited as a goodexample of an Iraqi woman. Born to anIraqi father and Moroccan mother, it hasbeen claimed that she has brought morehope and happiness to ordinary Iraqisthan any Arab summit.

And while it seems inconceivable thatthe winner of a talent show should behailed in such grandiose terms,Hassoon’s appeal is being taken veryseriously, even by governing institutionsin Iraq. A source from Iraq’s foreignaffairs ministry said in January that

Winning Star Academy – orArab Idol as the Arabic ver-sion of the massively popular

American Idol is sometimes known –may not seem like much of deal; but itis remarkable news when the winner isShada – or Shatha – Hassoon, the 26-year-old Iraqi singer, who won Series 4in 2007.

Described by one blogger as being ‘sohot, she may single-handedly end Iraq’sbloody civil war’, Hassoon’s popularity isso massive that it has transcended bittersectarian divisions back home, with Shiaand Sunnis alike basking in her charismaand singing talent.

It all sounds a little over the top, butby refusing to disclose what sect shebelonged to, Hassoon enabled Iraqisto put aside religious distinctions andcome together to vote as a nation fortheir homegrown singing star.According to one American newspa-per, text messages of support for thestar included those from the Shiite AlMahdi Army and various Sunni muja-hedin, including the following: “Theswords of Al Mujahedin are in thehands of Shada,’ and ‘Al Mahdi Armyfighters support Shada.”

It is support she seems very grateful for:on hearing that she’d won the contest,the singer draped herself in the Iraqiflag, saying in an emotional interview: “Ithank Baghdad, and I thank Iraq.”

And it’s not just those involved in Iraq’sbloody power struggle that have boughtinto her appeal. The world’s media havebeen lyrical in their praise for Hassoon –who sings in Arabic, English, French,Spanish, Italian and German – with CNNsaying that she “is doing for Iraq whatweary politicians in that strife-torn coun-try have so far failed to do: unite thefractious nation;” the Christian ScienceMonitor also made a “half-serious” sug-gestion for talks on Iraq between USPresident Bush and Democratic lawmak-ers: “Invite Shadha Hassoun [sic].”

Iraq’s media, with so little good news toreport in recent years, has been evenmore excited about her appeal. They

Hassoon will receive an Iraqi diplomaticpassport – in recognition of all her victo-ry has meant for the country.

Indeed, while it may all seem like a fairy-tale – talented young woman unitesdivided nation – the simple fact is thatpeople like Hassoon are able to tran-scend politics and show that nations canbe unified by putting aside internal divi-sions and thinking in terms of the biggerpicture. People voted for Hassoon notbecause she was from one sect oranother, but because she was an Iraqi,which may perhaps offer some glimmerof hope for the country.

Shada Hassoon

15 CHAOS SPRING 2008REACHING THE TOP

worth €38 million, and was the mostexpensive summer transfer in 2005,when he was eventually bought byChelsea from Lyon for a record fee of£24.4 million, after a summer of feveredmedia speculation as to whether thetransfer would actually go ahead.

Essien has been quoted as saying he iscurrently playing the best football of hiscareer, and there’s no doubt that rightnow he’s riding a massive wave of popu-larity, particularly back home in Ghana,which hosted this year’s Africa Cup ofNations. Not only did his face appear on

billboards all over the country’s capital,but every time he went out he wasbesieged by fans demanding auto-graphs, which he signed with what oneBritish newspaper called “remarkablegood grace”. He doesn’t mind theattention though, and has said that he’shappy to give something back.

Essien is known as an energetic andcourageous player, who fights to playwell even when dogged by injury.Former Chelsea coach José Mourinhopraised him, in an InternationalFederation of Association Football (FIFA)Magazine interview, as “a great player.He can play every position in midfield,where he is perfect in choices. In foot-ball, the most difficult thing is to choosewell, and in every situation he chooseswell. He presses, stays in position, pass-es long, passes short, first touch, twotouches. He controls the pace of thegame, fast or slow. He is midfield multi-functional, he is dynamic and strong.The boy has incredible physical power;he is super-resistant with great speedand unending tactical abilities.”

Born in 1982 in Accra, Essien’s careerbegan at home in Ghana before makinghis breakthrough at the 1999 FIFA under-17 world championship in New Zealand,which brought him to the attention of anumber of international scouts.

He was signed to French club SC Bastiain 2000, helping them to qualify for theUEFA Cup in 2002-2003. His excitingfootball and goal-scoring skills saw anumber of French and UK clubs biddingfor him at that time, including ParisSaint-Germain, Olympique Lyonnais andOlympique de Marseille as well asLiverpool and Everton. He eventuallyaccepted an offer from Lyon beforegoing onto Chelsea.

Described in glowing terms in the UKand back home in Ghana, he has provedto be an extremely powerful player, withgreat energy and stamina. According tothe Soccernet website, he’s great evenwhen called upon to play in defense as aresult of injury problems, when he hasbeen “superb”.

Nominated for numerous awardsover his career, Michael Essien aGhanaian international footballer

– who currently plays midfield forChelsea in the English Premier League –was voted Best French player of the yearin 2005, and the BBC’s African footballerof the year in 2006-2007. He was alsoChelsea’s player of the season in 2006-2007, scoring the club’s goal of that sea-son. He helped Ghana reach the WorldCup for the first time ever in 2006.

In addition to all that, he the mostexpensive African footballer of all time,

Michael Essien


Nahed TaherWhen Nahed Taher founded and

became head of her own bankin 2005, it was the crowning

moment of an illustrious career that hadseen her defy tradition and prediction torise through the ranks of key Saudi finan-cial institutions to become a leadingbanker, and an icon for women’s successin business.

Coming from a family of bankers and oilmanagers, and having written her Ph.D.thesis in the UK on the deficiencies ofthe Saudi banking system, in 2002 shefirst became a financial consultant andthen the first female Chief Economist atthe National Commercial (Al-Ahli) Bank,which at the time covered a quarter ofthe Saudi banking sector. At just 42, shefounded her own financial institution –Gulf One Investment Bank, with a capitalbase of $1 billion – in 2005, becomingits first CEO in September 2006.

This is certainly a very impressive career,but on each step she had to convinceher peers that she could do it. Some ofthe doubts proved to be entirelyunfounded, as Al-Ahli’s general managerand chairman supported her, and shecould count on her family at any time.As she put it herself, “if there had notbeen the strong support from my family,I may still have embarked upon mycareer but not reached the results.”

Working at Al-Ahli, as one of fewwomen among 4,000 men, was inter-esting, but ultimately she wanted toachieve more. And working in thefinancial sector, she saw what neededto be done. “When I saw that the wayof lending in the whole banking sys-tem was not right to encourage invest-ment in industrial and high-value-added sectors, I decided to fill the gapand found my own investment bank.”

Using her knowledge and her reputationas one of Saudi Arabia’s best bankers,she assembled a team and founded a

new institution, an investment bankthat focuses on the sectors she knowsneed strengthening - infrastructure. “Ibelieve in wealth creation, not inwealth management. It’s the brain thatmakes the money, not the money thatmakes the brain.”

In her push to help bring the regionalbanking sector, and with it the regionaleconomies, forward, she attributespart of her success to the fact that sheis a woman, arguing that , “The majori-ty of women have proven to be thebest for entrepreneurship – worldwide.Two major factors in the nature of

woman: She is patient to raise a family,to wait for things to grow. Also, awoman by nature likes to educate. Sothey educate their colleagues. Men, bynature, don’t have this patience.”

And certainly, by now Nahed Taher, in2006 ranked 72nd on Forbes’ list of the100 Most Powerful Women in theWorld, is an idol for many Arabwomen, a role she gladly accepts. “Itis my goal to be a path breaker andhave other women following. If it wasonly me, then I would not haveachieved anything.”

18 CHAOS SPRING 2008 MY CITY

In the 1970s, Western expatriates spokeof Bahrain in the same way they talk ofDubai today. The mover and shaker ofthe Arabian Gulf in that period was thetiny island sheikhdom of Bahrain thateveryone described positively as beingrelatively free, an entrepot in an other-wise barren and closed region.

I transited Bahrain many times in themid 1980s, before I spent any qualitytime there. That happened inDecember 1988, when I attended theseventh annual Gulf CooperationCouncil (GCC) summit in Manama, andfor the first time got a feel for theisland nation. It was a time whenBahrain was at the forefront of aregion really opening up to the West,blending the encroaching modernworld with what was still traditionaland Arabesque. One minute I wouldbe surrounded by heavy constructionmachinery and modern structuresclimbing out of the desert, and thenext, I would be behind the old forti-fied walls of the old city, smelling waftsof frankincense and hearing thesounds of years gone by.

My first impression was that Bahrain wasa country of contrast, a world that waschanging with the times, but at the sametime able to keep the qualities on whichthe Bahrainis have for centuries pridedthemselves. Even the name – two seas –is a contrast, referring to the two types ofwater – sweet and salty – that are foundon the island.

Pearl of the GulfNorbert Schiller revisits Bahrain, which, withits proud past and promising future, shinesas a beacon to what the modern Arab country should be

19 CHAOS SPRING 2008MY CITY

most probably result-ed in Bahrain havingthe region’s first bikiniclad beaches. BesidesWesterners, Bahrainbecame a haven forother Gulf Arabs whoneeded an outlet fromtheir otherwise con-servative societies. In1989, a bridge con-necting Saudi Arabiaand Bahrain was com-pleted, giving theSaudi citizen andthose living there eas-ier access to weekendgetaways.

If you look at the histo-ry, and in particular therelationship betweenthe island kingdom with its neighborsand the outside world, it is not difficult tounderstand why Sheikh Isa was allowedsome leeway with conservatism to createa haven open to all. Bahrain has tradi-tionally been a point of entry into theArabian interior and dating back toancient times, Bahrain was a major trad-ing hub between India, Persia and theArabian Peninsula. The country’s naturalwealth came in the form of its sought-after pearls and for this reason, as well asits strategic location, Bahrain was con-trolled by many foreign powers.

More than four thousand years agothe island, known then as Dilmun, wasat the heart of the world’s trade routes.As Bahrain’s role in the region became

more prominent, other powers –Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks,Persians and Portuguese – began totake notice. Finally, in 1861 Britainbecame the protector of the TrucialStates, which included Bahrain, andremained so until the country’s inde-pendence in 1971.

GOODBYE PEARLS, HELLO OILBritain’s interest in Bahrain was morenoticeable when commercial quanti-ties of oil in the Gulf were discoveredthere in June 1932. Bahrain was notthe first Gulf nation where oil wasfound – that honor was given to Iranand Iraq – but what made the find sosignificant in Bahrain was this was thefirst discovery in the Arabian Gulf. For

More than 4,000 years ago,the island, known then asDilmun, was at the heart ofthe world’s trade routes anda hub for the great seafaringcommercial nations of thearea from the Babylonians tothe Portuguese

For centuries, Bahrain has been at thecrossroads between the Arab mainlandand the rest of the Gulf and Indian sub-continent. Because the island is so small,Bahrainis were naturally open to foreigntraders as a way to survive. Not only wasBahrain an open refuge for those fromthe outside, it was also a place that didnot distinguish between race, culture orreligion. People were free to live andworship as they pleased. As a result, thistiny island nation set new standards bywhich other countries in the region hadto follow if they were going to succeed.Granted, the road was not always easyand at times there were many obstaclesto overcome, but what Bahrain did in thepast, paved the road today for placeslike Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

Bahrain’s long time ruling emir, SheikhIsa Ibn Sulman al-Khalifah (father ofthe present day king, Sheikh Hamad),was also a pioneer, charting a newcourse were nobody in the region haddared to venture. Unable to dependon the oil wealth that other countriesin the Gulf took for granted, Sheikh Isahad to diversify the country’s economyand set about establishing Bahrain asa financial center where people in theGulf region could invest their wealthand, at the same time, feel confidentin doing so.

Then, in order to attract a wide rangeof different people from all over theworld, he opened up the Sheikhdomto tourism, a daring act in a land thathad been largely dominated for cen-turies by religion. The Sheikh’s gamble

20 CHAOS SPRING 2008 MY CITY

Bahrain, it could not have come at a bet-ter time – the 1930s saw the decline inthe demand for their number oneexport, pearls (pearl farms began spring-ing up as far away as Japan and withincreased production, the price for thecommodity dropped). Overnight,Bahrain switched from an economybased on pearls to one on oil. As aresult, the country was one of the first toenjoy the benefits from its new foundresource, but after it became clear thatthe supply was finite, Bahrain was forcedto diversify for real.

AVIATION PIONEERIn the late 1940s, Bahrain initiated an airtaxi service to Dhahran in Saudi Arabiaand Doha in Qatar. In 1950, the compa-ny was registered as Gulf Aviation andthus began Gulf Air, one of the earliestoperators in the region. In 1973, theState of Qatar, the emirate of Abu Dhabiand the Sultanate Oman bought sharesin the company and the soon Gulf Airhad become kind of a national airline forall four countries. Like its parent country,Bahrain, Gulf Air was also a pioneer. Itwas the first carrier in the region to emu-late the service of a Western style airline.Because Bahrain had already estab-lished an infrastructure for air travel, itwas only natural for other airlines travel-ing between Europe and the Far Eastthat needed a transit hub to turn toBahrain as the obvious choice. For manya globe trotting European, Bahrainwould be their first stopping point out-side of Europe.

BAHRAIN TODAYBahrain today is a shining example ofwhat a progressive Arab country

In the late 1940, Bahrain initiated an airtaxi service to Dahran in Saudi Arabiaand Doha in Qatar. In 1950, the company was registered as Gulf Aviationand was eventually to become Gulf Air,one of the region’s earliest and most prestigious operators

should look like. It remains a beaconfor foreign investment; in fact, Bahrainattracts a higher percentage of foreigninvestment than any of the other GulfStates. The reasons are clear: its strate-gic location in the Gulf, its relationship

with other GCC countries, giving 100%foreign ownership to most businessesand having a causeway to SaudiArabia, the region’s largest market.Besides being an investment hub,Bahrain continues to attract tourismfrom the Gulf region and beyond. Oneof its greatest attractions is motorsports, most notably being part of theFormula 1 racing circuit.

Unlike many of the other Gulf countries,Bahrainis can be seen working in all sec-tors of the economy. From taxi drivers totop management, Bahrain has encour-aged its own people to take charge ofthe country and not rely only on foreignworkers. It is for this reason that visitorscoming from outside the country trulyfeel they are in Bahrain.

22 CHAOS SPRING 2008 REAL LIVES

Of all the African tribes, fewcapture the romantic imageof the spear-carrying Masai

warriors. Standing tall in the plainsof the Great Rift Valley, they strikeimposing figures in their traditionalred-checked blankets and intricatebeaded jewelry – hanging from elongated earlobes – wrestling andkilling lions to demonstrate braveryand, spurred by the belief that Godmade them overseers of all of theworld’s cattle, engaging in cattleraids under the deep African blue sky.

Through the dreamy prism of theWest, the Masai are sometimes per-ceived as noble warriors. Originatingfrom the lower Nile valley in north-westKenya and migrating southwards in thefifteenth century, they arrived inTanzania in the 17th and 18th centuries,symbolizing – even now – an enduringnomadic idyll, journeying doggedlythrough the centuries.

But there are fewer cattle raids thesedays and – in an age of hakunamatata, Swahili for ‘no worries’ as pop-ularized by Disney’s The Lion King –

considerably less motivation to grap-ple with big cats. In the past, especial-ly in the 19th century when Masailandstretched across much of East Africaand represented a powerful nation,the warriors were often at war witheach other and against other Africantribes; now they mostly guard theherds against wild animals. In this strongly patriarchic and stilllargely closed and traditional society,the men are known as morans in Maa,the Masai language, and undergo tworites of passage from childhood to jun-ior warrior, and then from warrior to

The glory of the Masai No tribe captures the magnificence and mystique ofAfrica more than the Masaipeople. Brave, proud andunique, they have maintainedtheir traditions in an ever globalized word

23 CHAOS SPRING 2008REAL LIVES

strength, endurance and courage byliving for as long as ten years inremote isolation in the bush.

In addition to mastering the skills offighting and herding, warriors aretrained to dance, which also serves asan intrinsic element of the courting rit-ual during large gatherings whenMasai men and women are encour-aged to pair off. To the rhythmicmelody of an olaranyani, or songleader, the morans line up and withheads bobbing in perfect synch likepistons in an old steam locomotive,they slowly shuffle forwards, kicking upminiature dust storms.

Every 15 years or so, all the older war-riors throughout Masailand cometogether to become elders in a ritualthat involves shaving off their long hair

and dropping their spears, shields andclubs, thereby symbolizing the ascen-dance of wisdom over brawn and vanity.

The Masai live intimately with theirzebu cattle, naming each one, walkingthem long distances to water andgood grazing; and the women milktheir cattle, sharing the udder of a lac-tating cow with its calf. Masai and theircattle have coexisted with wildlife forthousands of years. The cattle grazeamong wildlife and, since the Masaitraditionally subsist on the milk, bloodand meat of their cows, the cattle forma buffer that protects wildlife fromhunting. Only in severe drought havethe Masai in the past hunted wildlife,which they call their ‘second cattle’.Spear-carrying morans still herd theircattle across northern Tanzania andKenya. But there is now less savanna

Masai warriors are trained in dance,which is an intrinsic part of the tribalmating ritual. At huge gatherings, Masaimen and women are brought togetherin the hope they will pair off to therhythms of the olaranyani

elder. In the first ritual, which is initiat-ed by a painful circumcision ceremonythat is performed without anaesthetic,Masai boys must endure the operationin silence since expressing pain at anystage brings the deepest dishonour totheir kin. The boys are dressed in blackand recover in purpose-built huts,which are traditionally erected by theirmothers. They eventually emerge afterfour to eight months into junior war-riors; now wearing thin red cloths andintricately braided hairstyles smearedwith red ocher, they learn the tribalcustoms and develop steel-edged

24 CHAOS SPRING 2008 REAL LIVES

on which to roam. With exponentialpopulation growth rates, villages arecropping up where cattle once grazed. Over the years, more and more Masai– like the Tuaregs and Bedouins else-where in Africa – have been compelledto yield gradually to change. Caughtbetween tradition and modernity,many have abandoned the pastoralistlifestyle of their ancestors in favor ofmainstream and sedentary society.

Many of the estimated 440,000 Masai innorthern Tanzania – an equal numberlive across the border in Kenya – havesupported public campaigns aimed atbringing an end to moranism, while pre-serving some traditions from the Masaiculture. But many Masai say the slowmarch towards modernity is taking placenot so much because of governmentpressure but because the ancient way oflife of the Masai has been pummelled bynature and affected by the inevitableexposure to other cultures in an increas-ingly modern and multifaceted world.

At the same time, the Masai herds oflivestock are dwindling because ofrecurring drought, disease and over-

With their unique earrings and tribal traditions, the Masai are a sight tobehold. They also believe that Godmade them overseers of all the world’scattle, engaging in cattle raids underthe deep blue African sky

grazing. The best of the tribe’s com-munal land was expropriated long agoby white settlers during the colonial peri-od and, since independence in the1960s, more and more of their land hasbeen absorbed for private farms andranches, towns and wildlife parks. Theseand other pressures have already causedcertain customs to fade and others areset to follow in time.

Masai increasingly wear Western clothesand head for jobs in Dar es Salam,Nairobi and other urban centers. Thetribe once shunned farming, but manyamong them now grow crops. The tradi-tional staples of beef, milk and animal

blood have given way to a modern diet.Although Masai still judge wealth andstatus by the number of cattle they own,some now readily sell their livestock tobuy consumer goods.

The increase of tourism to wildlifeparks has also proved both a boonand a curse to the Masai. Capitalizingon their romantic image, many moranshave profited by becoming guides oreven extras to add color to apanoramic vista: leaving their Westernclothes at home, they stand tall in theirbillowing red cloths and carry theirornamental spears and clubs to strikeimposing poses for the cameras.

26 CHAOS SPRING 2008 INTERVIEW

The first weeks of 2008 were by nomeans a time of small steps for Zain. InJanuary, the company launched itsbrand in Iraq, uniting two networks intothe country’s largest mobile operatorby a wide margin. The initial publicoffering for the new Zain company inSaudi Arabia was the center of gravityin the Kingdom’s financial markets inFebruary. With Ghana to be addedlater this year, Zain is implementing itsplans to re-brand on the continent andexpand its inclusive One Network ofseamless international communicationsto the Middle East.

Chaos by Design caught up with thetireless Zain CEO, Dr Saad Al Barrak –who netted an award of highestregional repute at the start of theyear – for an insightful talk during amoment of calm in his whirlwind travelsaround the Zain universe. In addition toreviewing the latest in Zain’s accom-plishments, Dr. Al Barrak told of hisfirst impressions of operating the newbrand and explained his vision of therole business plays in humanity.

Zain CEO, Dr Saad Al Barrak, describes theimpact of the company’s new brand imageon the telecommunications industry as well asthe international business community

Zain is on the move

27 CHAOS SPRING 2008INTERVIEW

What is your promise to the shareholders that invested inthe initial public offering of Zain Saudi Arabia?Our promise is based on our track record of where we comefrom, what we are doing, and how we are doing it. We aremaking no new claims. Our credibility has convinced thepeople to invest in our new company in Saudi Arabia. Ourpromise is the same promise: we are setting up a modelcompany, delivering the best and latest technology andservices in mobile telecommunications; we are a companytotally driven by our customers and we always strive to pro-vide added value. It is the promise of the Wonderful Worldwe are preaching through our new Zain brand.

Was the subscription rate as you expected?We expected the offer to be covered around three times and itcame very close to that in what was one of the largest IPOs inthe Kingdom’s history. I am also happy to say that we had over8.5 million subscribers sign up for our shares. This is the fourthlargest number of subscribers for new shares in the history ofthe Saudi stock market and the largest in telecom.

And is everything in rolling out the network in SaudiArabia on course?We hope so. As you know, it is a big country and there are alot of challenges. The existing infrastructure is with our com-petitors and negotiations with them are tough. Other thanthat, things are going in the right direction and we haveassembled a great team of talented and dedicated people.

You already signed contracts with the existing operators in KSA?Yes, these contract are for national roaming. But we still needthe structural services, such as a fiber optics backbone, whichcan only be provided by the existing operators. This relates tothe land-bound infrastructure plus site sharing, because theyhave a lot of sites. Because of our technical connectivityrequirements, we have to be as close as possible to them.

In going forward with further listing measures, are you still looking at offering Zain shares on the London Stock Exchange?We are looking at the best international stock exchange,whether London or Euronext. We are evaluating the options.

And you are also looking at going public in other markets?We may need to go public in some of our operations such asJordan and Bahrain and some African operations due to localrequirements in sync with focusing on the international IPO.

In January, you launched the Zain brand in Iraq. How hasthe Iraqi public responded to the launch?It has been a fabulous response, with great acceptance aswas the case everywhere else we launched Zain. The mar-keting teams have done a marvelous job. We have had afew technical hiccups in Iraq with the integration processbut these have been quickly resolved.

What are your benchmark measurements for this acceptance?We could see, for example, that people were turning away fromIraqna, but the new brand is picking up a lot more. The growthis also high in what used to be the Atheer network.

What are your plans for Iraq?We already dominate 70% of the market in Iraq. We do notintend to stay that dominant. We intend to be the leadingplayer, but we want other competitors to grow because ifthe market grows as a whole, we think it will make every-body better. We are currently integrating the two compa-nies [Iraqna and Atheer] and by end of June, we hope tocomplete the integration of the two companies so it will beone entity, Zain Iraq. We are moving forward towards com-plying with our image of great service, great relationshipswith the community, and being the most forward-thinkingcompany in that regard.

“”

We are moving forwardtowards complying with ourimage of great service,great relationships with thecommunity, and being themost forward-thinking company in that regard


Will we see the start of the One Network in the MiddleEast with the inclusion of Iraq?Definitely. It will cover Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, and SaudiArabia, and be connected to the One Network of the other12 countries that we have established in Africa. We will have16 countries in this network.

What is the timeline for the implementation of the OneNetwork in the Middle East?The timeline is end of July, early August.

How does the introduction of the One Network mesh withthe implementation of the Zain brand? Will you have thebrand roll out in all these countries by the same time?Yes, by the end of Summer 2008, we will re-brand the com-plete 14 Celtel operations to Zain. It will actually be 15countries under the brand, because we will add Ghana. Weare working hard to launch in Ghana within this timeframeand be able to add it at the same time.

Is every aspect of Zain branding a CEO decision?No. Whether it is corporate identity, company image orproducts and services, these are decided by relevant parties

and executives in the group, such as the Chief CommercialOfficer or the Chief Communications Officer and theirteams. There are certain areas that are outside of theirbudget or focus and if something is exceptional, it requiresmy approval.

After five months of being Zain, can you already take afirst look back?It was one of the most successful brand launches world-wide, according to experts. Our target is to be the first tele-com company in the world that joins the ranks of the top100 brands. So far, our success is really great. People are inlove with the new brand – especially our people. I thinkeveryday the momentum is exponentially rising as far asacceptance and admiration of the new brand is concerned.

What do you tell people who feel some unease with relat-ing to the new identity and say ‘this brand is a bit difficultfor me’?Brands take a long time to be accepted. To be frank, when wedesigned the brand, it was initially accepted by less than 10%within the Zain Group. The brand was imposed by dictatorialdecision at that time, but now acceptance is more than 100%inside the company, I think. People are more than convincedand even admit that they had been opposed to the brand inthe beginning, but have changed their minds.

What was the most decisive factor in changing their minds?It was the whole thing. You look at it as a total package andhow it relates, how it feels, and how the public responds to it.Delivery is very important as well. I think it was launched in amagnificent way; people on the team preparing the launch dida great job, which created a great impact. Then there is thebeauty of the name, the easiness of the name.

As you are moving to re-brand Celtel, are you concernedthat people with long-term loyalty to Celtel may takeextra time to relate to the new brand and accept it?That is already taking place. There is a huge resistanceagainst launching it. So, at the last meeting, I said that Zainwill be launched and the change has to be completed bythe timeline given of July and anybody who doesn’t like it

“”

You don’t change people ina dictatorial way, but sometimes you have to takea decision that is unpopular.The key is how to make anunpopular decision popular.You have to take a decisionor the company will die

“”

It was one of the most successful brand launchesworldwide, according toexperts. We want to be thefirst telecom company in theworld that joins the top 100brands. So far, our successis really great


should consider leaving the company. Some people in theold Celtel guard are very proud of the making of the Celtelbrand and you know what people are like. You don’t changepeople in a dictatorial way, but sometimes you have to takea decision that is not popular. The issue is how to make anunpopular decision popular. You have to take a decision;otherwise your company will die. Then you continue sellingthe decision and widen the acceptance.

In February, you received an award as Man of the Year bya regional magazine. Does this recognition help you inachieving your aims in developing the Zain brand and theentire company?As I said in my acceptance speech, it is an honor I am veryproud of, because it comes from outside the telecommuni-cations field. It comes from the media, and from Arab Ad, avery respectable publication. That is why I liked it. Whathelps us in our aims is the general package, how peoplesee us as a company.

Could you quantify how the Zain brand has contributed to growth in customers or increase in loyalty in the pastsix months?We are tracking this through surveys and also see it reflected inour business. The only way to explain some of the growth wehad was the brand; there was no other explanation. The brandhelped a lot in bringing our numbers higher. We are also con-ducting field surveys and opinion surveys, but in the end, the

only realistic measure is how it impacts your business. The realeffect will be seen in the long-term.

You face very different competitive environments in themarkets you operate in. How do you manage the chal-lenge of maximizing your competitive position in marketswith such diverse environments?Based on marketing research, less than 15% of peoplechange to a new product or company because of price.Some 85% become loyal depending on the relationshipwith the company. That is our focus and that is the impor-tance of the brand. Our brand promise and relationship toour community is our focus. We will not be driven into pricewars; we believe in value proposition, not price proposition.

Zain is a company with global vision. As recent economic fore-casts for the US and major developed markets, includingfinancial markets, have turned less optimistic, do you see anyimpact of these lower expectations on the company?As globalization is progressing, any slowdown in a majoreconomy will have an impact on other economies, but wewould be among the least affected because a slowdown willaffect stock prices and have an impact on banks and invest-ment companies much more than having an impact on us. Adrop in consumer confidence will have an effect, but alsowill affect other areas more than us because communicationis becoming like food. People can save on their clothing butnot on their nutrient needs and not on communication.Additionally, while commodity prices are going up, commu-nications costs are still going down.

If we look at the big picture, you have recently spoken of theneed to have a united nations of businesspeople. What doyou think businesspeople can achieve by realizing this is idea?To me, the structure of the United Nations is a politicalstructure, which does not allow you to increase your influ-ence as a country with regards to your contribution to the“ ”

Abolishing roaming chargesin Africa (below) was anotherstep in expanding Celtel’sOne Network concept


organization. It is a very stationary formula that has to dowith the size and political might of countries. Any nation orany group that has aspirations can never grow beyond acertain ceiling in the UN. In the world of business, the sky isnot even the limit. We, beginning as a local Kuwaiti compa-ny, are already becoming international and global. Ourinfluence on world affairs is commensurate to our achieve-ments, while in the UN, your influence can never outgrowyour starting size. Therefore we said we want to form aUnited World Business – UWB – and this should wage a waragainst the other UWB, which are the “unwieldy bureau-crats” of the governments.

Is this idea attractive to people you presented it to?Doing this gives a lot of hope to a lot of people. I comefrom the third world, from a small country. If we canbuild a big company that contributes so much to thewellbeing of many people, I should have influence com-mensurate to my role. Also the world of politics has rigidalliances and biases that have damaged the world. Theworld of business is much freer, much more responsiveand much more related to people’s needs, aspirations,dreams, and so on. Therefore, when I sit on the table

with IBM and Microsoft, they will be much more respon-sive to our issues in the region than would be the USgovernment or department of defense. I feel that busi-nesspeople are much more humane, driven by a humanagenda, and would be much more responsive to worldissues and challenges.

What about existing institutions, such as the WorldEconomic Forum? Can’t they play this role?I will say that the World Economic Forum is no more than ahuge public relations circus that is not adding much value.We as businesses are not represented as we do not evendecide the agenda of the World Economic Forum. It comesand talks about our economy and calls us as players in thecircus. What we want is shares in the circus and power in thecircus. Politicians are much more celebrated in Davos thanreal businesspeople.

Would UWB as you see it be a permanent entity?It should be a chartered organization with membershipand qualification requirements for membership, with uni-versal criteria, such as requiring a member company to bea public company in a market where transparency and


governance are good. A company must be of a certainsize in order to entice people to grow to this size and bea participant. We can develop all that – it is a vision andwe don’t have a recipe. We can come together and seehow to evolve it.

It will obviously have to be a voluntary organization, nothave mandatory membership?It will be a voluntary organization for the wellbeing of worldbusiness and, therefore, for the wellbeing of the human cause.

That brings up the other question. The world often regardsbig business as bad. How do you address the fear of peoplethat multinational companies would overpower national gov-ernments and do so for their own self-interest?I think the world will be much more secure if there is more influ-ence from businesspeople and economists than from the politi-cians. Secondly, we have a mission to re-humanize business andcreate the business romance with our community and nationsthrough more commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility,

transparency, fighting corruption, upgrading education andimproving the wellbeing of the poor.

And that is what Zain is committed to?Definitely. We approach this vision with our values of what kindof human business we are talking about. We are not going tomake this union to further the exploitation of countries andregions by multinationals. We are going to emancipate humani-ty from the tyranny of the political organization.

Zain is still a very young company. If we carry on looking into afuture with more prosperity, higher life expectancy, and moreequitable distribution of wealth, do you see it as a companythat could offer a lifetime career for someone who joins you atage 20 and works into his or her 80s – assuming that our pro-ductive lives in the future will extend longer than today? We are working hard to make this a reality by heightening theattractiveness and the retention power of this company. Thisdepends on how much we will succeed – it is our dream to seeZain as a model human organization, not a telecommunicationsorganization. That is the reason our new brand positions us as alifestyle company, not a telecommunications company.Telecommunications happens to be our line, but we are in thebusiness of the wonderful world, of customer delight.

This puts you in the limelight of international attention.When you have the kind of record of Zain today, you becomeattractive to the whole world. You can never put a leash onthe appetite of big buyers who are interested in your compa-ny. We are not afraid of this since it shows how attractive thecompany is. You only buy good companies, not lousy ones;and we had recent meetings with three of the largesttelecommunications companies in the world. All of them areinterested in becoming a partner, not dominating it.

“”

Our dream is to see Zain asa human organization, nota telecom organization.That is why the new Zainbrand positions us as alifestyle company, not atelecoms company

Dr Saad Al Barrak, senior KSA executives and the Nokia Siemens Network team in Barcelona

32 CHAOS SPRING 2008 CORPORATE SPIRIT

Celtel Tanzania hitsthe mark in 2007Bashar Arafeh, GM of Celtel Tanzania and nowCOO Celtel East Africa, talks of the past andpresent achievements of the company

33 CHAOS SPRING 2008CORPORATE SPIRIT

Bashar T. Arafeh, 41, a Jordanian national, hasbeen with Celtel Tanzania since January 2007.He has over 19 years experience in marketing,

strategy, sales and business development. Prior tojoining Celtel Tanzania, he held the role of ChiefCommercial Officer at Zain in Jordan, where he wasresponsible for overseeing all marketing, sales,product development, corporate identity and cus-tomer care. Recently, Mr Arafeh was appointedChief Operating Officer for all East African opera-tions covering Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya andMadagascar. He kindly took the time to tell Chaosby Design about the successful Tanzania operation.

Can you give us a brief round-up of CeltelTanzania’s performance in 2007 in terms of rev-

enues, market share and market penetration?Tanzania has a population of approx 38 million. Zain currentlyowns 60% of the company, while the remaining stake is held bythe Tanzanian government. On December 31, 2007, CeltelTanzania had 2,507,000 subscribers, a figure that representsgrowth of 65% compared to the same period in 2006, whenCeltel Tanzania had a customer base of 1,517,000.

The operation today is the market leader by value (revenues) inTanzania, quite an achievement given it was the fifth entrantinto the country back in November 2001. With a 39% marketshare, the operation is the second largest in a country boastingfour mobile companies. The operation’s customers accountedfor 6% of Zain’s total customer base. Meanwhile, CeltelTanzania’s 2007 revenues reached $265 million, an increaseof 56% compared to 2006. The operation’s revenuesaccounted for 5% of Zain’s total revenues. EBITDA

increased by 55% compared to 2006 and reached $97.3 mil-lion. Net Income in 2007 reached $52.1 million, an increase of96% compared to last year. Celtel Tanzania had an ARPU of$11 in 2007.

Celtel Tanzania’s strong performance is underpinned by the cre-ative marketing activities of different segments it undertook andits ability to reach Tanzanians everywhere through aggressivenetwork deployment throughout 2007 resulted in a stronggrowth of our customer base revenues and EBITDA.

Celtel Tanzania was recently recognized as the most respectedtelecommunications and ICT company in the whole of EastAfrica. What were the criteria for winning this prestigious awardand how do you feel you surpassed your competitors?Winning first place across East Africa this year is a remark-able achievement for Celtel Tanzania and an independentacknowledgement from the operation’s East African peers. Italso recognizes the entire Celtel Tanzanian team workthroughout 2007 and their internal commitment to achievemarket leadership.

The honor was awarded by PricewaterhouseCoopers and NationMedia Group in their annual East Africa’s Most RespectedCompany Survey. The survey is conducted to identify the topcompanies operating throughout East Africa whereby 350 busi-nesses are approached to fill out a survey identifying the compa-nies in each sector they feel represent strong customer care, pro-fessional management, innovation, courage, employee care,integrity and social responsibility.

The mobile phone industry is very competitive in East Africa,with big global players, such as Vodacom and MTN, there-


fore, winning the award this year is a big achievement for usas a company. The award is granted based on how the busi-ness community feels we operate as a company – weentered the market quite late and have had to work hard tocatch up. I am very proud of and thankful for all ourTanzanian employees for taking us to where we are today.

How has the launch of One Network contributed toTanzania’s impressive growth in customers and revenuesover the last 12 months? What competitive advantages doyou feel you have over your competitors? We are very excited with One Network as it is the world’sfirst borderless mobile network offering the possibility fornearly half of Africa’s population to make calls at local ratesacross 12 countries throughout the continent.

With the introduction of One Network in Tanzania, there isno doubt that it attracted quite a number of new customersgiven that we border Kenya and Uganda – both in the OneNetwork – and given that there is considerable cross bordertrade and travel between the three countries. Nevertheless, ourinvestment in our people and application of dynamic marketingstrategies has paid off, contributing greatly to the bottom line.

We are currently market leaders by revenue and will be mar-ket leaders by active customers in a short time. With regardto our competitive advantage, we pride ourselves on qualityof service and our dedication to making life better for the

communities we serve. As such, we are truly focused.Although distinctively advantageous, One Network is onlyone way in which we are different from our competitors.

It is obvious that giving back to the communities whereyou operate is an important initiative for Celtel throughoutAfrica. Through your well-known Build Our Nation pro-gram, how much have you given to schools throughoutTanzania to date and could you explain a bit more aboutthe project? Build Our Nation (BON) was launched in Tanzania in May,2004. Following its success here, it was adopted by Celteloperations across Africa. Today, BON accounts for approxi-mately 70% of our CSR expenditure and plays an importantrole in aiding school children across Tanzania. The programis structured in such a way that the Ministry of Educationand Culture submits to Celtel a list of secondary schoolsthroughout Tanzania that are most in need of books at thebeginning of each calendar year. The project is then dividedinto quarters, whereby in each quarter, Celtel chooses oneschool from each region of the country to receive funds forbooks and school supplies, allowing four schools per yearto receive books in each region of the country. The schoolselection process is done via a randomly generated com-puterized draw. This technique allows Celtel to conduct acompletely unbiased selection of schools with no “edge”given to any school. After the book selection is processedCeltel purchases the relevant books and delivers them to


each school (or in certain instances, they provide the neces-sary resources for headmasters to travel to a central locationin order to collect the books.)

BON is a very important project for us and is directly in line withCeltel’s commitment to Making Life Better for all people inTanzania. We are dedicated to helping the country grow andproviding support in areas where aid is needed. To date, wehave distributed around $500,000 worth of books.

We have enhanced BON to include scholarships to the topeight boys and girls who gain admission to local universi-ties. We currently have 23 scholars in this program, who areour ambassadors on the various campuses in the country. Inaddition to being on full scholarships, these students havethe advantage of gaining valuable work experience whilestill at school, as they work for Celtel and are paid a salarywhen on break from school.

What other major Celtel community projects are plannedfor Tanzania?As a responsible corporate citizen, Celtel is committed to agiving back to the community in which we do businessthrough supporting other community causes.

In the non-education sector, Celtel will continue to supportthe annual Geita Gold Mine Kilimanjaro Challenge, whichseeks to raise funds for HIV/AIDS awareness. And in 2007, Ithink I was the first Celtel Tanzania employee to scaleMount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. I evengot to shout, “Hallo Africa,” from that spot, where I couldsee the whole continent (laughs).

Insofar as our customers are concerned, they have access to atoll free AIDS helpline, which provides all people, especiallyyouths, with access to the right information about the diseaseand the ways in which they can protect themselves and curtailits spread. We have also partnered with the Elizabeth GlaserPediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) to provide communityphones to women’s groups so as to enable them to generateincome for their families. This has involved the placement ofCeltel payphones at EGPAF supported health facilities, handsets for selected clients, and the inclusion of awareness mes-sages at Celtel stands at regional exhibitions. Finally, Celtel isalso identified with road safety in Tanzania, having sponsoredthe cause for over six years.

On December 31, 2007,Celtel Tanzania had 2,507,000customers. This showed 65%growth compared to thesame period in 2006

In recognition of the diversity that makes us what we aretoday, Celtel marks and celebrates the various days that tar-get specific groups in society – i.e. International Women’sDay, The Day of the African Child, World Aids Day,Ramadan and Christmas. Staff members are encouraged totake part in these activities

We are proud to be contributing to the growth of future execu-tives in Tanzania by supporting the Management Forum, whichis held at the British Council offices every month. This forumbrings together middle to senior level managers to discuss top-ical issues of the day that affect their professional lives. Expertsare sourced from various sectors so as to provide real life casestudies for participants. It also serves as a networking platformfor young professionals.

You have been recently promoted to COO of East AfricaCeltel operations. How will your stint covering Tanzaniaassist you in your future endeavors in achieving the ambi-tious targets set for these regional Celtel operations? Tanzania was my introduction to sub-Saharan Africa and Ilearnt a great deal here. My assimilation with the cultureover the past 14 months and the way things work in thispart of the world will definitely be beneficial to my newscope of responsibility. With the talented people found inEast Africa and in the Zain Group combined with my experi-ences gained working in the Middle East for many years, Iam confident that we will meet and even exceed our tar-gets. We will contribute our part to Zain Group’s 2011 tar-gets of being a top 10 global operator with a customerbase of 110 million and an EBITDA of $6 billion. In short,everyone one of us needs to stay humble, positive andalways embrace the basic values on which we were raised.


Tanzania lies on the east coast of Africa and is borderedto the north by Kenya and Uganda. To the west areZaire, Rwanda, Burundi and Zambia, and to the south

are Malawi and Mozambique. Tanzania contains coastal low-lands, volcanic highlands and the Great Rift Valley and is hometo Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain with its threevolcanic cones, Kibo, Mawensi, and Shira.

Tanzania is one of Africa’s largest countries. It covers an cov-ers an area of 945,000 sq. km) and is made up of the main-land (Tanganyika), and the Zanzibar archipelago made up ofZanzibar, Unguja and Pemba Islands.

The 32 million population is made up of 120 tribal groupsand the main language is Swahili. Zanzibar's 800,000 popu-

lation is a mix of ethnic backgrounds with Islam the mainreligion, although there are also Christians and Hindus.

Tanzania is also home to the 55,000 sq. km Selous GameReserve, the largest single wildlife area in Africa and the14,763 sq. km Serengeti National Park, home to thefamous migrating wildebeest as well as lions, cheetahs,zebras, giraffes, gazelles, elands, impalas, klipspringers,and warthogs.

Zanzibar was once the world's largest producer of clovesand other spices and today, although tourism is wheremost of the government’s effort are exerted, fishing andagriculture are still the main economic activities of thelocal population.

A truly stunning nationVolcanic mountains, islands and vast naturereserves all make up Tanzania’s majesty


Blanket coverageChaos by Design talks to George Held,Celtel’s One Network Project Manager,about the impact of this groundbreakingpan-African initiative


Covering 400 million people across 12 African countries,an area more than twice the size of Europe, OneNetwork gives all Celtel post-paid and pre-paid cus-

tomers the opportunity to move freely across the countries’geographical borders, inclusive of Sudan, without roaming callsurcharges and without having to pay for incoming calls. It isexpected that the One Network service will be extended toIraq and neighboring Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in thefirst half of 2008. This will give Zain customers contiguouslocal network coverage, stretching from Iraq in the east to theAtlantic Ocean in the west, a distance of some 4,000km.

What has been the impact of the One Network on the wayAfricans communicate?Historically, geographical borders in many African countries

were set up based on old colonial rules. The frontiers werealso moved very often when colonial power shifted fromGerman to British, to French, to Italian and even to Belgianrule. For example, Mount Kilimanjaro used to be a part ofTanzania, then it became part of Kenya and now it is part ofTanzania again. Therefore, there are many families and eth-nic groups in Africa separated by artificial geographical bor-ders. One of the key goals of One Network was to allowpeople to move freely across geographical borders and stillbe in touch with their friends and family members in themost efficient and convenient way.

It is extremely difficult to measure how we are actuallyimpacting people’s lives, but during the recent unrest inKenya, we saw big movements of Celtel Kenya customers toUganda and Tanzania, where all of them used One Network.Similarly, recently during the rebellion in N’Djamena, wesaw big migration of Celtel Chad customers into Gabonand Niger. We are enabling our customers to stay connect-ed with their families and helping businesses to grow acrossgeographical borders.

A few weeks ago, I received a call from an old lady fromBurkina Faso. She told me that she was worried sick abouther son who was stuck in N’Djamena and did not know if hehad survived the recent coup attempt or was one of thebodies on the side of the road. A few days later, her soncalled her from Libreville in Gabon using his SIM card fromBurkina Faso and told her that he is alive and that he was

The One Network service is now available in 12 African countries and will soonexpand to the Middle East


able to escape. Of course, we did not save his life, but wedefinitely made life better for his mother, who was able tofind out that her son is safe and well. To me and to theother members of One Network team, it makes all sleeplessnights and hard work on the project well worth it.

In January 2008 alone, more than 800,000 people used OneNetwork services across the 12 countries. From the day ofcommercial introduction in September 2006, more thanthree million people have used One Network at least once.

What has been the economic impact of the One Network?How has affordable communication made it easier for peo-ple to do business? In particular, how much did cross-bor-der mobile traffic increase in your coverage area after theintroduction of the One Network and have you witnessedan economic impact on people’s lives?One Network made a huge impact on the cross-borderbusiness and the way people communicate when away fromhome. This was realized not only by the Zain Group, buteven by local governments. For example, in August 2007,Nigeria’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, insisted onthe introduction of One Network between Niger andNigeria in order to facilitate cross-border trade.

One Network is the only true impactful differentiator thatallows us to stand out from the rest of telecom companiesand it is enabling Zain to become an industry leader by set-ting up new global standards in communication. OneNetwork is not about ‘cheap communication’. It is aboutallowing people to stay in touch with their worlds in themost convenient and efficient way.

In the recent independent market research conducted byResearch International in East Africa, One Network wasfound to be the second most important reason why cus-tomers chose to use Celtel. It was more important to themthan price and network quality. The most important reasonto them was our extensive coverage.

Why do you think that the world’s first borderless networkwas achieved in Africa? How will this help the profile ofAfrican telecoms? In particular, what were the roamingrates for Celtel subscribers before the introduction of theOne Network and how much did regional roaming incomecontribute to the bottom line of the national networks? From the customer perspective, One Network is extremely sim-ple and easy to understand. However, it took us a number ofyears to fully understand what they wanted and to develop it.

There have been several stages in the preparation of OneNetwork. In 2002, we made it possible for our customers inthe Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republicof Congo to make calls directly to each other. The capitalsof the two countries, Brazzaville and Kinshasa, are separatedby 12 kilometers of water across the River Congo and yetbefore, calls between them used to be routed throughEurope by a satellite connection and customers were pay-ing for cross continental international call charges. This newsystem dropped prices by 75%, as these were now localcalls. We followed this up by introducing pre-paid roamingbetween the two countries in 2004, because thousands ofpeople cross the river daily between Brazzaville andKinshasa, the two closest capital cities in the world. In thefirst year, more than 6,000 customers used the service. Since


we introduced One Network between the two countries in2007, more than 350,000 customers have been using theservice on a monthly basis between Kinshasa andBrazzaville. One Network is not built around pricing, butaround simplicity and user friendliness. In 2007, we usedalmost the same tariffs as in prepaid roaming in 2004. Wewere successful because of the scope of the offer, its sim-plicity and user friendliness.

Since we introduced One Network in Africa, many competi-tors have tried to copy it. We are flattered that they are fol-lowing our lead. In East Africa, MTN Uganda, SafaricomKenya and Vodacom in Tanzania tried to copy our offer,while Orange tried to duplicate it in West Africa. None ofthese attempts are as successful as our One Network. Yearsof hard work on understanding customer needs, experi-menting with the different offers and technical solutions cannot just be ‘reverse engineered.’ One Network is also notstanding still. We are constantly expanding not just withgeographical coverage, but also with what we offer.Recently, we introduced One Office (GPRS/EDGE), a servicelayer over One Network. This enables all our customers inEast Africa to use their internet services when they travel inthat region and we’re going to introduce a few more excit-ing service expansions shortly.

Was Africa the first region to see a borderless networkbecause roaming was not as profitable as in Europeanmarkets, or were other motives behind the decision to cre-ate the One Network in Africa? If so, how will this pio-neering role help enhance the profile of African telecoms?One Network is not a roaming service. This is extremelyimportant. It addresses different customer needs and hasabsolutely different positioning.

One Network is the world’s first true borderless mobilephone network and is already available in 12 countries. It

enables customers to become part of a pan-African com-munity and we look forward to expanding it further so thatwe can bring about a pan-African/ pan-Middle Eastern com-munity. This would enable our customers in the Middle Eastand Africa to move freely between the countries in whichZain Group operates and be treated as local customers. Inevery country they are visiting, they would benefit frombeing charged at local tariffs while retaining their home net-work service functionalities.

One Network is a major Zain Group initiative that is difficultto copy and enables our Corporate/SME sales teams inevery country to acquire and retain major accounts. Whenour sales team goes to see a customer with One Network,they have a strong compelling offer that cannot be intro-duced by other mobile operators. This is how Chevron,Shell, Kenya Airways, Total, UNDP, HP and many other highprofile accounts were acquired and retained. In Januaryalone, revenue from accounts acquired because of OneNetwork was worth more than $8 million.

After we introduced One Network in East Africa, theEuropean Union Telecoms Commissioners office called usto ask how it worked. We spent a substantial amount oftime explaining to them how the service actually worked,what the users thought of it and they used the informationand the mix of technical solutions was used. It is not oftenwe see innovation coming from Africa, which is now settingnew global standards for the rest of the world, particularly ina fast changing technical industry.

Reporting on the launch of One Network the renownedinternational magazine, The Economist, said, ‘Celtel has, ineffect, created a unified market of the kind that regulatorscan only dream about in Europe.’

During the One Network service launch in East Africa, oneof our board members said that in Europe they have oneflag, one currency, one tax regime and more or less one lan-guage and yet they failed to introduce One Network. Wehave 12 flags, nine currencies, 12 tax regimes and thou-sands of languages and we do have One Network.

All of us at the One Network team believe that the success ofOne Network is built on vision, teamwork, drive and focus.Today, One Network covers areas more than twice the size ofEurope with a population of more than 400 million people.

In general, how has the mobile phone changed the face ofAfrica and how will it change the continent? Through a mix of complex innovative technical solutions, busi-ness processes and consistency of brand attributes to deliverrelevant groundbreaking services as well as a user-friendly, easyto understand and seamless customer experience.

In a region historically dependent on freedom of movementacross borders, we are now offering a communications solu-

One Network is world’s firstborderless mobile phonenetwork spanning 12 countries. It enables cus-tomers to enjoy pan-African community and welook forward to expandingit so that we can bringabout a pan-African/pan-Middle East community


tion that fits the needs of our customers, breaking downbarriers and making life better for businesses, families andindividuals from West to East, from the Indian to AtlanticOcean. And this is just the beginning.

One Network will soon be launched in the Middle East.What lessons has Celtel learned from the One Networkexperience in Africa?One of the key lessons learned from One Network’s intro-duction in Africa was the importance of sharing information,experience and know-how. We, at Zain, are one big familyand from the One Network perspective, the success of onecountry is always a success for other One Network coun-tries. We are making the transfer of knowledge betweenOne Network countries an important aspect of service intro-duction. We are not only sharing documentation, businessprocesses, software codes and such. We are making surethat before we introduce the service team, members fromthe new countries travel to where the network is alreadyoperational to gain lots of One Network experience. We arealso making sure that we have experienced team memberson the ground to fully support new launches and postlaunch activities.

Another important lesson gained from the One Networkintroduction in Africa is the importance of business disci-

pline. Now, we are part of a big Zain family and the changesone makes not only impacts local customers, but also cus-tomers from other countries. Today, we have over 25 millioncustomers with access to One Network. Soon we will haveeven more as our Middle East countries join in.

What was the cost of establishing the borderless net-work for Celtel and what were the main technical chal-lenges if any? Obviously, One Network is a life initiative and as we aremoving through different stages of the product lifecycle,different areas of the program requires different attentionlevels. In the initial stage of service introduction, we had anumber of technical challenges. Actually, the entire techni-cal solution was fully re-designed a couple of times. It tookus more than a year to launch the service in East Africa,then nine months to expand it to Central Africa and yet onlysix months to more than double the coverage area when weintroduced it to West Africa and Sudan.

Today, the technical solution used for the One Network roll-outis probably the easiest part of the project. With 12 countriesparticipating in the One Network program and additional coun-tries joining the family, the consistency of the end-user experi-ence and business processes represents the biggest challenge.This is what takes up most of our time and effort.


The 200,000 fishermen who work on Lake Victoriawill soon have to opportunity to use mobilephones to call for help if they get into trouble on

the world’s second largest inland lake. Pan-Africa mobileoperator Celtel, a subsidiary of the Zain Group, andEricsson, the world’s leading provider of technology andservices to telecom operators, have committed toextending the mobile networks across the Lake Victoriaregion, fuelling economic and social development of thelakeside communities and potentially reducing the num-ber of fishing-related deaths each year.

Zain and Ericsson, with support from the GSM Association’sDevelopment Fund, are upgrading Celtel’s existing infra-structure and building an additional 21 radio sites to pro-vide mobile coverage up to 20 kilometers into the lake. Thiswill take about six months and ensure mobile coverage over90% of the fishing zones, where up to 5,000 people dieeach year from accidents and piracy.

The project will use Ericsson’s Extended Range softwarepackage to more than double the effective range of radiobase stations as well as Ericsson’s Mobile Position System, alocation-based service that enables emergency authoritiesto triangulate the mobile signal of fishermen in distress.Ericsson’s green site solutions, including solar and hybridpower solutions, will also be utilized to provide electricpower to the base stations in the more remote island areas.To further support the local communities, it is expectedthat a temporary rescue coordination service will be estab-lished to provide assistance to lake users until a more per-manent solution can be established by the East AfricaCommunity and other stakeholders in the region.

Ericsson, Zain and the GSMA’s Development Fund havespent the past six months investigating how to provide bet-ter communications for the 30 million people in Tanzania,Kenya and Uganda who live in the immediate vicinity of thelake. The move to extend the region’s mobile networkreflects the companies’ commitment to corporate responsi-bility and to improving lives through communication, and issupported by a solid business case based on increased sub-

Saving lives on the lakeZain, Ericsson and the GSMA extend mobilecoverage on Lake Victoria

scriber numbers and a higher volume of data traffic, therebyensuring the sustainability of the project.

Zain also plans to provide value-added services, such as up-to-the-minute market prices, which will have a significantimpact on local people’s livelihoods. Researchers in Indiahave found that using mobile phones can significantly boostfishermen’s earnings by helping them find the best pricesfor their catch. The availability of mobile services is alsoexpected to benefit the tourism, transportation and fishexports and could be key to attracting further businessdevelopment in the region.

“Zain is committed to supporting the communities weserve making vital telecommunications accessible to all,”said Dr Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Zain Group. “This invest-ment will be further supported by our One Network con-cept, which eliminates international roaming fees for ourcustomers who cross regional borders.”

According to Jan Embro, President of Ericsson in sub-Saharan Africa, “This project is an excellent example ofhow Ericsson’s core technology can contribute to socialand economic development. In this case there is a win-win situation: we are enabling the basic human rights ofsafety, security and economic development, while at thesame time the project is supported by a sustainablebusiness case.”

Dawn Haig-Thomas, Director of the GSMA’sDevelopment Fund, said: “mobile phones and networkshave played a critical part in saving countless people’slives in emergency situations all over the world. Theexpansion of coverage across the lake will extend a life-line to the thousands of people who depend on the lakefor a living.”

Lake Victoria is the world’s second largest inland lake bysurface area and spans the borders of Uganda, Kenya andTanzania. About 800,000 people rely on the lake for theirlivelihood, including 150,000 fishermen and their depen-dants. The lake sustains a vibrant fishing industry worth $5billion annually.


The joint initiative will fuel economic development onthe lake, which bordersUganda, Kenya and Tanzaniaand which sees around 5,000deaths each year from fishing-related accidents and piracy


Businesses and governments must make better use oftheir communications and computing infrastructure ifthey are to benefit from the full economic and social

benefits of ICT. To measure that impact of connectivityNokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has worked together withProfessor Leonard Waverman of London Business School. Theoutcome – the Connectivity Scorecard is a groundbreakingnew global ICT measure that ranks countries in terms of con-nectivity and helps to define the state of a nation’s ICT infra-structure as well as the effectiveness of its use.

CONNECTIVITY SCORECARD: DEFINING WHERE WEARE TODAYThe Connectivity Scorecard is calculated by taking the approxi-mately 30 indicators of connectivity that contribute to theenhancement of each country’s social and economic prosperityand assigning them to one of six dimensions: consumer infra-structure and consumer usage, business infrastructure and busi-ness usage/skills, and government infrastructure and govern-ment usage. The “infrastructure” and “usage and skills” sub-categories for consumers, businesses and governments arethen weighted by considering the relative contribution of infra-structure and labor force skills, a proxy for “usage and skills,” toproductivity growth (for businesses and government) and utility(for consumers). The result is individual scores for government,business and consumer, as well as the aggregate score for eachcountry shown in Table 1.

The results demonstrate that not even the world’s richestcountries can afford to become complacent about theircurrent telecom and computing profile. Every nation hassubstantial work to do before achieving an ideal score inconnectivity. It is not surprising that African countries rankamong the lowest in connectivity. The challenge andopportunity is of course to help African nations to helpthemselves. To meet the challenge and make the most ofthe opportunity is about innovation from the part of com-munications services providers like Zain as well as solu-tions providers like NSN.

AFRICA: CALLING FOR CONNECTIVITY AND INNOVATIONThe key to future customer growth is to reach the rural pop-ulation. Close to 3 billion people live in rural areas world-wide. In Asia some 60% of the population lives in villages. InAfrica this figure is 70%. Providing communications services

Connecting communitiesWhat network providers can do for Africausing a bit of innovation

in rural areas calls for innovation. It is a big business oppor-tunity, but a big challenge too, as income levels in ruralareas are significantly lower than those in urban areas.Service providers need to be prepared to make mobile con-nectivity affordable for just $2-3 per month.

The most promising business approach to connectingremote villages is partnering with a local entrepreneur famil-iar with potential customers and who can run the local oper-

United States 6.97Sweden 6.83Japan 6.80

Canada 6.50Finland 6.10

UK 6.10Australia 5.93Germany 5.52

France 5.07Korea 4.78

Hong Kong SAR 4.46Italy 3.85

Spain 3.56Hungary 3.18

Czech Republic 3.11Poland 2.18

INNOVATION DRIVENECONOMIES

CONNECTIVITY SCORE

Russia 6.11Malaysia 5.82Mexico 4.37Brazil 4.28

South Africa 4.11China 3.42

Philippines 2.38India 1.68

Nigeria 1.01

RESOURCE & EFFICIENCYDRIVEN ECONOMIES

CONNECTIVITY SCORE

TABLE 1


ations. In this model the entire village customeracquisition and care process remains local, reducingoverall sales and marketing efforts.

The NSN Village Connection is an innovative solu-tion that helps service providers to overcome techni-cal and commercial challenges and be the first todevelop a customer base in remote villages. Thesolution reduces network CAPEX: by introducing anautonomous village site with local traffic handlingcapability and minimizes total OPEX as village entre-preneur is taking care of the customer care and serv-ice as well as service provisioning.

THE NEXT STEP: INTERNET FOR THE NEXT BILLIONWith a vision of 5 billion people connected by 2015network providers challenge service providers tolook into opportunities around Mobile Internet. Theysuggest that in addition to Access – communica-tions services providers need to look into Motivationand Competence to define what kind of contentpeople would like to access and what kind of inter-face and skills they have in their disposal.Furthermore – for the next billion – affordability isvery important.

Access incorporates both technological and socio-eco-nomic issues. From the technology point of view,access refers to the ability to connect and relates close-ly to network solutions and devices that provide themeans to connect. From the socio-economic point ofview, access relates to the affordability of connectionand introduces initiatives to lower the cost of devicesand encourage new business models to overcome theaffordability barrier, such as device sharing.Communications providers like Zain are on a driver’sseat in bringing access to even the most rural villages.And innovations like NSN Village Connection arereducing affordability barriers significantly.

But access without motivation is not sufficient to make themost of ICT. Motivation: Technology helps leaders to deliverbetter services to their citizens. The motivation for govern-ments, investors and individuals to deploy and use newtechnologies, particularly communications, is to drive upeconomic growth, boost employment and improve thewider socio-economic wellbeing.

Furthermore, there is a need to raise competence level – thatis people’s ability to use mobile phones and computers – andthat requires strategic investment in education to provide skillsdevelopment and workforce training opportunities, as well ascreate digital inclusion initiatives to enable as many people aspossible to participate fully in a technology-driven economy.

Access is the first part, and as mobile phones are connectingAfrica and Zain is playing a major role in providing that connec-

tivity. However, as the connectivity index shows, having access isdifferent than making good use of the ICT technology and hav-ing a profound impact on the nation’s prosperity. ConnectingAfrica calls for innovation and cooperation – and Zain and NSNand other solution providers are well positioned to meet thechallenge and make the most of the opportunity. Together.

Courtesy of NSN

A promising buisnessapproach to connect remotevillages is to team up withlocal entrepreneurs familiarwith potential customers

48 CHAOS FALL 2007 CORPORATE SPIRIT


When Zain launched the educational TV show CeltelAfrica Challenge last year it was banking on the factthat it could ride the wave created by Build Our

Nation, the company’s successful pan-African corporate socialresponsibility campaign, which donates more than $1 million ayear to government owned schools across Africa. These bookdonations have enabled tens of thousands of school children tobetter their education and their exam results have improved.

“So we thought this programme could be popular too,”said Tito Alai, Zain Group Chief Commercial Officer.

Building on the success of the pilot programme with morethan $300,000 in grants to universities and prizes for partici-pants, competition to qualify for the Celtel Africa Challengewas stiff. Sixty universities entered competitions in their owncountry with only fifteen qualifying for the final rounds.Queues of up to 800 students were reported at some uni-versities when trials were held to choose their team.

“This programme highlights Zain’s commitment to develop-ing youth,” said Dr Saad Al Barrak, CEO Zain Group. “Theyare the future of Africa and we want to give them moreopportunities to develop their talents. This is why we areproud to sponsor this show as part of out commitment topromoting education in Africa. Our company is closely asso-ciated with education as part of our corporate socialresponsibility and this show, which is produced to worldclass standards, shows this to the public.”

Participation in the competition is open to all accreditedpublic and private universities. The show is in the secondyear of broadcast following a trial in East Africa last year,during which it attracted record peak time audiences.According to a survey by the independent ratings agencyThe Steadman Group, more than 43% of audiences in theregion watched the first season of the Celtel AfricaChallenge with 85% of them finding it appealing and 80%stating that it had a positive impact on the Celtel brand.

It’s not only the participating students and universities thatare winners. Every week in each country that the show is tel-evised, audiences watching at home can win high endmobile handsets, airtime and other prizes. During the showthe students are asked questions based on the educational cur-

riculum of the participating countries and also general knowl-edge questions from around the world. The amount of grantsand prizes won by the students and their universities increases as they progress through the initial rounds to the final.

Last year’s Celtel Africa Challenge was won by Egerton Universityfrom Kenya which was awarded a grant of $50,000 which wasused to set up a state of the art cyber café at their campus.

“The cyber café has come at the opportune time for theEgerton community. It has widened the scope for accessinglearning resources. Further the Celtel Africa Challenge hasenabled us to create an invaluable network with the other

The Celtel ChallengeZain launches Africa’s biggest educationaltelevision show


universities in the region,” said Prof James Tuitoek, ViceChancellor Egerton.

In addition the students on the winning team made an edu-cational trip of a lifetime to South Africa. On their five-dayexcursion they visited the Soweto area near Johannesburgand the Constitutional Court, Apartheid Museum, WitsUniversity and the magnificent Sun City.

“This is such an exciting and unbelievable moment for myteam. We are glad to see what we have only known throughour history lessons,” commented Mr. Adrian Onyando, theteam coach.

Kenyatta University who were placed second in the first sea-son of the Celtel Africa Challenge won a $25,000 universitygrant which they used upgrade their university’s informationtechnology capacity.

Building on the success of the 2007 and 2008 seasons of theshow the Zain Group is planning to extend it into otherparts of Africa and into the Middle East.

The show is produced by Los Angeles based Richard ReidTelevision who produce the University Challenge which hasbeen broadcast in the United Kingdom for more than 40years and also the Honda Campus Challenge. The CeltelAfrica Challenge is made in partnership with the Ministriesof Education in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda andthe universities of these five countries along with the InterUniversity Council of East Africa.

Last year’s Celtel challengewas won by EgertonUniversity from Kenya, whichwas awarded a grant of$50,000. The money wasused to establish a state-of-the-art on-campus cyber cafe


Bestselling author, world-renowned management con-sultant and the recipient of many international awards,Dr Stephen Covey visited Bahrain in early March for a

unique one-day seminar, by invitation of the Zain Group. DrCovey is undoubtedly one of the worlds most respectedand admired business thinkers and during the workshopattended by over 200 senior Zain managers from across its22 operations in the Middle East and Africa, he coveredmany key areas on how Zain personnel can increase theireffectiveness, professionally and personally, helping them tosucceed by unleashing their power to focus on and executetheir top priorities.

“This really is a marvelous, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity tobring Dr Covey right into the heart of the Middle East forhim to share with us with his insights and innovative ideasthat have already helped shape not only today’s businessworld but his deliberations on family-life are also a keysource of inspiration,” commented Dr Saad Al Barrak, CEOof Zain Group. “I would suggest that most, if not all, busi-ness people today have, at some time, turned to his booksand publications for insights and fresh ideas as a source ofbusiness or personal success”.

Dr Covey is the recipient of many awards ranging fromInternational Man of Peace to the National FatherhoodAward and an internationally respected leadership authority,family expert, teacher, organizational consultant and authorwho has dedicated his life to teaching principle-centeredliving and leadership to individuals, families and organiza-tions. Dr. Covey is probably best known as the author of theinternational bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly EffectivePeople that was named the #1 Most Influential BusinessBook of the 20th Century. Other bestsellers include FirstThings First, Principle-Centered Leadership, and The 7Habits of Highly Effective Families.

At a press conference with local and international mediaduring a break for lunch, Dr Covey and Dr Al Barrak talkedof their hopes for the event. “I was delighted to be invitedhere by Zain and very much looked forward to meeting andtalking with Dr Al Barrak and Zain personnel,” commented

7 Habits author in Bahrain Zain hosts world renowned consultant Dr Stephen Covey


Dr Covey. “This is an exciting part of the world with somuch vibrancy and growth – not least of all from Zain - and Ihope today’s presentations and ideas can play some role incontributing to the continued successful business growthfor the company”.

In conclusion, Dr Al Barrak said: “It is not everyday we getthe opportunity to have such a distinguished and influentialguest in our midst and the chance to receive such valuedadvice and input that we can take back to our respectivebusinesses. We are hopeful that coming from today’s eventwe will have fresh ideas and insights that will help us in ourgoal of becoming a top-ten global mobile telecommunica-tions company by 2011.”

Dr. Covey is probably bestknown as the author ofthe international best-seller, The 7 Habits ofHighly Effective People,named as the #1 MostInfluential Business Bookof the 20th Century


The Zain story in its new and challenging market, SaudiArabia, continues to unfold. Almost one year after theinvestor consortium led by Zain latched the successful

$6.1 billion bid for the kingdom’s third mobile communicationslicense in spring 2007, the Group has just carried out an initialpublic offering on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) inFebruary 2008. The IPO is one of the conditions set by Saudiauthorities in granting Zain a mobile operating license.

The response of investors was tremendous, giving the ZainIPO the distinction of being the fourth largest stock markettransaction in Saudi history in terms of subscribers and thelargest in terms of funds subscribed.

More than 8.5 million subscribers placed their requests for atotal of 1.78 billion shares at the par value of SAR 10 pershare ($2.67) raising some SAR 17.83 billion ($4.76 billion).This puts the public interest in the Zain presence in SaudiArabia at nearly half the eligible population and more thana third of the total population, when counting from theyoungest baby to the most distinguished grandparent.

Given that the 700-million-shares IPO included an allocationof 70 million shares to the Kingdom’s Public Pension Agency(PPA), the demand for the 630 million shares available forindividual subscribers was very impressive and reached acoverage ratio of 283%. It needs to be noted that anyone

Record breaking IPOHuge response to share offering reflectsconfidence in the Zain Saudi Arabia move


who subscribed to the minimum 50 shares got the 50 shareshe subscribed for, and any individual who subscribed formore than the minimum 50 shares i.e. 100 or more, receivedan allocation of 83 shares. Any surplus was refunded to sub-scribers accounts on February 24, 2008.

Overall, SAR 7 billion ($1.87 billion) was raised, representing50% of the Saudi company’s total capital of SAR 14 billion.

Primary market offerings in Saudi Arabia have seen goodresponse from investors in 2007 when some 25 IPOsbrought new companies to the Tadawul exchange.However, while several smaller flotation initiatives, carriedout mostly by the new Saudi insurance industry, attractedimpressive demand and performed very well at their tradingdebuts last year, the overall climate for initial public offer-ings turned somewhat tricky in the latter part of 2007. Thisslowed IPO plans in several Middle Eastern exchanges. It isa sign of the Zain IPO resilience that the measure fulfilledand surpassed expectations.

“This successful IPO indicates the confidence and trust ofSaudi investors in Zain, both at a local and an internationallevel in sync with our aspirations in being a top-ten globaloperator” explained Zain CEO Dr. Saad Al Barrak.

Mastering the Saudi market is a proper testing ground forZain’s twin expansion ambitions of shaping a globally lead-ing communications brand and of becoming one of theworld’s largest mobile network operators.

CHALLENGES AHEADTo be launched and branded as Zain by first-half of 2008,the Saudi operation faces several challenges. The first iscoverage. Saudi Arabia has one of the most challenginggeographies in the world for a mobile operator. The firmneeds to build a distribution network that can reach apopulation of 25 million people from scratch. To achievesuch, Zain recently awarded a $1bn contract to Nokia-Siemens Network and a $335 million contract to Motorolato build a national network using second and third-gener-ation mobile phone technologies. These telecoms infra-structure companies will build the Zain network in thecoming months.

"By launch, we will have covered 53% of the total areaswhere people live with our own physical network, effectivelycovering 95% of the population in total," he says. "Unlessyou are willing to prepare and build for three years beforelaunch, there is no way you can cover all of the populationwith your own network" says Dr Marwan Alahmadi, chiefexecutive officer of Zain in Saudi Arabia.

Zain will also have to rely on infrastructure-sharing agree-ments with the two existing mobile operators Etisalat andSaudi Telecom in its first few years of operation.

Another challenge is in attaining market share. Competitionis expected to be tough with both existing operators firmlyestablished and successful in their own right in attainingmarket share that nears 90% penetration levels. "With theplanned launch of the One Network providing roamingbenefits, a well-prepared marketing strategy of offeringmodern technologies and friendly service to our customers,we see us eventually getting our fair market share, with themarket eventually being split between the three operatorsequally" says Dr Alahmadi adding that “we do not intend togo into price wars and instead approach the communitywith high value propositions”.

Zain’s ability to gather the trust and confidence of Saudiinvestors and finding the necessary common ground withcompeting operators, in addition to the company’s well pre-pared overall strategy in launching, do all bode well forfuture projects, whichever new market and competitive envi-ronment Zain may target next.

Investorresponse wastremendous,giving the ZainIPO the distinc-tion of beingthe fourthlargest stockmarket deal inKSA history interms of sub-scribers andthe largest interms of fundssubscribed


Zain made a spectacular impact at the Mobile WorldCongress 2008 (commonly referred to as 3GSM) heldbetween February 11 and 14 in Barcelona, Spain.

In an innovative move, the brainchild of Ahmed Al Ameerfrom Zain Group’s Communication Dept who came upwith and project managed the idea, Zain took over andtotally rebranded La Font de Prades, a 2,000 m2 multistorey restaurant located in the Poble Espanyol, the his-toric area close to the 3GSM Convention centre in theheart of Barcelona. Structural adaptations and colourfulZain branding were added to the restaurant to host the2,000 Zain personnel and other visitors over the four daysof the event.

Exceptional presence at world’s leadingmobile event attracts many VIPS

Zain House in Barcelona


“When I think of how an idea developed into reality, it is atestament to the hard work and commitment of the Zainteam that this magnificent venue has taken shape,” said Al Ameer.

Decor aside, Zain’s CEO Dr. Saad Al-Barrak reiterated thestrong business message conveyed by the event. “We havea stated corporate objective to become a top-ten globalmobile company by 2011 and our presence here puts us onthe same stage as the other giants of the mobile telecomsindustry, he declared. “Over the four days we discussed ourfuture strategies with our peers and international media aswell as concluding many deals with major suppliers, andshowcasing our new corporate brand Zain.”

Dignitaries and executives from the mobile communicationsindustry visited Zain’s unique facility as did Mr Joan Laporta,Chairman of Barcelona Football Club who met with Asaad AlBanwan, Chairman of Zain and Dr Al Barrak, who acknowledgedthe huge impact the club has on the great city of Barcelona.

One of the highlights of the event was Zain’s Gala Dinnerattended by 500 VIP guests from the industry and Barcelonasociety. “Our intention was to launch and showcase Zain tointernational audiences and to put the Zain brand on theworld map of mobile communications,” explained Dr AlBarrak, adding that judging by the praise and thanks heapedon Zain for a truly memorable evening, it certainly seemedlike the company had succeeded.

The intention was to showcaseZain to international audiencesand put the brand on the map


Zain rebranded LaFont de Prades, arestaurant inBarcelona’s PobleEspanyol area


For once Iraq’s private sector and citizens had some-thing to celebrate when Zain started 2008 with a boldshow of confidence in the future of Iraq, a country

where the Zain Group sees huge potential.

In keeping with a the new company tradition of simultane-ous, multi-location celebrations – the first was held inSeptember 2007 in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, and Sudan –Zain launched its brand on the Iraqi market on January 5,2008 with two synchronized parties, one in Baghdad with1,000 guests and the other in Beirut with 150 guests, underthe brand’s popular Wonderful World slogan.

Connected through a live satellite link-up provided by Al-Somaria TV, one of Iraq’s leading channels, which later thatevening telecasted the two events, the Baghdad guestswatched the Beirut event live and vice-versa. Famous

Middle East-based artists entertained the guests, encouragingmany to take to the dance floors.

In addition to rebranding the company’s existing country oper-ations from Atheer to the new master brand, Zain also cele-brated the earlier acquisition of Iraqna, another Iraqi mobilenetwork with more than three million customers.

Zain’s confidence in Iraq as a prominent member of its com-munications community across a diverse range of 22 countrieswas built operating the Atheer network since the end of 2003.It was a period that saw exponential growth rates, building asolid presence and loyal customer base, first in southern Iraqand then in the Baghdad area.

In 2007, when the Iraqi government was able to conclude thephase of working with geographically restricted, provisional

The Zain Group celebrates rebrandinganother exciting market

The Iraqi Conversion


licenses (which had been extended beyond their initialdurations), MTC Atheer was one of three successful biddersfor a 15-year nationwide operator license.

Winning 1.25 billion bid placed Zain in a position where itcould prepare for long-term sustainable growth in Iraq andin December 2007 the company made a $1.2 billion offer tothe Egyptian Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH), operator ofthe Iraqna network, for assets that became available afterOTH pulled-out of the bidding for one of the three mobilelicenses in Iraq.

With its recent additional investment of $2.45 billion inoperator license and new assets, Zain jumped from beingthe largest among three relatively equally sized providers toa dominant 70% market player.

Total mobile customer numbers in Iraq at the start of 2008have been tallied at 10 million, signifying considerable roomfor growth, services diversification, and revenue growth inthe coming years given the 25 million population.

“In recent years through the provision of essential telecommu-nication services and extensive community support, both MTCAtheer and Iraqna have played critical roles in the reconstruc-tion of Iraq,” Dr Saad Al Barrak, Zain Group CEO. “Together asZain, and as one larger operation utilizing the Group’s world-wide resources, we will be even better positioned to serve the

people of Iraq. Zain’s unrelenting commitment to the futureprosperity of Iraq goes hand-in-hand with our aspirations ofbeing a top-ten global operator.”

His words were echoed by Mr Ali Al Dahwi, general managerof Zain in Iraq: “By adopting the new corporate brand name ofZain we have the opportunity to bring the benefits of thedepth and breadth of products and services available acrossthe Group’s companies to the people of Iraq. Customers willexperience and enjoy the same quality of reliability and stan-dards of excellence found in other Zain operations. In addition,the joining of Iraq’s two leading mobile companies with all ourexperiences to date and combined resources will enhance ourcapabilities of expanding and upgrading our network acrossthe whole of Iraq.”

Mr Al Dahwi endorsed Dr Al Barrak view that the companywould approach expansion with a mind of value-addedgrowth and not look for sole dominance of the market.

“We intend to be the leading player but we want othercompetitors to grow because if we grow the market as awhole we think it will make everybody better,” he said,adding that full integration of the Atheer and Iraqna net-works is expected by mid-2008 and that Iraq will be an ini-tial Middle Eastern market in the group’s rolling out of theborderless One Network service concept in the second halfof the 2008.

In Iraq...


Meanwhile in Lebanon...


February 22, 2008 saw Dr. Saad Al Barrak, CEO of ZAINGroup named Man of the Year 2008 by Arab AdMagazine, the Middle East’s leading media and advertis-

ing publication.

The Award was in recognition of Al Barrak’s achievementsand unique vision both of which have allowed the ZainGroup to witness exponential growth during the few past

years and to occupy leading positions on both the regionaland international scenes. For the occasion, Arab Ad organ-ized a dinner in Beirut in honor of Dr. Saad Al Barrak, gath-ering the elite of advertising and communication as well asa large representation of ZAIN personnel.

“This is the most gratifying award I have received so far, andit will forever hold a special place in my heart,” said Dr. Al

Dr. Saad Al Barrak: Arab AdMan of the Year 2008 Popular, regional media magazine honorsZain Group CEO for his energy and vision


Barrak, thanking Arab Ad’s General Manager and Editor-in-Chief Mr. Walid Azzi for the prestigious award. “I am the lastperson to deserve this award. The ones who really deserveit are my colleagues at ZAIN who have made ZAIN the greatentity that today, one that ranks fourth worldwide in termsof geographical reach. The Arab World should take pride ofthis achievement.”

For his part, Mr Azzi noted that “it was Dr Al Barrak’s brave-ness, foresight and determination in rebranding the MTCGroup to Zain in September 2007 that made a huge region-al impact. The launch and creativity of the Zain brand and

its theme A Wonderful World has greatly impressed theadvertising and media industry and had an enormous effectin the markets in which Zain operates”.

Dr. Barrak has received many awards including Best CEO inthe Middle East for the ICT sector by Datamatix in 2005 andtwo “lifetime Achievement” Awards, the first in 2006 duringthe Arab Economic Forum organized by Al Iktissad walAamal Group and the second in 2007 by COMMSMEAmagazine. “Be daring, be first, be different,” he said on hisphilosophy in life. “It is only then, that you will be capableof moving the whole world!”


Very often I am asked Who are you? What moves you? Whatdo you stand for?

I am often labeled as ambiguous and chaotic, a restless war-rior moving on to fight one battle after another in a string ofwars where no one knows – including myself – how manywere won and how many were lost?

I will start by confessing that yes I am ambiguous because Iam confusing. Maybe it’s because my energy outpaces thesenses and maybe it’s because I challenge the status quo(and therefore those who live by it) that I am labeled “rebel-lious” and “chaotic.”

In fact, I chose to build my life around the motto: “BeDaring. Be First. Be Different” because when you are dar-ing, first and different, you will provoke the world!

Let me try therefore, for the first time in my life and in a heart-to heart way talk about my philosophy and how I see things.

I believe:You become stronger by being weaker than the weak andstronger than the strong. When your heart guides your mind, when your mindbecomes your ship sailing to the future by floating on theocean of your emotion, and the higher the tide of youremotion the further your ship can reach and the more youcan achieve.When you realize that your passion is the most precioustreasure God has entrusted in you, When you know how to garner and manage the passionportfolio and its immense reservoir in your people’s heartsand souls, When you grasp that leadership is more of a soul than of an intellect,When you recognize that dreams are ends and means,

And when your capacity to dream drives and outperformsyour capacity to execute,When you surf on the ocean of life to pursue an eventualserendipity to reach a serendipitous eventuality,When you choose to fly while everyone else is walking,When risk is pleasure and surprise is a treasure, When humanity becomes your family and the universe isyour homeland,When your acceptance by others is only the return of youracceptance of others,When you celebrate diversity as ultimate joy because foryou choice is an ultimate human right,When you honor God’s creation and God’s way and infinite-ly challenge your creation and your own way,When the human brand is the brand that you most identifyyourself with and of which you have the greatest pride,When simplicity becomes your sole way to sophistication, When your capacity to generate controversy outweighs yourpower to generate consensus,When randomness is your broadest space to realize theprowess of your systems,When passion is far more important than procedure,When your wealth is not measured by how much you madebut by how many you made happy,When humility becomes the source of your pride and serv-ing the human cause is your most enjoyable ride,When your past propels you beyond your future and yourfuture is only a station in the journey of your life, When you endeavor to build a civilized organization only tobuild a universally organized civilization,When fun is your ammunition to create a storming success,And finally when hatred, bigotry, racism, arrogance, preju-dice and all ill feelings are all washed out and away by theevasiveness of your passion,And when your way of life: is to love… and keep loving.. alland always and forever.This is who I am.

Who Am I? What moves me?What do I stand for? Dr Barrak’s speech at the Arab Ad Man of theYear gala dinner in Beirut, February 22, 2008.

76 CHAOS SPRING 2008 MOBILE LIFE

Mobile browsing is fast emerg-ing as a source of mainstreaminformation, entertainment

and transaction for people on the go.Wireless users are taking advantage ofadvanced handsets and next-genera-tion networks to surf the web. Asmobile phones and wireless handhelddevices continue to increase penetra-tion and usage rates in the MiddleEast and Africa, users are also utilizingthe full potential of their mobilephones. Today’s mobile phones arestandard equipped with internet capa-bilities, and use of smart phones,which give the user larger screens andtouch capabilities, is on the rise.According to Ipsos, a survey basedmarket research firm, those accessingthe internet by way of mobile phonesnow outnumber those connecting tothe internet via notebook PCs in manyparts of the world.

“While laptops have become quite pop-ular, the ubiquity and convenience ofmobile phones, combined with high-speed networks, means that the devicesare poised to become a dominant inter-net platform for those without access toa PC,” explained Adam Wright, seniorresearch manager for Ipsos. “Advancedwireless networks and new handsets nowoffer a good browsing experience, so thephone has become a good way for peo-ple to extend the way they conduct theirdaily activities.”

In this region, a mobile is the firstdevice people think of buying oncethey have a small amount of money,and, according to Antoine Naaman,editor for ‘T3 Middle East’ magazine,the more affluent never cease chang-ing their phones for the latest andgreatest. The obsession with mobiles,

as well as better connections and thepresence of WiFi in many areas, hasalso helped to boost mobile browsingpopularity.

While the 18-34 age bracket remainsthe largest group of mobile-phoneowners browsing the internet, Ipsosalso reported that, contrary to popularbelief, the growth in mobile browsingis increasingly being driven by usersaged 35 and up, a finding that indi-cates this activity is going mainstream.Mobile browsing is freeing profession-als from lugging around their laptopsto send and receive e-mails or trackinformation.

The rise in popularity of mobile brows-ing has caused most websites to offermobile versions that can accommo-date the small screens and limitedinput mechanisms. Portal sites offerquick and easy access to news, sports,weather, entertainment, and informa-tion sites. However, “off-portal” sitesare becoming important destinationsfor mobile web browsing, with sitessuch as Yahoo!, Facebook, BBC andSky offering tailored mobile experi-ences stripped of the graphics andstreamlined to fit small screens.

Much has changed from the introduc-tion of the first smart phone in 1994.The combination mobile-PDA wasexpensive and heavy and was difficultto navigate. Over a decade later, smartphones are lighter, less expensive andrich with media capabilities. Mobilehandheld devices are evolving espe-cially in their screens to support 16 mil-lion colors, the ability to handle ninelines of text, and crisper screens. Keys,scrolling and drag and drop featuresare also more developed. “In my opin-

ion, the evolution has occurred in thephones and not the search enginesbecause it is the technology in thephone that counts,” said Naaman.

MOST USER-FRIENDLY BROWSERSThe top browsers of today are part ofproprietary operating systems pre-installed on smart phones. iPhone’sSafari browser is the most talked aboutmobile browser on the market. Named‘Time’ magazine’s Invention of the Yearfor 2007, iPhone’s Safari was praised forits ease of use and attractiveness. Thebrowser is based on the same code that

Revolutionized mobile phones are heavilycompeting with PCs to become the internettools of choice

The new internet highway

77 CHAOS SPRING 2008MOBILE LIFE

The modern smart phones of today arelighter, less expensive and rich inmedia capabilities. They can support16 million colors and nine lines of textbeamed onto crisper screens

powers the desktop OS X version.Targeting the widest audience of con-sumers, the iPhone took a major stepforward by allowing the user to skip thestripped-down versions of websitesWAP (wireless application protocol)pages to render a full web experience.

Safari’s main competitor is Symbian’sS60 browser pre-installed on mostNokia phones. Not exclusive to onephone maker, the Symbian platform isalso available on Sony Ericsson,Panasonic, Siemens, and Samsung,among others. As of last year, Symbianhad 67% of the market share of smart

mobile devices. Like Safari, SymbianS60 attempts to portray web pagesexactly as they would on your PC.Speed is a major component to thisbrowser, with a major criticism beingits inability to stream video.

The Palm Blazer browser is an earlyfavorite of the mobile web thatemphasizes raw data and text ratherthan graphics and images. The touchscreen on the Palm handsets makessurfing easier and using the horizontaland vertical scroll bars or Tap andDrag commands that allow the user tomove about the page with ease. The

flaw in this browser is that Blazer refor-mats web pages by stripping them oftheir design and mangling their layout.Blazer’s third-party rival is OpenMobl’sopen-source Universe 3, which addstabbed browsing and RSS feeds.

Blackberry’s browser isn’t great withimages and graphics either but it isthe speed that is important with itsusers. A popular device among upper-management and professionals for itsconcentration on e-mail, BlackBerryhas a full keyboard optimized for“thumbing.” Its settings allow you tocontrol whether you want to renderelements such as tables, CSS, andbackground colors on the screen.

If you aren’t happy with the pre-installedbrowsers on you phone, third-partyoptions are available for every platformbut the iPhone. Many browsers, howev-er, target service providers rather thanconsumers so support can be spotty.Opera Mini 4 beta 2 – a very small, fastbrowser with few frills and no renderingproblems – runs on virtually every smartphone platform.

Skyfire, just announced in January, is afree browser intended to handle all thata normal PC can including Flash video,Quicktime, Javascript, and much more.The browser is currently in a private betatest in the US, after which it will be madeavailable to all. The difference in thisbrowser is that it is server based, soopening a webpage is faster than mostother browsers.

More browsers have yet to hit the mar-ket, such as Google’s Android that isset to be released this year. “I thinkthat with the rapid evolution of tech-nology, more companies will belaunching search engines, and this willbe the center of attention for the com-ing years. Everyone is looking formobility and ease of use,” explainedNaaman. “Mobile internet will be anecessity, and people will use it forbrowsing, reading headlines, stayingup-to-date with stocks, checking e-mail and booking flights. It’s movingtoward something that promises to bereally interesting.”


Do you remember the first mobilephones? Bigger than a person’shead and too cumbersome to fit

into a good-sized bag, let alone a pock-et, they were too hefty – weighing in atjust under a kilogram – to be glamorous.But they were, without a doubt, one ofthe most amazing things to come out ofthe 20th century.

Just as amazing was the invention of thetelephone itself in 1876; but these days,mobile or cell phones do so much morethan just allow us to talk to each other –something that now seems so 19th cen-tury. We now use such additional servicesas SMS for text messaging, email, packetswitching for access to the Internet, andMMS for sending and receiving photosand video. Most contemporary mobiles –with the exception of satellite phones –connect to a cellular network of base sta-tions, or cell sites, and are in turn inter-connected to the public switched tele-phone network.In fact, cell phone technology really hascome a long, long way since 1947, whenengineers at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories(Labs) came up with the idea of cells formobile phone stations. Sophisticated asthey may seem, cell phones are a type oftwo-way radio, and were invented as aresult of research on crude mobile carphones. Researchers discovered thatusing small cells – corresponding to therange of service area – with frequencyreuse could increase the traffic capacityof mobile phones substantially.

Ericsson introduced the first fully auto-matic mobile telephone system in 1956,which paved the way for today’s mobilebroadband networks. Known as MTA(mobile telephone system A), it was the

first system that didn’t require any kind ofmanual control. However, it was extreme-ly heavy: with phones weighing about 40kilograms the only way they could betransported was in a car, with additionalbatteries stored in the trunk.

During the 1960s and 1970s, AT&T andMotorola battled each other to be thefirst to incorporate technology intoportable devices. In 1970, the BellLabs invented the call handoff feature,which was pretty radical at the time,

How, in such a short space of time, has themobile phone come to dominate our lives?

Hear no evil, speak no evil


and allowed mobile-phone users totravel through several cells during thesame conversation. But it wasMotorola that is widely considered tobe the inventor of the first practicalmobile phone for handheld use in anon-vehicle setting.

Motorola pioneered radio communica-tions and produced its first Motorola-branded car radio in 1930; and in 1940,developed its first handheld radio – theHandie-Talkie portable two-way radio, forthe United States military. But it was inthe early 1970s that it sparked a revolu-tion in communications. On 3 April 1973,Martin Cooper, the general manager ofMotorola’s Communications SystemsDivision, now chairman, CEO, and co-founder of ArrayComm Inc., called his

AT&T came out with the first everradio car phone in 1947. It onlyworked between New York andBoston and was deemed a totalfailure due to bad reception

rivals at AT&T’s Bell Labs on a modern,rather unwieldy portable handset as hestrolled around New York City (causingNew Yorkers to gape in wonder), and indoing so, freed communication from afixed position – an office or living room –and focused it onto the person.

Motorola’s commercial handheld cellu-lar phones received approval from theUnited States Federal CommunicationsCommission (FCC) in 1983, and wereavailable soon after that. Initially veryheavy and very expensive, these werethe forerunners of the present genera-tion of mobile phones and they havetruly changed the way we communicate:as a result of low establishment costs,rapid deployment, mobile telephonenetworks have quickly spread around

the world, far outstripping the growth offixed telephony. According to mobilesearch company mobilePeople, usersare now estimated at some 2.2 billionworldwide, with predictions of 3 billionin the near future.

Motorola may have produced the firstrecognizable portable phone, but AT&Twas the first company to propose amodern-day mobile phone system tothe FCC. In 1971, it suggested dividingcities into ‘cells’. And while peopleargue about who was really responsiblefor inventing the mobile phone, someexperts say that the current explosionof cellular technology should be attrib-uted to the Microprocessor, which is acomputer on a small single chip as pri-marily developed by Intel, as well asother companies.

First generation or 1-G wireless tele-phones were introduced in the 1980s,


utilizing analog interface technology.These were replaced by second genera-tion or 2-G digital phones in the 1990s,which coincided with a trend towardsdeveloping smaller, lighter phones,which was partly possible as a result ofmore advanced batteries and moreenergy-efficient electronics. Third gener-ation or 3-G phone technology has beenintroduced more recently, incorporatinghigher speeds than before, wide-areawireless voice telephony and broadbandwireless data.

But while the cell phone feels like a verytwentieth century invention, with a verytwenty-first century future, it wouldnever have been possible without pio-neering work done years and years ago.In 1843, Michael Faraday, the discovererof electro-magnetic induction and manyother things, began investigating thepossibility of whether space could trans-mit electricity.

This was followed by a series of otherdevelopments: Virginia doctor, MahlonLoomis claimed to have transmitted sig-nals from one mountain top to anotherby using kites as electrical conductors in

about 1865; in 1900, tele-phone transmission wasextended across and betweenmajor cities; and in 1904,British engineer Sir JohnAmbrose Fleming inventedthe two-electrode radio recti-fier, or vacuum diode, whichhe called an oscillation valve,which was able to reliablydetect radio waves.

All of these advances, as wellas many other scientificdevelopments, have con-tributed in some way to revo-lutionizing the way in whichwe communicate and lead

our lives. Handheld cell phones havechanged the way we keep in touch, dobusiness and even the way we think.Consider life before the cell phone (ifyou can) and think how organized youhad to be, how much planning went intoany meeting, or any trip: these days, youcan be anywhere at any time and notonly keep in touch by phone, but surfthe net, take pictures or even makemovies. Cell phones have evolved somuch that they aren’t just phones any-more and they’re much, much smaller,and lighter, than they ever used to be:thank goodness for that.

DID YOU KNOW?AT&T came out with the first ever radio-car-phone in 1947. Known as ‘push-to-talk phone’, it was only operational onthe highway between New York andBoston but was so plagued by interfer-ence that it was deemed a failure.

Recognizable mobile phones havebeen around since the 1950s:Humphrey Bogart’s character, busi-nessman Linus Larrabee made a callfrom a mobile phone in the back of hislimo in the 1954 movie Sabrina.

Early mobile phones were so heavythey were installed in cars but laterbecame known as ‘transportables’ or‘bag-phones’ and were equipped witha cigarette lighter plug so that theycould be carried around and chargedup in the car.

Motorola’s prototype of the first portablecellular phone, also known as the ‘brick’phone was about 30 centimeters long,weighed just under a kilogram and cost$3,995. Known as the Motorola DynaTAC8000X, its battery provided thirty minutesto one hour of talk time, took ten hoursto recharge and was able to store 30numbers. Despite the cost, waiting listsfor the phone ran into the thousands.

According to mobile phone insurers,CPP, the average UK mobile phoneowner will make 88,518 calls duringtheir working life for a total of 7,203hours, or about ten months.Apparently, the average call lasts 4.8minutes (usually to partners) andphones tend to have about 40 con-tacts on them, but only 12 are used ona regular basis. This research also saysthat women talk more than men, andstrangely enough, one-quarter of UKsubscribers have answered the phonewhile in the bathroom.

The most expensive mobile phone inthe world cost $1.2 million and wasbought by a Russian businessman forhis wife. ‘Le Million’ Piece Unique wascreated by Goldvish SA, a Geneva-based luxury communication goodscompany, and consisted of 18-carats ofwhite gold, mounted with 120-caratsof diamonds and equipped with thelatest in mobile technology.

According to mobile search companymobilePeople, more people today haveaccess to a mobile device than to a PC.

Motorola is widely considered tobe the pioneer of the non-vehiclemobile phone handset


In a nutshell, Mobile TV brings televi-sion to our mobile phones. Eversince mobile phones became univer-

sal, the question was “When will we beable to watch our favorite TV showsand the news on the little screen?”

The first step, video streaming, cameto our phones around 2004. It used thesame bands as voice and SMS trans-mission and essentially was the videoequivalent to a phone conversation –data was continuously transferred fromthe server to the phone. Mobile TV,however, is separate from the “nor-mal” telephone connection. Thephone becomes a micro-television set,its hardware containing a receiver.

There is a significant difference fromthe television we’re used to at home –as nobody wants to sit for hours star-

ing at his or her phone screen – butthe idea is that we’d catch a showwhile commuting to work, or waitingto board our plane (or for the dentistto call us in). From the beginning,Mobile TV was conceptualized to beinteractive: the customer chooses whatprogram to watch.

South Korea was the first country to trulydevelop the technology in 2006 and isnow at its forefront. There, customers canwatch TV on their phones 24/7 for freeand it is estimated that by 2010, around30% of South Koreans, or 15 million peo-ple, will use the service. The second mar-ket was the UK, and later Japan, the USand other Western countries followed. Itis estimated that by the end of thedecade, Mobile TV will have grown intoa global business yielding revenues inexcess of $30 billion per year.

In Europe, in March 2006, theEuropean Commission set up theEuropean Mobile BroadcastingCouncil (EMBC) to promote Mobile TV.So far, Mobile TV is still in the pilotstage, but the EU sees 2008 as a cru-cial year for the spread of the technol-ogy, with important sports events, suchas the Euro Football Cup and theSummer Olympics in Beijing, beingheld during the summer.

One of the main issues to be addressedis that of format. Mobile TV can be deliv-ered either through a two-way cellularnetwork or through a one-way dedicatedbroadcast network. The first method,using the existing 3G network, is thefastest and easiest way. The capacityexists and a phone service provider onlyneeds to connect customers with TVproviders. However, with the secondmethod, unicast, the TV content is trans-mitted like on a regular TV, so each cus-tomer can choose what they want to see.Indeed, it seems that unicast will win theday, as the EU is set to choose the cur-rently dominating technology, Nokia-ledDVB-H, as the single standard for MobileTV in Europe.

DVB-H and its further developmentsare already becoming a global stan-dard. In Finland, the home of Nokia,service started in May 2007. In India,residents of Delhi can receive broad-casts on eight channels and studies inother metropolitan areas are under-way. In Italy, nationwide services werelaunched in May 2006; in Singapore,DVB technology is used to broadcastlive news, entertainment and musiccontent directly to over 1,500 busesalong with various other indoor andoutdoor locations. In the Philippines,

With the rising popularity of Mobile TV,users can now watch their favorite TV showsanywhere they go

A world at our fingertips


Vietnam and Ireland, services are alsoavailable. In the US, service begun in2006, in New York City; during 2007, itexpanded to the top thirty markets.Coverage is steadily expanding.

In France, Spain and South Africanationwide service launches areplanned for 2008 or 2009; in Austria,Germany and Switzerland for 2009.However, the unavailability of the UHFfrequencies keeps on delaying launch-es. DVB-SH in S-band is seen as analternative in Europe. Recent field trialsand studies showed better performancein radio than DVB-H standard, whichwould lead to much cheaper costs fornetwork deployments.

Malaysia and Kenya are also using DVB-H, but other countries have differentstandards, like S-timi in China. In the UK,Vodafone uses the 3G phone network,covering 72% of the country, whereasVirgin Mobile uses DAB digital radio fre-quencies with 85% coverage.

Research says that by 2012, Mobile TVwill have over 120 million subscribers andgenerate over $6.6 billion in revenue,thus overtaking gaming and music. ACNN-Ericsson consumer behavior studypublished in early 2008 shows that morethan a third (34%) rank TV as the most in-demand application on their phone andalmost half (44%) are set to subscribe toMobile TV within the next two years.Today, 24% of Mobile TV users watch iteveryday and 52% weekly. For 77% ofusers, news is the most-watched content,while regular television takes 48% ofviewers. In 2007, CNN inaugurated itsad-supported mobile service, CNNMobile, allowing users to access CNNfrom anywhere, including the “In theField” blogs.

Currently, Mobile TV still faces a numberof challenges, most of which are techno-logical in nature. Batteries are still amajor hurdle, as power consumptionthrough continuous operation is highand quickly uses up stored power.Nobody wants to keep re-charging theirmobile phone every few hours or so.

The problem of memory chips unable tofully support buffering long hours ofMobile TV – which also obstructedimplementation of future applications,like peer-to-peer video sharing and con-sumer broadcasting – seems to havebeen solved by iPhone and its competi-tors. But, mobile P2P programs still haveto be developed before users can trulyexchange their favorite TV shows, andthe processing power of mobile phonechips needs to be enhanced to guaran-tee smooth performance.

Apple’s new icon also points the way tothe future of interfaces. If Mobile TV andits associated applications want to reallytake off, the traditional phone needs tomake way for new gadgets with muchbigger screens to allow for more com-plex menus and improved viewing.

On the provider end of Mobile TV,content has to be developed and tai-lored for the new medium. TV showscould be cut into small pieces of threeto five minutes, so-called “mobisodes”(mobile episodes), and content could

be edited to increase close-ups orcontrasting colors. And as the devel-opment of the internet has shown, inall likelihood, the new medium willengender new formats.

The advantages of Mobile TV for theindustry are vast. TV companies andproducers can re-use popular contentand create additional revenue oppor-tunities, as well as a platform to try outnew content and format. Advertisershave an additional outlet for communi-cating their wares. Mobile operatorswill be able to attract customers byentering into exclusive partnershipswith content providers. For broadcastnetwork operators, it is an excellentgrowth opportunity.

What is clear already today is thatMobile TV will boost our mobilelifestyle, where everything is at our fin-gertips – from phones to music to writ-ten information and now video. But,who knows what else it will bring?

Mobile TV offersinterestingopportunities foradvertisers and anew platform forTV stations


WiMAX is a versatile wirelesstechnology that is finding usesin a variety of fields, not least

of which is mobile telephony. Its strengthis to combine bandwidth adequate forbroadband internet purposes with wire-less delivery that can reach over severalkilometres, creating the potential forcombined mobile telephone and highquality internet access over large areas.Already there are some 300 networks inoperation across the world, employedfor a combination of telephony andinternet use with Zain’s very own Bahrainnetwork being the first to provide anation wide coverage.

WiMAX stands for WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access,a name coined by the WiMAX Forumwhich was established in 2001. Thetechnology’s origins lie in the 1990s, inwork done by scores of engineers atdifferent companies but it’s rise tofame has largely been as a viablemeans of “last mile delivery” of broad-band services that wouldn’t result inmiles of cables and astronomic costs.The WiMAX Forum itself definesWiMax as “a standards-based technol-ogy enabling the delivery of last milewireless broadband access as an alter-native to wired broadband like cableand DSL.” Technically it is based onthe Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers 802.16 standard.

Perhaps the most common misunder-standing about WiMAX is to confuse itwith the already well-known Wi-Fi stan-dard. In fairness both deal with wire-less connectivity, both are based onIEEE standards starting with “802.”and have predictably similar “Wi-tech”names. However, the similarities endthere; not only do they have differentapplications but they function differ-ently. Wi-Fi is based on the IEEE’s802.11 standard and operates on unli-censed waves to a range of a few hun-

dred feet, typically suitable for settingup shared access to the owners net-work on one site. WiMAX usually oper-ates on a licensed spectrum withranges that can extend to many kilo-metres delivering a direct connectionto an ISP or telephony service.

More important than the differences inrange though are the differences inbandwidth and means of access. WithWi-Fi all users compete for access tothe wireless network on a randominterrupt basis, such that users who aredistant from the station can find theirconnectivity disturbed by closer users.

In contrast, WiMAX works using ascheduling algorithm, which allocateseach user their own unique access sloton their first connection to the net-work. Although the allotted slot canenlarge and contract, it remainsassigned to a single unique user, guar-anteeing access at any time.

Before WiMAX could get off theground it needed the support of sever-al large corporations. Intel has been aparticularly strong champion of theWiMAX cause. The story goes that in2002 Intel had offered its help to sever-al large telecommunications companies

The wireless technology hits BahrainWiMAX lives!


The arrival of WiMAX in the Kingdomof Bahrain will offer greater ease ofcommunication for its citzens in termsof cost and in terms of wireless connectivity across the island

to share the costs of laying fibre opticcables to subscribers’ doors in orderto deliver broadband. Intel’s thinkingwas that widespread adoption ofbroadband by consumers would stimu-late demand for PCs containing theirchips. However the cost was estimatedat around $300 per foot for installation,plus the costs of repaving and land-scaping where necessary. By someestimates the total would have beenas much as $90 billion to deliver highquality optical fibre cables to everypotential customer. Clearly somethinghad to be rethought.

Intel’s man in charge of broadbandstrategy was the Executive VicePresident Sean Maloney. In much thesame way that Intel and Microsoft hadset the standards for personal comput-ers, he argued that a similar partner-ship between Intel and other compa-

nies could set up a standard technolo-gy for broadband delivery that wouldbe widely adopted. Maloney becameconvinced that wireless was thestrongest solution to the problems oflast mile delivery and possibly a greatdeal more after a meeting with MartinCooper, often considered the father ofthe mobile phone. Then after studyingAT&T’s failed attempt to use a precur-sor of WiMAX, known as ProjectAngel, he became convinced thatWiMAX could work provided it had theright industry support.

Maloney was to become instrumentalin garnishing the support, mostnotably from his own company Intelbut also from Samsung, Sprint andNokia, that would eventually lead toIEEE recognition of the technology asa standard that could be widely adopt-ed. Nonetheless, there was plenty ofopposition to the WiMAX’s adoption,such as from Qualcom Inc, who pro-vide chip technology for mobilephones and could see these develop-ments leading to an erosion of theircore business, having as they did, veryfew patents on WiMAX technology. Inthe end however, WiMAX made itthrough the obstacle course to accept-ance, and one should expect to startseeing a large number of productscoming out over the next year with“WiMAX certification”.

The WiMAX forum is the body thatcertifies WiMAX technology to interna-tionally recognised standards. Inteljoined the forum in 2002, after whichit’s membership grew from 65 compa-nies to over three hundred in less thantwo years and it now has over five hun-dred members including virtually allthe large telecommunications manufac-

turers and operators as well as hundredsof smaller companies. The forum hasalready opened five labs, three in AsiaPacific and one each in Europe and theUS, in anticipation of hundreds of appli-cations for certification.

In October 2007 the InternationalTelecommunications Union took thedecision to include WiMAX in its IMT-2000 set of standards, which will fur-ther increase manufacturers confi-dence to invest in WiMAX devices.Operators also look to the ITU toendorse technologies before theymake infrastructure investments. AsRon Resnick, president of the WiMAXforum commented, “This is a very spe-cial and unique milestone for WiMAXtechnology. It is the first time that a


new air interface has been added tothe IMT-2000 set of standards since theoriginal technologies were selectednearly a decade ago. WiMAX technol-ogy currently has the potential toreach 2.7 billion people. And today'sannouncement expands the reach to asignificantly larger global population.”

IMT-2000 standards were first set up toharmonise 2G and 3G networks and sothe decision should help to reverseperceptions of WiMAX as a competingtechnology to these networks, in fact,they can be complimentary. Clearlymany operators have made vast invest-ments in their existing networks, withextensive coverage and adequatecapacity for current voice and dataneeds. However, by some predictions,mobile data traffic, whether throughmobile telephones, laptops or otherdevices, can be expected to grow by afactor of ten between 2010 and 2015.With this kind of growth, WiMAX willbe a strong contender to fill in the gapas an overlay to existing networks insuch a way that some areas will haveincreased capacity for data traffic pro-vided by WiMAX, while devices will

still be able to roam with continuesconnection on existing networks.

The above approach is already beingused in South Korea, where WiMAX hassome 150,000 subscribers on a networkrun by Korea Telecom, which aims toreach 350,000 subscribers by year end2008 and as many as four million by2012. Recently granted WiMAX licensesin Japan should also spur further devel-opments in gadgetry and applicationsgiven the country’s strong track recordof innovation in these fields.

In it’s so far short history WiMAX hasshown its versatility and strong potentialfor further use in many fields; during theAceh tsunami and Katrina hurricane itwas deployed following the destructionof local communications infrastructure,demonstrating just how quickly it can beinstalled and to what effect – in theseinstances substantially benefiting the res-cue, aid and redevelopment missions.

At the end of the day WiMAX is con-fined by the laws of physics and will notbe able to deliver the same capacity interms of bandwidth that optical fibres

can. In the same breadth it is proving tobe a viable solution to long-range, high-capacity, wireless internet and telepho-ny delivery. At the end of the day con-sumers want high-level mobile connec-tivity, and WiMAX is one of the chiefmeans of achieving it.

Zain announces the launch of WiMAX in Bahrain

ZAIN@HOME: WORLD'S FIRSTNATIONWIDE WIMAXWiMAX in Bahrain was launched inSeptember 2007, Zain@home beingthe first service of its kind in theKingdom, utilizing the newest broad-band wireless data technology in theworld, WiMAX. The nationwide wire-less network allows customers to con-nect their PC, laptop, telephone andfax without the need for a landline. Avariety of services are offered like afast up to 2Mbps fixed wirelessInternet, free calls betweenZain@home customers all the time andfree minutes to all local destinations(Mobile &Fixed), 50 % discounts,attractive international calling rates,24/7 customer support and specialfree fixed call management features.


The popular Nokia tune ringtone isbased on a 19th century guitar workGran Vals by Spanish musicianFrancisco Tárrega. Nokia’s Tune wasoriginally named Grande Valse onNokia phones but was changed toNokia Tune in 1998.

Chinese mobile users sent a total of592.1 billion text messages in 2007,according to the Chinese ministry ofInformation.

Biotechnologists are working on the pos-sibility of keeping your sim card safe, byinserting it into your forearm.

Scientists say that handsets halve in sizeevery 18 months. By 2017, designs willreach the physical limits of technology.

British cellphone users change theirmobile phone, on average, every 10months.

In Europe, 100 million phones arethrown away each year.

Mobile phones contain valuable met-als such as gold which can be recov-ered from phones when they are recy-cled. Mobile phones also contain dan-gerous metals, including lead, cadmi-um, zinc and mercury which must beextracted from phones through therecycling process.

In 2000, only 12% of the global popu-lation had a mobile phone. At currentgrowth rates, global mobile penetra-tion is expected to reach 50% by early2008, more than 3.3 billion subscrip-tions worldwide.

In Santiago City, Philippines, mobiles arebanned in public to “forestall the occur-rence of accident and disturbance.”

A mobile phone is designed to oper-ate at a maximum power level of 0.6watts. A household microwave ovenuses between 600 and 1,100 watts.

Thirteen-year-old Morgan Pozgar fromthe US was recently crowned theworld’s fastest text messager, typing“supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” injust 15 seconds.

Drivers’ reactions are a third slower whentalking on a handheld mobile than whenunder the influence of alcohol.

It’s predicted by Nokia that by 2009there will be over 3 billion mobilephone users worldwide. Worldwide,the percentage of households withmobile phones are:

• Japan - 95% • South Korea - 94% • China - 93%

• France - 85% • Germany - 83% • UK - 79%

The global use of mobile phones fordata related services varies fromdownloading ringtones and music toaccessing adult services. The percent-age breakdown of the servicesaccessed from mobile phones is:

• Music (including ringtones) - 32% • Adult - 22% • Pictures - 15% • Games - 14% • Information services - 10% • Video - 7%

The first commercial GSM call wasmade in 1991 in Helsinki over a Nokianetwork, by Prime Minister of FinlandHarri Holkeri, using a Nokia phone.

Trivia to inspire

British cellphone users change their phones, on average, every ten months

89 CHAOS SPRING 2008FOR THE RECORD

Financial results 2007Higher revenues, more customers and bigger profits.From Nigeria to Iraq, first the MTC and then the Zainbrand stood tall in an exceptional year of growth

90 CHAOS SPRING 2008 FOR THE RECORD


06Feb07

2.308

2.833

3.357

3.882

4.407

4.932

06Apr07 06Jun07 06Aug07 06Oct07 06Dec07 06Feb07

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