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The only tri-regional magazine focused towards the IT & Telecom sectors of The Middle East, Asia and Africa

www.teletimesinternaitonal.com Publisher & Chief EditorKhalid Athar

Executive EditorRiaz Asher

Associate EditorsIzhar AhmadQutubuddin

Technical EditorJeff Seal

Assistant EditorsNasir M. KharlGulraiz Khalid

Sub EditorMuhammad Awais Hanif

Art EditorKhurram Shahzad

Staff PhotographerRamzan Mughal

Legal AdvisorHashmat Habib

(Advocate Supreme Court)

Bureau Chiefs:Dubai: Azizullah Khan

London: Moazzam ShahidIstanbul: Zümrüt Tanriöven

Jeddah: Akram AsadKarachi: Syed Babar Ali

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04 15 May - 14 Jun 2011www.teletimesinternational.com

In this issue

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InterviewsSTC International's ambition is to create valuein every market where it operates rather than engage in basic competition.Ghassan Hasbani, CEO - International OperationsKhalid Athar

The Thought Leader Interview:Didler Lombard, The former CEO & chairman of the board of France TelecomArt Kleiner and Piere Peladeau

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Reports & News

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ITU launches global digital literacy campaignfor women

Dubai outsourcing IT IndustryRahul Jain

Communications at the Qatar 2022 World CupKhalil Vick Mamlouk

Middle East telecom operators maintain appetitefor international mergers and acquisitionsFinancing is now available with attractive terms to operators.Ghassan Hasbani

ICTs are the powerhouses of the global economyDr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary General - ITU

Better life in rural communities with ICTsIqtidar Zaidi, President & CEO - Techaccess

8th Media and Telecoms Convergence Conferencewill be tackling key defining topics.Leen Hammad

3i Infotech extends electronic billing and payments strategywith new partnership and services

Omantel chief executive Dr. Amer Al Rawaswelcomes 200 new Omani employees to Oman's largest telecom company

Nawras launches 'buy now and pay later' scheme for BlackBerry SmartphonesJulie Amann

O3b Networksuses Jersey Channel Islands as base

Batelco supports Bahrain cultural centre

Zain Bahrainupgrades WiMAX network

PTCL Alcatel-Lucent jointly launch VDSL-2 Bonding technology

Captivating partnerships beyond borders:Techaccess Pakistan - Aircom InternationalHassan Shabbir

Qatar Telecom unveilsnew SME research at Enterprise Qatar

Teletimes International Industry Excellence Awards

In this issue

0515 May - 14 Jun 2011 www.teletimesinternational.com

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Special ReportsMECOM 2011 The leading telecommunicaitons and enterprise communications eventGulraiz Khalid

SAMENA's "Beyond Connectivity 2011"Conference highlighted the regional industry's growing desire.Zakir Syed

Keynote address at "Beyond Connectivity 2011" byEng. Saud Al Daweesh, Chairman SAMENA Telecommunications Council and President & Group CEO, STC

Eng. Ahmed Bin Alishowcases Etisalat International success story around the Globe

Research & Analyses

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Cloud Computing -Growing scope for public sector.Dr. Muhammed Yaseen, Chairman - PTA

Are suppliers poised for a turnaround?Dr. Karim Taga (Arthur D Little)

Third Generation Mobile Services - Bringing new lifestyles.Muhammad Amir Malik

E-Business Transformation:Challenges and Opportunities for Telecom operators.Dr. Florian Grone, Christopher Rischard, Carlos Severino, Jose Antonio Tortosa

IP DSLAM:Pioneering the IP convergence era

and much more ....

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Dear Reader,

Welcome to the new edition.

We informed you about our expansion plans and the progress in that regard in the ‘letter to readers’ of the last edition. In response to that we received many emails and phone calls expressing appreciation towards our development and specifically for the offices in Oman, Egypt and KSA.

It is my honor that I bring you to news about yet another step towards progress by Teletimes. We have long been considering the aspect of awarding people who provide extra ordinary services to the telecom and IT sectors. And today I’ll inform you of our plans in that regard. Teletimes will be presenting to the head of any regional or global company, a “Teletimes Man of the Year Award” every year from now. The award will be given on the basis of the performance throughout the year and will be announced in December, whereas the award ceremony will take place in January or February. Besides that, ten “Teletimes International Excellence Awards” will be given to winners from different categories. The details regarding these awards are given later in this edition.

This edition of Teletimes is dedicated to MECOM. Apart from that, ITU (a UNO organization), is organizing the annual “World Telecom and Information Society Day” on 17th May. Therefore, messages of the Secretary General, ITU Dr. Hamadoun

I. Toure and President & CEO, Techaccess Mr. Iqtidar Zaidi are being included in this regard.

An exclusive recent interview of Mr. Ghassan Hasbani, CEO, International Operations, STC is included in this edition. Other major contents include Dr. Karim Taga’s (Arthur D. Little) article, “Are suppliers poised for a turnaround?” and an article named “Communications of the Qatar 2022 World Cup” by Mr. Khalil Vick Mamlouk, VP, CommScope. Dr. Muhammed Yaseen, Chairman PTA has contributed to this edition with his exclusive article, “Cloud Computing – Growing score for public sector”. Booz & Co. have contributed to this edition with a report, “E-Business Transformation: Challenges and opportunities for telecom operators” compiled by Carlos Severino, Jose Antonio Tortosa, Dr. Florian Grone, Christopher Rischard, and an important interview of Mr. Didier Lombard, former CEO chairman board, France Telecom is also included.

Mr. Amir Malik has written a detailed and analytical article for this edition titled “Third Generation Mobile Services”. In addition to that, news and reports about Etisalat, du, PTCL, Batelco, STC, Nawras, CommScope, O3B Networks and Omantel are included as usual.

We are always waiting for your suggestions and feedback because we have found them very helpful in making Teletimes better for you.

Please enjoy this edition of Teletimes!

Khalid AtharChief Editor

Letter to readers

0715May - 14Jun 2011 www.teletimesinternational.com

08 15May - 14Jun 2011www.teletimesinternational.com

The birth of a new trend...!The telecom and IT industry

has experienced tremendous growth in terms of technology during the last two decades. Whereas revenues of around 280 operators worldwide have shown very strange outcome in relation to technology growth, in US and Europe operators adopted new technology trends with very strong marketing and sales innovative initiatives, which has resulted in stable growth of revenue without com-promising the QoS. For example the use of land telephone with traditional cop-per wire is still in demand. Customers still feel services through copper are very useful. In France, in-cumbent is still provid-ing directory, address, flight information, train schedules assistance services at consumer’s home/office via traditional copper network, (whereas

internet provides similar ser-vices, in a much versatile way).The underdeveloped countries of Africa and Asia reflect very different trends and reaction. In these countries most of the operators are from Europe and US. But to get more revenue, they have compro-mised on QoS and reduced rates which can

barely meet OPEX expenses. That has also resulted in the birth of a new trend, “merger and acquisitions”. On top of all this, regulators and govern-ments also played a negative

role, by increasing taxes and duties on telecom/IT products. This all resulted in a cut in OPEX , outsourcing of main-tenance and support services at reduced rates, job cuts etc. One major issue in Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan) is that the ego of individuals also played a major negative role in destroying the healthy and excellent environ-ment. Take India for example, their federal minister is having a tough time, in Pakistan every action as per regulation is being taken to court for a stay order and so that the unregulated ac-tivities may go on till the court decision comes out. This always takes a very long time.We need to come out from individual interest and try to adopt positive attitude to create a healthy environment. We will have to adopt new trends of technology with well thought strategies of sales and market-ing for a better future of the telecom and IT industry.

Riaz Asher

T


Cloud Computing – Growing scope for Public SectorCloud computing is a recent revolution in the world of Information and Communica-tion Technologies (ICTs) that enables a convenient way to share resources. It is model providing on-demand network access to configurable IT devices and services (e.g. Servers, Storage and Appli-cations) gathered together as a network of computing resources located anywhere, being shared among its users.

International Data Corpora-tion (IDC) estimates that roughly 10 percent of the approximately $69 billion spent on business applica-tions worldwide during 2009 was spent on cloud computing applications, the growth rate over the next few years could be as high as 30 percent with analysts estimating that the global market for cloud com-puting services could reach $42 billion by 2012. Gartner

predicts the global cloud mar-ketplace as a more broadly defined, the firm predicts that the overall market for cloud services has already surpasses $40 billion, and will grow to over $150 billion annually by 2013. Cloud computing deployment models cater the requirements of private entities, public or-ganizations and general end-users. A private government cloud model is a deployment model is exclusively managed by public organizations where they may offer a number of services to general public or they may utilize the cloud for their own purposes by sharing the resources. The philosophy of cloud com-puting in public sector can be illustrated by going back in

time when every household, town or village used to have its own water well. Today, we observe shared public utilities giving us access to water by turning a tap installed inside our home; cloud computing for public sector works in a similar way. Federal Government’s Information Technology (IT) environment is gener-ally characterized by low asset utilization, duplicate resources, replication of systems and an environment which is difficult to manage. These inefficiencies at times negatively impact the Federal Government’s ability to serve general public through elec-tronic means. Cloud computing has the pro-spective to assist and play its

Dr. Mohammed Yaseen

Chairman - PTA

The philosophy of cloud computing in public sector can be illustrated by going back in time when every household, town or village used to have its own water well.


role in reducing this lacking by improving government ser-vice delivery mechanism. The cloud computing model can significantly help public sec-tor agencies struggling with the need to provide highly reliable, innovative services quickly despite resources limitation.Commercial cloud service providers are expanding their offerings by including the entire IT stack of ro-bust hardware and software infrastructure, middleware platforms, application system com¬ponents and software services. The private sector at large is taking advantage of the technology to implement effective resource utilization, increase service quality and increase efficiency. A survey carried out by IDC highlights the response of private sector entities intentions to adopt cloud computing in next three years. It can be seen clearly that the organizations are quite ready to utilize cloud services for all important resources. Similarly, for the public sector cloud computing holds incred-ible possibilities to deliver public value by increasing operational effectiveness and responding faster to critical growing requirements. Several Governments on International arena have already started deploying clouds to avail the apparent opportunity to deliver public services and maximizing efficiency. In the United Kingdom, since 2009 government has cre-ated the “G cloud,” which is a government-wide cloud computing network. The Digi-tal Britain initiative report issued jointly by the Depart-ment for Business Innovation & Skills and the Department

for Culture, Media and Sport calls for government to take the lead in a wide-ranging digital strategy for the coun-try. An important aspect of the Digital Britain strategy is to improve Government’s ICT infrastructure by allowing services to migrate online. To support this IT procurement will be focused on enabling government to become a lead-ing force in the use of cloud computing.

In Japan, the Government is carrying out a major cloud computing initiative, tilted as the “Kasumigaseki Cloud”. The initiative targets to deploy a private cloud envi-ronment that would eventu-ally host all of Government computing needs. The cloud will allow for greater informa-tion and resource sharing and

promote more standardiza-tion and consolidation in the government’s IT resources, according to Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Com-munications. The Kasumigas-eki Cloud is part of the Digital Japan Creation Project. By consolidating all governmen-tal IT under a single cloud infrastructure, the Japanese government believes it will not only reduce costs but would enable more “green,”

environment friendly IT op-erations. In Thailand, the Govern-ment Information Technology Service (GITS) is establishing a private cloud for use by Thai government agencies. The GITS has already established a cloud-based email service, and it plans to add SaaS offerings in the near future.

GITS believes that such con-solidation will improve service offerings for government agencies, while simultane-ously cutting their overall IT costs “considerably”.Exploring the prospects of cloud computing in Pakistan, one of the most difficult challenges faced by the government has been effec-tive sharing of information technology resources both at federal and provisional level. There have been broad efforts of developing core e-govern-ment programs, in areas such as public health/education and other services. Govern-ment has invested enormous effort and money into several programs with some notable success stories. Cloud Computing brings an ideal platform for the public

sector in bridging the missing link of connecting all federal ministries and departments under one platform to en-hance information sharing as well as ensuring effective us-age of IT resources to expand productivity. Information is the lifeblood of government, and decisions on how to man-

Cloud computing has the prospective to assist and play its role in reducing this lacking by improving government service delivery mechanism.


age that information can have far-reaching political, social, and economic considerations.Establishing shared services mechanism through dedicated private Government Cloud could support in transform-ing government and exploring ways that cloud computing could be applied to economic development, education, and healthcare delivery. Cloud computing offers an

opportunity to be more ef-ficient, agile, and innovative through more effective use of IT investments. Institutes with well-built data centre structure could be engaged in deploying a national public cloud. The upcoming era of staggering growth in IT-based communication and informa-tion sharing where every official task is likely to be per-formed over computers calls for implementation planning of cloud computing in public sector. Advantages of public sector cloud may be even more vis-ible in developing countries

like ours that have not yet achieved sound level of public sector automation, lack legal requirement regarding data security and have limited availability of human resource with adequate ICT skills. On the positive side, developing countries face less opposition to new computing dynam-ics as compared to govern-ment agencies in developed countries. Cloud computing

may enable us to leap towards new paradigm of government computing, avoiding many frazzled challenges faced.Another workable model to avail cloud computing as an emerging opportunity in the space of strengthening inno-vation in IT services could be development of Cloud Infra-structure at Universities with the help of public-private partnerships. In this regards, an already devoted pool of fund available with National R&D Fund Company may well be utilized along with development funds available with academia. Such proj-ects would supply a strong

baseline to tackle challenges related to privacy, standards,

security, latency, interoper-ability, performance and reli-ability attached with further enhancement of scientific and technological knowledge inside society spheres.The availability of such cloud infrastructure at Universities will also provide a medium to encourage development of local content and applications related to various public and private sectors. The availabil-ity of a hosting platform over a cloud could be utilized by the local developers to supply their contribution to informa-tion-based society approach. The benefits of cloud are already a reality for govern-

ment organizations the world over. Governments can gain; employ proven values that early adopters have already gained. While adopting cloud computing model for service delivery, government could achieve low and optimized IT cost through virtualization, standardization and automa-tion. Pubic cloud customiza-tion for particular workloads can accelerate delivery of services for automatic and faster compliance, rapid pay-back and productivity gains. Moreover, cloud computing can also assist to increase col-laborating, share information, working in a more convenient way with citizens, increasing the ability to promote tele-work and avoiding duplica-tion of resources.

The cloud computing deploy-ment will eventually serve to transform on a large scale not only for private sector but IT in the public organizations as well. This will renovate not just how government inter-acts within itself but also the way the people interact with it. Cloud computing seems to be need of the hour for Gov-ernments across the globe as it will facilitate in achieving more openness and transpar-ency. Developing countries have a more attractive case of adopting cloud solutions as they generally stand at the stage of infancy with respect to Government computation.

Cloud computing offers an opportunity to be more efficient, agile, and innovative through more effective use of IT investments.

T

The leading Telecommunications and Enterprise Communications event

MECOM 2011, 16 - 18 May, Abu Dhabi National

Exhibition Center, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates . Middle East Communications Exhibition & Conference is covering fixed, mobile, internet, and satellite communications sectors.

The Middle East market is one of the fastest growing and the most lucrative for advanced communications solutions.

MECOM targets senior decision makers from government and public sector, healthcare, banking and finance, manufacturing, oil and gas, construction, media, and retail.

Event Profile

Middle East Communications (MECOM) is an ideal platform

to find out about the latest technologies & to give your business a new plan. This integrates all sectors on a platform and provides a link to the academic world and the authorities through workshops, seminars and conferences.

Visitor's Profile

Telecom service providers, telecom systems & equipment providers, IT & software companies, internet & broadband services, mobile phone manufacturers, websites, web designers, web hosters,

mobile phone retailers, transportation, cargo, logistics & distribution companies, broadcasting, satellite, media, marketing, advertising & design are the target visitors.

Exhibitor's Profile

Exhibitors include Telecommunications Service Providers (Land Lines, Mobile & Wireless), Telecommunications Systems & Equipment Providers, IT & Software Companies, Internet & Broadband Services, Mobile Phone Manufacturers, Mobile Phone Retailers, Network Installers & Retailers, Cable Companies, Satellite Companies, Communications & IT Training Companies, Radio Equipment, Telematics,


Gulraiz Khalid


Internet Content Providers such as news, market data, learn online

Glimpses of last year Mecom 2010, a leading telecom exhibition and conference which held in Abu Dhabi last year, attracted more than 3,800 trade visitors thus registering a six per cent rise,

said the organisers.

The event was a big success with many exhibitors keen to tap the business opportunities in the region mainly in mobile value-add services and promises of investmeent in ICT infrastructure, remarked Jim Meltz, group director of IIR Middle East.

The leaders of regional ICT businesses were optimistic about growth potential of mobile value-add services with the UAE investing Dh9.5 billion ($2.58 billion) into the telecom sector, he pointed out.

"Although mobile revenues will continue to grow, according to feedback at the show, industry professionals were extremely upbeat about the prospects for mobile value-add services such as broadband and bundled packages which combine TV, internet and telephone," he noted.

According to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), in 2009 internet subscribers rose by 17 per cent but more significantly, revenues increased by 46 per cent, a clear indication of the demand for broadband and other mobile applications.

This is driving investment, which last year totalled Dh9.54 billion and brings the total over the last three years to over Dh25 billion.

A total of 31 countries were represented at the event, which was held under the patronage of Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy. More than 100 companies took part in Mecom. ICT partner Etisalat described its Mecom participation as a “roaring success”, following a large number of visitors to its stand. It was a sentiment echoed by many exhibitors, including Mahaboob Basha from UAE-based Blue Dot.

“Mecom 2010 was a great success in our quest to meet many potential clients and get our name out the Middle Eastern markets. Our range of partners and solutions was well received by the high quality crowds at the show and we expect many new business relationships to flower from the show. Blue Dot will certainly be looking at participating on a bigger scale in 2011,” Basha said.

Masoud Bassiri from Consistel, a Singapore-based global wireless software solutions provider and system integrator, said: “The event has proved to be an excellent networking platform for organisations like us looking to gain insights, develop contacts and to do business in the region. We received a good response and publicity at the event.”

For many companies, including UAE-based Quickinfa, it was their debut show.

“The exhibition has been very successful for us and we will definitely come back next year. We have made some good contacts and had some serious inquires,” said Sanjay U Kavalekar of Quickinfa.

The CEO Summit held on the sidelines of the event was particularly well represented with 276 delegates – twice the number of last year’s event, featuring 35-plus speakers from the region’s fixed and mobile operators, internet services providers, regulators and suppliers.


Partnership with telecentre.org will extend access to basic ICT training to more than one million disadvantaged women worldwide

ITU launches global digital literacy campaign for women

ITU has launched a digital literacy partnership with Phil-

ippine-based NGO telecentre.org Foundation that over the next 18 months will train one million unskilled women to use comput-ers and modern information and communication technology (ICT) applications to improve their livelihoods.

The new Women’s Digital Lit-eracy Campaign will leverage the combined reach of telecentre.org Foundation’s global network of 100,000 telecentres worldwide and ITU’s 192 Member States and 700 Sector Members to de-liver training in ICT use following a ‘train the trainer’ model.

Between now and end 2012, training courses will be offered in at least 20,000 telecentres in countries around the world, each of which is expected to train at least 50 women – for a total of one million women trained.

“We hope this joint campaign with telecentre.org Foundation will have an enormous impact on improving the condition of women, wherever they may live, and whatever their circumstanc-es,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. “With tech-nology now widely recognized as a critical enabler for socio-economic development, this cam-paign will further reinforce ITU’s global efforts to promote the digital inclusion of women, and will be a key element in achiev-ing Millennium Development Goal 3 on gender equality.”

Basheerhamad Shadrach, Execu-tive Director of telecentre.org

Foundation, said that offering digital skills to over one mil-lion women at the grassroots will help reverse the paradigm whereby, in many countries, technologies most often benefit men more than women. “These telecentre women, once trained to take advantage of the power of technology, will help their communities to access locale-specific information, time-tested knowledge, market opportuni-ties, enhanced skills for employ-ment and productivity, and more importantly, participate in the modern knowledge era, not only as mere consumers, but also as providers and producers of knowledge assets," he said.

Under the terms of the agree-

ment, ITU and telecentre.org Foundation are encouraging na-tional governments, the private sector and other international organizations to contribute digital literacy curricula in local languages and/or to provide trainers and other resources to national telecentres.

In addition, ITU will contribute a number of curricula developed by its Telecommunication Devel-opment Bureau (BDT), notably from its Connect a School, Con-nect a Community initiative, as well as offering its ITU Academy distance learning platform for training purposes.

Through Connect a School, Connect a Community, ITU is already helping its Member

States to leverage their con-nected schools as community ICT centres, providing ICT skills for the social and economic development of people with special needs, including women. Digital literacy training materials for women and other groups are freely available online at www.connectaschool.org.

ITU has also developed a range of digital literacy training ma-terials designed to be used in school-based community centres and multi-purpose telecentres, by women, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities. In addition to providing basic ICT literacy, the materials show trainees how ICTs can be used to support a range of economic activities such as handicrafts, agro-tourism and agriculture.

The agreement provides for trainer training to be delivered via national telecentre networks that are partners of telecen-tre.org Foundation, including through national telecentre academies, universities, and other training institutions. It also mandates telecentre.org Foundation to continuously track and report on training delivered via a joint ITU-telecentre.org Foundation website, to ensure commitments are kept and mo-mentum is maintained.

This agreement will formal-ize long-standing cooperation between the two organizations, who have already worked suc-cessfully together on a range of other capacity building initia-tives around the world. T


With the rapid develop-ment of IP servic-

ing, carrier class networks are attracting many telecom operators to IP convergence. By uniting voice (NGN/3G), video (IPTV) and special lines and data services under one IP network, the convergence can solve problems that traditional telecom networks face. Many mainstream carriers in the world have already published their IP transformation plans, including British Telecom's 21CN plan, France Telecom's NEXT strategy, Singapore Telecom's network transform, China Telecom's CN2 and KPN's ALL IP Projects. IP DSLAM has developed so rapidly that it has now become the mainstream mode of broadband access. Traditional ATM DSLAM has been replaced by IP DSLAM due to its powerful IP capabil-ity, abundant access technology and multiple-service platform. IP DSLAM has set new stan-dards in the telecom industry by creating new line technology, FTTx, energy-saving technol-ogy and ejection-decreasing technology. These new trends demonstrate the promising future of IP DSLAM. IP trends of telecom service

With the emergence of high bandwidth services such as VOD, network gaming and IPTV, IP technology must provide more than just Inter-net services to fulfill market demands. Broadband networks with IP technology now sup-port HIS, video, voice, Triple-Play, and VPN with necessary QoS. Based on Ethernet architecture, IP DSLAM offers higher avail-ability, reliability, optimization

on E2E QOS, service emula-tion, OAM and extensibility. IP DSLAM also supports IP multicast transfers, MPLS L2/L3 VPN, traditional special line services and all extensive IP services. It remains extremely difficult for ATM DSLAM to provide Triple-Play services due to its weak 155M backbone capabil-ity. However, a high capabil-

ity platform is required for IPTV services, unlike the ATM platform. For ATM DSLAM, the speed of key features such as IGMPv3, Fast-Zapping and VoBB remain slow. Even with an upgrade to Ethernet uplink, its efficiency would remain the same. ATM DSLAM is also still unable to support Triple-Play and special line services. Due to its simple network topology (only point to point available) the ATM platform is often overloaded. Compared with ATM DSLAM, IP DSLAM is much more suit-able for IP service development. New line technology

Due to customer demands and market competition, broadband access technology has been developing continuously. From ADSL to ADSL2+, VDSL2, maxi-mum speed has transformed from asymmetric 8Mbps to symmetrical 100Mps.

To improve network stability, new line technologies have been developed by standard-ization organizations: Virtual Noise, Impulsive noise monitor, Dynamic Spectrum Manage-ment (DSM), etc. These new technologies can satisfy the demand for more bandwidth and give IP DSLAM an advantage in the copper domain.

More optical and less copper

Fiber access technology is de-veloping very rapidly and global standardization organizations such as IEEE and ITU-T have enhanced EPON, P2P Ethernet, GPON and FTTx technology. "More optical and less copper" has become the current trend in the access field along with low-ering fiber prices and engineer-ing costs. In developed regions, mainstream carriers provide each subscriber with 20-50M bandwidth to support video services. In the next few years, when considering factors such as bandwidth, coverage and cost, FTTB/C + ADSL2+/VDSL2 will become a primary network model while FTTH will become a complementary method for network construction. Energy-saving and ejection-decreasing

With global warming and in-creasing energy prices, energy-

saving and ejection-decreasing strategies have become key issues in the world.

In the telecom network, there are a large number of access nodes; they are the most suit-able for energy-saving and ejec-tion-decreasing. Major carriers pay millions of Euros for power annually, but using energy-saving and ejection-decreasing strategies can cut down power costs and decrease OPEX.

IP DSLAM decreases power consumption by utilizing power efficiencies, using new hard-ware components, optimizing hardware designs and adjusting dynamic power technologies. In theory, IP DSLAM can save over 10% on power consump-tion based on its current technology; this is good news for carriers.

Developing trends in the in-dustry

Since its development, IP DSLAM has won over the telecom industry because of its powerful IP capability, abundant access technology and multiple-service platform. Much focus has been placed on IP DSLAM due to its exclusive all advanced platform and line technology. Many major car-riers have published "ALL IP" transformation plans with IP DSLAM as the most important component of their projects.

In conclusion, IP DSLAM is the pioneer of the "IP Convergence era." This powerful "ALL IP" platform is able to support Mul-tiple Play services and converge fixed networking with mobile networking.

Without a doubt, IP DSLAM is the leading choice for successful broadband constructions.

IP DSLAM: Pioneering the IP convergence era

T


SAMENA’s Beyond Connectivity annual conference commenced on 25th April in Abu Dhabi drawing industry focus on the issue of digital content. Highlighting the regional industry’s growing desire and the impending need to differentiate with respect to the provision of digital content to a large regional subscriber base, Beyond Connectivity’s first day provided a platform for knowledge-sharing on the issues, needs, requirements, and the assessment of business models surrounding the design, creation, aggregation, and the provision of mobile content.Speakers from du, Intigral, Accenture, Arab Advisors, Ericsson, and other valued participants led a comprehensive discussion,

covering subject matter concerning Threat of OTTP, Content Monetization, Digital Content Ecosystem, and OTTP’s Opportunities and Challenges, and Content Business Models. Raghu Venkatraman, Chief Strategy and Investment Officer, du, during his welcome speech and key note address, expressed that traffic on service providers’ networks is doubling every 8 to 9 months while no significant increase in the revenue is being observed, creating a challenge for service providers. Understanding the threat of over-the-top providers, assessment of monetization and the identification of the role of operators, all play into understanding what a digital ecosystem would look like, and what operators need to build

such an ecosystem. In addition to various important topics, the first day also highlighted the significance of location-based services and cross-channel marketing techniques to be able to effectively position mobile advertisements, as well as mobile content. Mr. Andre Popov, Head of Strategy and Business Development at Anayou (du) said, “54 percent of the Arab population is less than 25 years of age showing a good potential for content based services.” Mr. Jawad Abassi from Arab Advisors pointed towards the broadband trends in the Arab world. He said that fixed broadband is still underdeveloped in the region while 15 out of 19 Arab countries have operational

WiMAX networks. Among notes exchanged, important conclusions — concerning the lack of suitable business models within the content value-chain, elements of content growth, lack revenues generated by operators, potential collaboration among over-the-top-providers (OTTPs) and the operators, economic value of digital media, operator’s core business and business levers, issues in content monetization, dimensions involved in enabling content creation and provision, and the understanding and creation of the digital ecosystem — were drawn. The first day of Beyond Connectivity focused on the operator, content-creator and distributor, and end-user

SAMENA’s “Beyond Connectivity 2011” Conference highlighted the regional

industry’s growing desire

Zakir Syed


perspectives. SAMENA to promote the development and adoption of national and sector specific digitization policiesOn second day of the conference Thomas Wilson, CEO & Executive Managing Director of SAMENA Telecommunications Council presented the roadmap for the Council for the next three years. He said: "The Council's long standing vision has been to provide a unified voice and a collaboration forum for service providers in the Region. SAMENA’s new plans to accentuate its efforts more on digitization policy and regulation as well as in external

affairs with all the industry stake holders were also highlighted. SAMENA Council’s interaction with key regional players is building up. The Council is actively working with a number of operators as well as regulatory bodies and more importantly with ITU. Similarly, SAMENA is actively working to

develop relationship with other similar organizations such as, ETNO, FTTH Council, AREGNET, and Policy Tracker, among others. To help reorganize and reprioritize it agenda, SAMENA is working in enhancing its regional presence and its role in the region-wide digital policies dialogue.

SAMENA Council’s Chairman, Engr. Saud al Daweesh highlighted the evolving role of SAMENA and said: “following the emerging trends in the broadband policies and technologies alike, it’s continuously increasing contribution to the telecoms & ICT landscape of region, SAMENA is committed to help bring innovative telecommunications technologies and congenial policies to this region.” Mr. Bocar A. BA, while discussing the growing significance of the Council said: “SAMENA is doing everything possible to provide its members with the platform to exchange ideas, and to collaborate on regional issues as well as provide the opportunities to be part of SAMENA’s meetings and conferences to embark on the industry challenges together.” Google’s Gulf Regional Manager, Muhammed Mourad said “though it’s innovative application that is Google translate, Google is helping to overcome the language barriers, and it is investing heavily to make the Geo data available


universally.” He also shared that Google is partnering to digitize the cultural content world over.The third day of Beyond Connectivity grabbed special attention of the audience for it had a CEO live session that discussed the latest developments in the telecommunication industry in region and future strategies. The panel on “Mobile Content Innovation” highlighted that the opportunity for regional players in this region is to think differently, in terms of monetizing the content based services such as IPTV. Burak Evren, Director TT Net shared that Turk Telecom has put an advertising platform in place for advertising the content service instantly. Etisalat’s SVP Marketing, Khalifa Al-Shamsi said that Etisalat is continuously building its network to be able to provide its customers with the best experience. He also said that that the OTT players and telcos should sit together and devise new strategies that are mutually profitable. Operators are a channel for the content providers and they need to become smart pipes to be able to generate more revenues. Both the stake holders should come up with innovative ideas of revenue sharing. Khalifa Al-Shamsi added, “In addition to providing the basic utility, telcos provide certain value-added services, and content rich application at the retail level.”

The second panel on the final day discussed “Innovation in the Home”. The panel explored the prospect of using 4G networks for providing IPTV service, for this will enable the service providers to enable the user to experience IPTV ubiquitously. IPTV provides a supreme value by offering a wide diversity of quality content and a great command over that content, with many great features. Mr. Alex Shalaby, Chairman of Mobinil Egypt, an Orascom company, expressed that “innovation will be the driver of the industry and suppliers, vendors, consultants,

integrators, and operators, are all part of the ecosystem and their collective cooperation will help bring the innovation that is needed.” Karim Khoja, CEO of Roshan Telecom, while participating in the CEO’s live session shared interesting demographical information about Afghanistan. He said 65 percent of Afghanistan’s population is below 20 percent, so there is a huge potential for telcos. Among other things, Mr. Khoja also shared that it’s Roshan’s relationship-building tactic that has served it so well in earning its customers’ trust and in actively marketing

its products. He also said that the women customer base of Roshan increased from 8 percent to 18 percent in 2 years. This was made possible by offering certain packages to the women of Afghanistan, which received enormous response. He expressed the hope that mobile advertizing will bring huge revenues to Roshan Telecom in the future.In his insightful note, Ross Cormack, CEO Nawras Oman, said that “the ability to benchmark allows you to measure the cost and we need to do is provide an environment and the growth will occur.” T


As our industry evolves, it is becoming more important

to share our thoughts among each other, and discuss our industry opportunities and challenges. In a world where convergence has become key! partnership and collaboration are central to the success of different industry players, as well as national and global economies.The economic role that our industry has played over the past years has been overwhelming - From driving growth through direct contribution to the economy, or through enabling growth across various economic sectors. Yet perhaps the greatest value created by our industry has been in transforming the lives of people — How do we spend our time, how do we conduct our work and how do we connect with each other. The social and cultural implications of “Connectivity” have been tremendous so far, and beyond that we still have a long and promising way to go.Recently, SAMENA Council started the process of preparing the groundwork for the elaboration of region-wide ICT policies — Policies that would enable a new transformational wave that would have significant economic, social and cultural benefits. We have started compiling an inventory of the many vital issues that extend beyond connectivity, ranging from unified technology neutral licensing! international roaming, the requirement for thoughtful digitization policy, the evolution of the requirement for the digital dividend as well as other potential and needs

regarding CT policy in the region.Presently, the organization is going through a series of informal consultations with its members, the region’s national policy makers and regulators, as well as other regional and global associations and independent experts. I hope this initiative will attune the industry stakeholders to the information technology and telecommunications challenges before us, and will assist us to play a key role in ‘Building Digital Economies”. As such, the organization is focusing its efforts on several new objectives, which address• digitization opportunities for both telecom operators and ICT industry stakeholders• progressive and innovative new ideas regarding application of policies• building a conducive environment for investment by operators in next generation broadband infrastructure• as well as an increased role for SAMENA as a facilitator of

cooperation between telecom operators and other industry stakeholders.The SAMENA region has shown a strong commitment toward telecommunications infrastructure and service development. Our telecom and ICT indicators in the region continue to grow, and many regional operators have gone global. The Middle East mobile broadband market is expected to reach 50 million subscribers by 2013, growing at an average annual rate of 45%, from just seven million in 2008. Significant potential continues to exist in the region’s emerging markets, which drives the need for a region-wide call for ICT policies — Policies that would facilitate a next wave of growth and innovation.SAMENA Council’s interaction with key regional players is key to its growth. The Council is actively working with a number of operators, policy makers and regulatory bodies, along with partner organizations

that work on similar issues, albeit in different ecosystems at times such as, ETNO, FTTH Council, AICTO and Policy Tracker, among others. To help reorganize and reprioritize its agenda, SAMENA is working on enhancing its regional presence and its role within the regional digital policies dialogue. The outcome of these efforts will materialize in the near future. For the purpose of the development in ‘Broadband Connectivity’ and the overall ICT sector, we will work with government stakeholders and policy makers to support in shifting their roles towards “digital economy topics”, such as application, content, e-Health, e-Learning and e-Government, as well as establishing national broadband networks.Following the emerging trends in both broadband policy and technology alike, continuously increasing contribution to the telecoms & ICT landscape of region, SAMENA is committed to help bring innovative business models, concepts and creative thoughts to the region. This is possible by taking actions on a proactive basis. I encourage all industry participants and stakeholders to continue to discuss the issues proactively and openly, and formulate initiatives required to reach our collective aspired goals. SAMENA is maturing just as the regional environment is maturing, and the Council is reaching for greater heights to provide its members with the platform to exchange ideas and to collaborate on those critical issues identified by all of us as we embark upon facing the challenges and opportunities together.

Keynote address at "Beyond Connectivity 2011" by Eng. Saud Al Daweesh

Chairman SAMENA Telecommunications Council and President & Group CEO, STC

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“Etisalat Group” participated in SAMENA Telecommunication Conference Beyond Connectivity, which took place in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi under the theme “Building Digital Economies”.

Engineer Ahmed bin Ali, Group Senior Vice President Corporate Communication -“Etisalat Group” addressed a panel discussion on Industry M&A saying: “business development and diversification of income resources have become inevitable to trigger development, particularly after the sector saturation lately in many countries”. He added that the business models and acquisitions in the sector that took place recently have contributed largely in promoting the sector and creating sophisticated technology that meet individuals and businesses increasing demand for telecommunication services.

Bin Ali also demonstrated “Etisalat Group” experience in capturing opportunities of growth and wise international and local investment at the same time. He said “we continued reinforcing our investment in the Fiber Optic networks and modern technology. Today, ‘Etisalat’ has announced that it has completed connection of Abu Dhabi city with Fiber Optic network to be the first city in the world fully connected.

The Fiber Optic network covers all over the UAE with a distance estimated at 5 folds the distance between Earth and the Moon, the matter that will enhance the culture of using high speed Internet and providing our customers the opportunity to enjoy the service high quality when using the customized applications and content.

Bin Ali added that the intention of “Etisalat Group” for international expansion is to increase and diversify income sources and to boost

shareholders returns and also to develop the sector in countries we operate in. He said “Etisalat Group” experience in “Mobily” Saudi Arabia that contributes largely in the Group profits with a subscriber base estimated at 20 million subscribers, was successful and a motive to unfold more international investments opportunities. “Mobily” has managed to cover 28 Saudi cities in less than 6 month. He added that “Etisalat Egypt and Etisalat Afghanistan have also reached the breakeven point as

per the operational profits in a very short period relative to any other new entrants in another country.

Bin Ali continued and said that the Group balances its investment operations by acquiring existing operators according to criteria that is consistent with the Group’s strategy as the case in Pakistan, Canar (Sudan), Zantel, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Contribution of international operations today in the Group revenue has increased significantly to reach 46% (Q4, 2010 results). The Group maintains its financial elasticity by adopting balanced policies that are diligent and wise, the matter that helped the group to be free of substantial debts in the current conditions of the market. The Group has the necessary credit rating and liquidity for more investments.

Bin Ali concluded that “Etisalat” outlook is confident and optimistic and he expects emergence of more challenges and lucrative opportunities in the coming few years. On the international level, he said, there is a need for more policies and regulations that assist in the sector’s growth and attracting investments particularly in the emerging economies and add further favorable principles that encourage foreign investments and industry development.

Eng. Ahmed Bin Ali: showcases Etisalat International Success Story around the Globe

“Etisalat” Participates in SAMENA's Beyond Connectivity Conference in Abu Dhabi

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Teletimes Report


After its successful 2008 Telecoms Infrastructure

Supplier Outlook, Arthur D. Little has again reviewed the performance of leading telecom suppliers and conducted a global survey of Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) to ask for an update on their perspective on sector developments and challenges ahead.

Arthur D. Little conducted its 2nd global equipment supplier

survey from June to November 2010. CTOs and leading industry experts were questioned on 16 technology areas with a focus on the positioning of 11 key suppliers, which account for approximately 70 percent of global CAPEX in 2010. Products and services were reviewed in the same three areas as in the previous report: access network infrastructure, core & transmission network infrastructure and services.

Capex spending by telecom operators remains stable at 0.7 percent CAGR 2010-2014

Supplier revenues are principally driven by telecom operators’ capex spending, especially on equipment. As a result, this spending directly impacts suppliers’ growth outlook. A detailed analysis of the capital expenditure of the world’s Top 100 telecom operators indicates a decrease in the capex-to-sales ratio to 16.5 percent by 2014 (down from 18.4 percent in 2008). With industry revenues expected to grow at a modest 2 percent p.a., overall capital expenditure will thus remain stable (0.7 percent CAGR) over the forecast period, with growth coming from spending

on equipment (see Figure 1, overleaf).

Wireless access infrastructure, already accounting for 43 percent of total telecom infrastructure capex, will increase its overall share as spending continues to shift away from fixed infrastructure. As a consequence, the rollout of LTE networks in Europe and North America, and 3G deployments in India and South America will be key drivers of overall equipment revenues. In addition to the above mentioned coverage rollouts, wireless capex is expected to shift towards capacity over the next few years.

Fixed infrastructure is still burdened by slow investment into FTTx due to regulatory

While established vendors have continued down their previous strategic paths, attempting to merge and integrate, Huawei came within a whisker of overtaking even Ericsson on a revenue market share basis. Moreover, most former sector leaders are still experiencing weak financial performance, and are in danger even being overtaken in innovation and product leadership by their emerging competition.

Are suppliers poised for a turnaround? Arthur D Little’s 2011 Telecoms Infrastructure Supplier Outlook

Dr. Karim Taga

Where we were right in 2008, what remains to be proven

• In 2008, we correctly predicted that consolidation would continue (i.e. Motorola, Nortel, Starent, and Tandberg)

• As predicted, after the first wave of consolidation (Alcatel Lucent, Nokia Siemens) telecom operators shunned smaller suppliers, turning them into prime acquisition targets (i.e. Nortel, Motorola)

• We rightly predicted the recent wave of profit warnings and the destruction of shareholder value (e.g. Ericsson -35 percent & Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent ~ -60 percent in stock price since Q1/2007)

Some suppliers, such as Ericsson, could profit from their investments into the software and solutions business, but the widespread transformation of suppliers into this segment as suggested by our study is yet to materialize.

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uncertainty. The increasing trend of sharing investments into next generation networks among operators could also reduce the number of competing infrastructures and thereby the suppliers’ addressable market.

Operators are also expected to focus on cost efficiencies and their core business, resulting in double-digit growth rates for Network Services (Operations & Management) and Managed Network Services.

In addition, emerging market growth has outpaced mature markets in all infrastructure categories, with emerging markets expected to account for 56 percent of overall revenues by 2015.

Value shift among suppliers continues, but consolidation has not brought market repair

At the end of 2010, Ericsson, Huawei and Alcatel Lucent emerged as potential challengers in the race for the telecom infrastructure market (see Figure 2).

During the preceding two years, there was significant market consolidation. 2009 saw large-cap deals with CISCO acquiring Tandberg (USD 3.4bn) and Starent (USD 2.9bn), HP entering into the networking equipment sector through its acquisition of 3COM (USD 2.7bn) and Ericsson cherry-picking Nortel’s CDMA and LTE assets (USD 1.13bn).

In 2010, besides the acquisition

of Motorola’s wireless network unit by Nokia Siemens Networks for USD 1.13bn (currently under renegotiation), deal sizes were much smaller (less than USD 100m) and focused on niche players in network services and IT.

The turmoil in the telecom supplier market is best illustrated by the rapid ascent of Huawei to become number two in terms of revenue through both organic growth and the demise of Motorola. Huawei started to gain momentum in 2007 after the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona and the InfoVision Awards. Initially, a low price strategy helped Huawei to gain market share around the world. Deployment of 3G in China last year further boosted their revenue. Increasingly, Huawei is also recognized for highly innovative products (e.g. SingleRAN), thereby setting the foundation for further expansion.

In contrast, Motorola’s infrastructure division has continually lost ground since 2007 against the leading vendors in the telecom infrastructure market. They could not find a strong foothold in the 3G market and their bet on WiMAX and, in particular, on the North American market did not pay off. This troubled position eventually led to its sale to Nokia Siemens Networks in 2010.

The wireless infrastructure segment is shifting further to a buyer’s market with aggressive upcoming swap deals. Technological advances such as Single RAN further focuses the industry, but market shares suggest an end to consolidation. Fixed infrastructure is still a highly fragmented segment, thus further vendor consolidation is to be expected. In Managed Network Services, Ericsson and NSN are still market share leaders, but IT

players and smaller competitors are increasing fragmentation.

However, when analyzing operating margins of suppliers, it is clear that market repair has yet to take place despite six years of consolidation. In addition, Asian attackers and IT players are taking increasing market share from established vendors.

Technology & Business Model innovations require suppliers to re-think

The current megatrends in the telecom industry have pushed suppliers into an innovation race in terms of both technology and business models.

HSPA+ vs. LTE – Mobile traffic is projected to increase by a factor of 32 by 2015, however without the need for significantly higher wireless access capex. Until 2014, the best technology choice for most operators is HSPA+ rather than LTE. However, operators will need to redouble their efforts in traffic offloading through fixed access points (WiFi & femtocells), particularly in urban areas. Backhaul technology could become a sweet spot for telecom equipment providers in the years to come, as Carrier Ethernet, fibre, and high-capacity microwave are still in an early deployment stage. Suppliers and operators should not repeat their 3G failures, but rather make smart decisions regarding HSPA+ vs. LTE.

RAN Sharing – Increasingly, operators are willing to build their next generation wireless access networks (e.g. HSPA+, LTE) jointly with competitors, and to a lesser extent with financial investors. The use of Single RAN equipment in these joint ventures will greatly increase the importance of vendors. A comprehensive wireless access portfolio (strong position in 2G, 3G and 4G) is essential. Joint ventures will


enable suppliers to become the exclusive network infrastructure provider, and they will have the potential to move from supplier to full-fledged joint venture partner.

Quality of Service – With increasing network congestion, operators will choose to differentiate between traffic classes. The separation of traffic into different classes will become ever more important. Offensive measures typically improve the user experience for traffic flows that are desired, known and managed, whereas defensive measures deter unsolicited/unwanted traffic. Operators and suppliers are expected to deploy solutions on wireless networks to improve the customer experience for high-value customers without detracting low-value subscribers.

FTTB/H – Future investment into very high broadband will be shared and mainly driven by non-telecom players. A staggering 65 percent of all households with access to FTTB/H networks in Europe are on networks deployed by fixed-line incumbents. Utility companies and alternative operators are expected to split the value chain as well as the financial investments, by forming innovative partnerships. Alcatel Lucent, for example, actively participates in landmark projects such as National Broadband Network

Co. in Australia. Providing support and enabling innovative business models to break the investment barriers for FTTH will be key to suppliers success in this segment.

The challenges faced by telecom operators open a number of new opportunities for suppliers, but will require a radical rethinking of their business model and offering.

Little change in CTOs’ views of top suppliers, raising questions about the suppliers’ strategies

Overall, more than 80 surveyed CTOs did not see significant change in leading vendors’ positioning since the 2008 survey, raising questions over Western vendors’ strategies.

Western telecom suppliers are still perceived as technology leaders in most categories, but Asian attackers are increasingly seen as innovators. Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson were mentioned ‘leader’ 9 times (same as 2008) out of 16 categories, followed by Huawei with 8 (-1 vs. 2008), Nokia Siemens Networks with 6 (+2 vs. 2008) and Cisco, IBM and Motorola one time each (same as 2008).

With the exception of Nortel and Motorola, all suppliers broadened their portfolio, striving for a full-service supplier position. Despite only one mention as ‘leader’, in CDMA, ZTE is also slowly closing the gap on the tier 1

suppliers, being increasingly perceived as full-service supplier. Cisco is seen to be building up its portfolio through acquisitions. Ericsson, meanwhile, is still perceived to lack a comprehensive fixed network portfolio.

In the most promising technology segments over the next 5 years, CTOs clearly identified Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei as leaders in fixed (DSLAM/MSAN) and Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks in mobile infrastructure (HxPA & LTE/SAE).

Huawei and ZTE hold leader positions in some of the categories, however, operators from emerging and developed regions have divergent views on their performance. Emerging market operators rank Asian vendors higher, whereas operators in developed markets feel they still need to improve organizational maturity.

Conclusion

Suppliers and operators will need to work together more closely to manage the transition from growth to efficiency while maximizing growth from emerging opportunities. Operators’ models will change dramatically and suppliers must respond to this.

To capture growth from these new opportunities, suppliers need to:

Adapt their business models

to actively shape the market, nnleverage “swap” opportunities, co-finance and drive deals

Be equally strong in fixed and mobile, and particularly in core nnnetwork technology, which is moving ever closer to the base stations

Master all wireless technology generations, (e.g. 2G/3G and nn4G) in order to remain an attractive partner in Single RAN

Help operators to make smart decisions when deploying nnHSPA+ vs. LTE and push solutions to offload and prioritize traffic on wireless networks

Leverage a large FTTB/H opportunity by providing business nnmodels and support to break the investment barriers

Further stabilize trust by sharing roadmaps, managed nnservices, participating in the operator eco-system and embracing over-the-top solutions

Reshape portfolios as value is increasingly migrating towards nnIT (OSS/BSS) and Managed Network Service (new business models)

Key actions for operators include:

• Continuously monitor the supplier ecosystem to test the nnvulnerability of their existing investments to disruptions in the supplier landscape

• Watch for consolidation in the fixed infrastructure and nnnetwork service segments, not to bet on the wrong horse

• Partner with suppliers in network sharing deals in FTTx nndeployment, as well as for LTE

• Involve suppliers in early stages of business model nninnovation

• Determine a healthy supplier mix in access, core, nntransmission and services. T


STC International’s ambition is to create value in every market where it operates rather than engage in basic competition

Ghassan HasbaniCEO - International OperationsInterview by Khalid Athar


As globalization reaches a whole new level in an

era of future technologies and global transformation, STC International keeps up with the pace, making its mark on many countries around the globe. The level of its global presence today, makes STC one of the biggest and most important players in the tele-communications world. Mr. Ghassan Hasbani, is the man leading international opera-tors of STC towards having a wide, synergetic portfolio, availing every little oppor-tunity for growth. Teletimes International very recently got the chance to exclusively interview Ghassan Hasbani in his office in Riyadh. The transcript of the interview is given following for the interest of our readers.Khalid Athar - Could you please give us some details on the current situation of STC’s international operations?

Ghassan Hasbani - STC has now a well developed interna-tional operations arm. This is a radical shift from the pure investment mindset that we had at the time of our initial expansion to an operational mindset with deep involve-ment in the strategies of our international subsidiaries and sister companies. STC has now a complete operating model to manage its international op-erations, covering performance management, governance processes, talent management and the synergy programs.In terms of performance, today we are gaining the ben-efits of structuring our port-folio in a way that provides us with immediate high revenues as well as high growth from our smaller operationsOur diverse portfolio contains well-established revenue generating operations such as Turk Telekom in Turkey and

Ghassan Hasbani is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Operations of Saudi Telecom Company (STC). His responsibilities are primarily focused on supporting the group in creating value across the global community of partners and operating companies. The role includes the management of synergy creation activities, post merger integration, market monitoring, legal and strategic governance of board and executive management relationships across the group companies in addition to manging mergers and acquisitions activities. Mr. Hasbani is the Chairman of the Board of Axis in Indonesia, and a board member in Maxis Communications Berhard in Malaysia, Turk Telecom, Viva Bahrain and Kuwait.He joined STC from the global management consulting firm Booz & Company, where he led the firm’s Middle East Communications and Technology practice. Mr. Hasbani has more than 17 years of experience in the telecom industry in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Mr. Hasbani has also worked with leading organizations in the telecommunica-tion and technology industries, including Nortel Networks and Cable & Wireless and spent the past tenyears operating within the Middle

East Region. In addition to the Middle East, his global experience includes markets such as Europe, South East Asia, Africa and Latin America.His experience covers all aspects of the telecommunications industry including investment strategies, mergers and acquisitions, post merger integration, marketing, product and service development, organizational restructuring and governance, technology plans, retail and distribution, channel strategy and management, customer care, business development and CFO and CEO agendas.Mr. Hasbani is also a chartered engineer and a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in the U.K. He holds an MBA and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering with first class honors from the U.K.

Profile


Maxis in Malaysia. In addi-tion, companies such as Axis (Indonesia), Aircel (India), Viva Bahrain and Viva Kuwait are not as big in terms of revenues, however, they are forecasted to grow at much higher rates. International revenues grew by 15% YoY and nearly all companies increased their market shares with both AXIS

and VIVA Bahrain almost doubling their revenues.KA - Have the recent politi-cal uprising in North Africa and other mid-east countries affected STC’s operations? If so, how much time would be required for complete recov-ery?

GH - Bahrain is the only coun-try among our international markets to experience some

uprising. Viva Bahrain contin-ues to operate without any problems on the commercial front. Our only concern was the safety of our employees so we made sure that contingen-cy phases were in place, but thank God we did not have to use them.KA - What challenges are be-ing faced by the international sector of STC? How do you

plan to address those chal-lenges?

GH - Each market has its own challenges. In markets with well-established presence, the challenge is to defend our leading position. Namely, we aim at maintaining and defending our dominant posi-tion in the Turkish fixed line market and Malaysia’s mobile market. This requires that we constantly reinvent the business and remain sharply focused on delivering best customer value and experi-ence. In markets where we are late entrants, the challenge is to bring novelty to the market. Our brands in these markets are designed to be fresh and young to position ourselves as innovative players. On the other hand we recognize that uncertainty comes along with growth and high prospect mar-kets and so we try to actively manage the portfolio and apply tight governance. This is also part of the transition from stage 1 investment group to a company actively manag-ing a portfolio and setting strategies for its subsidiaries.KA - Do you have any plans for further expansion in the near future?

GH - We are hopeful we can secure the 3rd mobile license in Syria, we are also heavily investing today to provide a unique experience to our customers across several areas such as new services, sales and customer care. We will aggressively move into providing a differentiated and integrated broadband service proposition unparalleled in the region along with the in-novative value-added services demanded by customers. STC will keep on scanning inorganic growth opportuni-ties that would fit within our portfolio of companies. Our

We will aggressively move into providing a differentiated

and integrated broadband service proposition

unparalleled in the region along with the innovative

value-added services demanded by customers.


aim is to ensure that our port-folio is synergetic and would provide customers a meaning-ful international service.KA- Please talk about the lev-el of competition STC is facing in international markets?

GH - From the beginning we recognized that competi-tion will be fierce in some of the markets we entered, but we always were and still are confident that we can leverage the experience and the knowledge we gained in KSA to achieve success in the different foreign markets we entered. Viva Kuwait and Bah-rain for example have already gained high and competitive market shares.KA - How do you see the future of the international operations of STC?

GH - STC International has big ambitions to contribute to the global transformation in telecom. The global pres-ence gives STC the scale and clout to play this role. STC can now be a catalyst for opening up the emerging markets to investments and innovation in telecom. Our presence in the most prominent emerging economies in the Middle East, Africa as in South East Asia gives STC the power to make a deep change on a multina-tional scale.

STC International’s ambition is to create value in every market where it operates rather than engage in basic competition.

With our current international portfolio, STC has plenty of opportunities to achieve this, namely through Synergies

between OpCo’s in different markets to best utilize every resource we have, Knowledge Sharing to cross fertilize ideas

across multiple markets and opportunities for our people to develop world class exper-tise by exposure to different

international markets. KA - What is STC’s status regarding CSR when it comes to the countries it is operating in besides Saudi?

GH - In our view, the tele-communication industry can contribute to the economic de-velopment in countries and so for us CSR goes well beyond social activities. By having in-definite term investments and the hiring of local talents and above all bringing high quality telecom services to all, we can fulfill our role in the economic development process.

We are also active in sup-porting the local communities where we dedicate a portion of our revenues to supporting social responsibilities causes.

KA - What are your comments on TELETIMES International?

GH - I am impressed by the breadth of coverage of

TELETIMES, the quality of the material has certainly made it one of the key reference publications in the industry. TELETIMES’ unique tri-regional footprint matches what we believe is the optimal economic zone for telecom. Keep up the good work!

STC can now be a catalyst for

opening up the emerging markets to

investments and innovation

in telecom.

TGhassan Hasbani and Khalid Athar, Chief Editor - Teletimes


Having ridden out the global economic

downturn, the IT industry looks set to continue its impressive expansion in Dubai, though it will have to deal with increased competition from within the region as well as further afield – especially Asia – as it seeks to attract new investors and clients.

IT has long been at the core of the government’s plans to expand the economy and give it a strong knowledge-based foundation. The authorities recognised that a strong information and communication technology (ICT) backbone was essential to developing a modern, diversified economy.

This recognition in Dubai has seen increased spending on IT infrastructure, including the ongoing expansion of the fibre optic network and the provision of faster internet services, which have enabled the development of a number of new technology segments. One area that has the potential for strong growth is outsourcing. By externalising non-core activities – especially IT tasks such as data storage and processing – companies are better positioned to focus on their main line of business, rather than having to devote resources to back-office

activities.

According to Dr Petra Elgass, a partner at the business consultancy Management Partners, there is growing momentum across the Middle East towards change in the way IT is managed. “We are now seeing more business and IT transformation initiatives happening in the region, which focus on shared service centres and centres of excellence, as well as on outsourcing. These initiatives, if designed and managed carefully, will have a significant performance impact,” Elgass said, at the opening of the company’s new Dubai office.

Dubai has recognised the significance of that impact, establishing the Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ) in mid-2004 to take advantage of the growing potential the segment offers. An increasing number of firms in Dubai and the UAE are looking to ramp up their use of business-process outsourcing, with the aim of achieving greater cost savings and adding value, said “ICT in the UAE”, a report issued in January by the Dubai Internet City (DIC) in conjunction with the regional law firm Al Tamimi & Co.

Given the change in investment trends for IT

departments, firms are now opting to work with outsourcing service providers for mission critical applications and gain operational efficiency, said the report. The DOZ has, in particular, been the beneficiary of the growth of the local enterprise sector and the shift in trends in IT services and management, said Malek Al Malek, the managing director of the DIC and the DOZ.

“Buying patterns have changed as companies have realised the value of outsourcing – not only in terms of cost, but also in relation to business processes within a firm. The cluster has noticed this change in the adoption of shared services and customer profiles,” Al Malek said in a statement accompanying the release of the report.

Al Malek believes that the outlook for outsourcing is strong, with an increasing number of large enterprises having realised the value that is added to their top line by taking up shared services. “IT networks are also upgrading their infrastructure to maintain industry standards within their framework. However, regional IT service providers have to raise their service levels to meet these standards and bring about a change in

consumer attitudes,” he said.

It does seem that attitudes are changing, if a report issued by international management, consultants AT Kearney in early March is any indication. Its latest Global Services Location Index (GSLI) found that the UAE was fast emerging as an ideal offshore IT centre. While India, China and Malaysia continue to be the gold standard for IT services and support, in terms of contact centres and back-office support on the GSLI the UAE has jumped to second in the Middle East and 15th globally, up from 29th in the previous study. The upward momentum is largely due to the growing strength of Dubai as an outsourcing centre.

That said, Dubai will still have to contend with strong competition for investment and clients, with other countries in the region such as Jordan and Tunisia, along with Egypt, all ranked in the top 25 internationally. Meanwhile, Malaysia and India are both active in targeting Gulf firms, Dubai’s key market.

However, Dubai should be able to build on its current good form in the outsourcing segment and in the broader IT sector, as it rolls-out better, faster services to further strengthen its ICT backbone.

Dubai outsourcing IT Industry

Rahul Jain

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With Qatar recently winning the bid to host

the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the region is brimming with excitement at staging one of the greatest sporting competitions in the world. The stadia outlined in the official bid demonstrate the sheer scale of ambition and technical ingenuity the Qatar Football Association has in mind. Not only is the organization tasked with building several truly stunning venues, such as the Doha Port Stadium, which is almost completely surrounded by water, and the futuristic Umm Slal Stadium, but they also have to overcome well publicised issues over air conditioning inside the venues and several other technical hurdles.The months following December’s announcement was a time to celebrate securing one of the most significant infrastructure projects that Qatar has ever seen. But the honeymoon is coming to an end and the process of transferring that exceptional proposal from paper to the pavement begins now. Our industry has an important role in helping to deliver a first class World Cup in 2022, with wireless and IP technology already forming an essential part of the stadium experience. Having provided

the wireless infrastructure at the last two FIFA World Cups, in South Africa and Germany respectively, we know that fans want to share the excitement with friends and family not present at the event. Whether it’s capturing the winning goal on a mobile phone camera or calling friends to find out a rival team’s result, fans from all nations will expect a flawless wireless service at every game. We also know that stadiums of the future will increasingly demand an integrated network that can not only manage wireless communications, but all other digital technology in the

venue.Perhaps the biggest consideration for the venue planners, from a communications perspective, is the requirements of fans and staff a decade from now. The mobile industry is already experiencing well documented phenomenal growth in data consumption, for example, Cisco estimates that worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 26-fold in the period 2010 to 2015. Therefore it is clear that any communications system for World Cup venues must be designed with next-generation technologies in

mind. At the very least we can anticipate significant numbers of High-Definition (HD) videos being recorded and distributed within each stadium, particularly during the opening ceremony, but new innovations, applications and services will always increase the demand for higher bandwidth.The same is true for any large enterprise network, which are increasingly needed to support operations inside modern stadia. These venues are no longer simply places where sporting contests occur; they are full time offices and venues for all kinds of business and commercial events. As in any large enterprise environment the use of IP devices, such as telephones, security cameras and PC terminals, is increasingly common and puts additional strain on the network. Sports stadia may also have numerous HD video displays distributed throughout the venue, not to mention show-piece scoreboards all running on the network.To ensure cohesion and reduce potential downtime, it is logical for all digital media to rely on a single integrated network. In addition, installing a network infrastructure that can provide complete control over all systems - including digital audio and video, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phones, HVAC

Communications at the Qatar 2022 World Cup

Reflecting on Qatar’s successful bid to host the FIFA 2022 World Cup, Vick Mamlouk, VP, Wireless

Sales, Middle East and Africa, CommScope, consid-ers how voice and data services will be integrated

into the stadia design

Khalil Vick Mamlouk

Contd. on page 34


(heating, ventilation and air conditioning), access control and most building management applications - would give the stadium management team increased vision, knowledge and control to heighten the stadium experience. The mobile network should also be integrated into the infrastructure so that capacity peaks can be managed more effectively, as well as controlling independent wireless systems for security and emergency services.However, stadiums do present unique challenges in providing wireless connectivity, as match days require a network capable of supporting the equivalent of a small city located within a single structure. In addition, the layout of the stadium inherently makes signal penetration very difficult, requiring a team of

highly experienced engineers and designers to ensure that reception is able to flood all parts of the stadium, as well as guaranteeing seamless signal handovers from section to section. These are precisely the same issues we successfully overcame in all 10 venues used in the most recent World Cup in South Africa.In these venues we deployed distributed antenna systems (DAS), which work by taking a donor feed from a macro cell via a repeater or a dedicated Base Transceiver Station, and then distributing it over fibre and/or coaxial cables throughout the building. A dedicated radio base station connected to a DAS ensures both dedicated coverage and capacity, confines the signals, prevents signal spillage and interference and thus

enhances the quality for both voice and data services. DAS systems can also be installed to support multiple operators, after all, it will be of no use to the event organisers if subscribers of only one mobile network operator have access to voice and data services. This intrinsic ability to provide a shared infrastructure that can be efficiently used by multiple wireless operators and services, makes DAS extremely attractive from both an economical and a technical point of view. While the cost-sharing factor is obvious, it is also worth noting that the technical advantages of a shared solution with reliably consistent radio performance contribute to reduce interferences and maximise capacity and efficiency.I have no doubt that Qatar can

host a fantastic World Cup in 2022 but there is a lot of work to be done along the way. With stadia being such a visible and integral part of the tournament, it’s vital that we get it right from both an aesthetic and a technology point of view. People’s experiences inside these stadia will have an enormous impact on their overall perception of the quality of the tournament, and Qatar as the host. By using the right technology and planning for future data consumption habits now, the event organisers can ensure that fans, media, businesses and diplomatic representatives, will all leave with a positive impression of a technologically astute and progressive country that, ultimately, hosted a fantastic World Cup.

The Qtel Group’s reputation for innovation and service

excellence received another important boost recently, when Dr. Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, was ranked 72 out of the world’s top 500 most powerful Arab nationals in the Arabian Business Power 500.

As a member of the Qtel Group, Nawras has benefitted greatly from Dr. Nasser’s presence on the Board over the last six years during which time he has steered the high level strategy and development of Oman’s customer friendly communications provider.

Dr. Nasser’s success in the

Arabian Business Power 500 was the latest in a series of industry awards and recognition for the company’s achievements in recent months.

Among only 21 Qatari nationals on the list, Dr. Nasser Marafih “heads up possibly the most dynamic telecoms firm in the Gulf today,” the report said. He was the highest ranking of all the telecom CEOs named in the list, above regional peers, reflecting the Qtel Group’s increasing industry stature.

In his eight years since taking the helm as CEO of the Qtel Group, Dr. Nasser

Marafih has led the company from the position of a solid domestic carrier to a truly international telco player, with presence in 17 countries in the MENA region, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia supporting more than 74 million customers. In December 2010, Dr. Nasser was appointed to the board of Directors of the GSM Association, which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry.

To compile the list of the Arabian Business Power 500, a team of researchers collected the initial database

of names in 2010. It looks at the influence of Arabs in every sector: from the business world, media, entertainment, sports, science, arts and academia, on a global scale.

The Qtel Group’s Progress Draws Regional Praise

Nawras reaps benefits from being part of the Qtel Group

Dr. Nasser Marafih

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Contd. from page 33


A formidable transformation is taking place in the

global telecommunications industry. Over the past few years, the operating margins for many telecom companies have shrunk rapidly, as mobile phone service has overtaken fixed-line service, data traffic has outpaced voice traffic, and the old bread-and-butter phone service

has become commoditized. Meanwhile, global demand for data services has increased massively, especially with the emergence of video streaming and downloading on the Internet. This “data tsunami,” as it’s been called, has grown in intensity with the proliferation of data-enabled smartphones. Cisco Systems Inc. estimates that the total volume of data

circulating on mobile networks will grow from 0.09 exabytes (97 million gigabytes) per month in 2009 to 3.6 exabytes (3.9 billion gigabytes) in 2014, roughly doubling every year.

Even with new technologies for compressing data, the ability of mobile networks to absorb this traffic remains limited. The net result is a major challenge for telecommunications

The Thought Leader Interview: Didier Lombard

The former CEO & chairman of the board of France Télécom

Telcos must outpace — or be inundated by — the coming explosion in data traffic

Art Kleiner and Piere Peladeau

This “data tsunami,” as it’s been called, has

grown in intensity with the proliferation of

data-enabled smartphones.


companies: finding the capital to build all the networks needed to handle this data while still maintaining the loyalty of customers and the goodwill of regulators, and fending off new Internet-based competitors such as Google, Skype, and Facebook.

In Europe, one major telecommunications company facing this challenge is France Télécom SA. Known for its Orange brand, it offers voice,

Internet, and mobile services. France Télécom is the third-largest European telco (after Deutsche Telekom AG and Telefónica SA), with about 193 million customers worldwide in 2010 and approximately 180,000 employees (roughly half of them located outside France). Its annual revenues are about US$80 billion, of which it invests more than 10 percent in building new infrastructure.

Didier Lombard, the chairman of France Télécom since 2005 (and CEO from 2005 to 2010), has championed a vision that might have seemed unthinkable several years ago: Large, incumbent telephone companies as pioneers of digital enterprise. In his years leading the company, he has stepped up innovation in services and content development, expanded service into eastern Europe and Africa, and created Orange Labs, a global network of R&D facilities. These all represented dramatic moves for a company that had been a government-controlled organization before 1998, and part of the French postal, telephone, and

telegraph ministry before 1990.

To some observers, they were also unusual moves because Lombard had spent most of his career in the French government. Having started in 1967 at France Télécom as an engineer, he moved in 1988 to the French Ministry of Research and Technology, where he became scientific and technical director. In 1991, he took a post as managing director of industrial

strategy at the Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Industry; in 1999, he became the founding chair of the French Agency for International Investments, making him in effect the government’s chief ambassador to potential investors in his country. He rejoined France Télécom as a senior vice

president in 2003, became CEO and chairman of the board in 2005, and was succeeded by Stéphane Richard as CEO in 2010. (Lombard remains chairman.)

Lombard, who is 68, believes that telecommunications companies will have to cope with the data tsunami by finding new business models. In some cases, this will mean pay-for-access Internet services, including various forms of video on demand; it will also mean new applications in healthcare, financial services, and many other industries as digital telecommunications inundate them. It will almost certainly mean new types of partnerships with other technology companies; for example, France Télécom recently began selling the Apple iPad in its retail stores.

Lombard’s stance has landed him in the middle of the debate over Net neutrality — the idea that Internet access providers must offer equal access to all sites, without favoring them on the basis of either the type of content or the business relationship. Although he acknowledges the importance of open access for Internet users, he is also a leading proponent of value-added businesses, which he says are needed to generate revenues to pay for the continuing rollout of new infrastructure. In 2008, his book The Second Life of Networks (coauthored with Georges Nahon and Gabriel Sidhom) was published by Odile Jacob, in French and English editions. Lombard met with strategy+business in New York in October 2010, when he was chairman of France Télécom; in March 2011, he retired, and his successor as CEO, Stéphane Richard, also became chairman. T

Lombard, believes that telecommunications

companies will have to cope with the data

tsunami by finding new business models.


Middle East telecom operators maintain appetite for international mergers and acquisitionsFinancing is now available with attractive terms to operators, Ghassan Hasbani

TMT Finance Middle East 2011 Conference

Middle East telecom operators will continue

to lead international growth efforts via mergers and acquisitions, despite the

increased cost of capital since the outbreak of political unrest in the region and North Africa, according to key regional players, investment bankers, and industry experts.“M&A will be driven by new opportunities created by private equity exiting the industry, in-market consolidation and the emergence of new

globalizing groups entering the emerging markets,” said Ghassan Hasbani, CEO, STC International.Speaking in advance of

the leading industry event, TMT Finance Middle East 2011 Conference & Awards Ceremony, held in Dubai at the Ritz Carlton Dubai International Financial Centre on May 9-10, Mr Hasbani outlined how financing challenges would be met.“Financing is now available with attractive terms to operators, however, creative

vendor financing may take a higher importance over the next few years, provided it is in a form that helps operators improve their debt profile,”

said Hasbani, who spoke on the Global Telecom Strategy Round Table, the opening session of the conference, which featured leaders from regional operators including Batelco, Etisalat, STC and Qtel.The annual regional telecoms event, which uniquely gathers telecom leaders, investment bankers, investors and advisers, featured 10 key panels sessions

and over 50 executive speakers debating the latest strategies for investment, financing and M&A across the sector.Speakers included Saud Al Daweesh, Executive President and Group CEO of Saudi Telecom Company (STC); Ahmad Abdelkarim Julfar, Group COO, Etisalat; Peter Kaliaropolous, CEO, Batelco Group; Simon Holden, Global co-Head of Telecoms, Goldman Sachs International; Ragnar Meitern, Managing Director, TMT, Standard Chartered; Joachim Fleury, Global Head of TMT, Clifford Chance; and Erik Arveschoug, Head of Strategic Coverage, CEEMEA, Citi.Global strategies for mergers and acquisitions was a key theme for the conference with an M&A Advisers Panel assessing how consolidation will shape international markets. There was also the presentation of the annual awards for Telecom Deal of the Year, M&A Adviser of the Year, Debt Bank and Emerging Market Growth Story of the Year at the TMT Finance Middle East Awards Dinner.“There is a great deal of positive momentum among key Middle East telecom operators who are pressing on with expansive strategies,

Saud Al DaweeshExecutive President and Group CEO - STC

Peter Kaliaropolous CEO - Batelco Group

Contd. on page 38


Contd. from page 37

as shown by STC and Qtel submitting bids for the third Syrian mobile licence auction last month,” said Dominic Lowndes, Managing Director of BroadGroup TMT Ventures, the organisers of the conference, and Editor of TMT Finance News Alert. “Although there is a short term requirement to manage risk, the region does not need lots of external capital to grow, so we expect a strong continued flow of activity.”Investment bankers predict that medium term, the focus will be on in-market mid-cap consolidation, with a propensity for share for share

transactions driving synergies. “Infrastructure sales will also drive deals, especially across African telecom portfolios” added Lowndes. “The pressure to pursue deals in emerging markets is also being maintained by the major European operators such as France Telecom, which is actively pursuing acquisitions in the Middle East and Africa; Vodafone, which has a strong presence in Africa and Asia; and Telefonica.”The TMT Finance Middle East 2011 Conference & Awards Ceremony at the Ritz Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre held on May 9-10, 2011

included expert debate on Global Strategy from CEOs of leading Middle East telecom and media companies, and Heads of TMT (telecom media and technology) from the leading Investment banks, law firms and private equity investors and specialist advisers operating in the region. For the last five years, the conference is the premier gathering for executives and advisers active in transactions in mature and emerging markets of the Middle East, Asia and Africa. This year the event was supported by STC as Main Event Sponsor, Booz &

Company, Clifford Chance LLP, SNR Denton LLP and Capital MS&L. Key sessions included: a global telecom strategy round table; an M&A panel; a CFO panel; a finance raising/growth strategy panel; a panel on leadership strategies for next generation businesses; a debate on media and convergence – who should control content; a session on regulation and growth, and their impact on strategy; a session on investing in next generation networks; a session discussing the opportunities in infrastructure sharing; and a session on who will lead the growth in mobile.

Student wins trip to view Yahsat launchYahsat, the United Arab

Emirates-based satellite communications company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala), provides multi-purpose satellite communications services to commercial and governmental clients in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South-West Asia. With a wide portfolio of voice, data, video and internet connectivity solutions, Yahsat satellites are designed based on market requirements and future applications. Yahsat is partnering with a consortium composed of EADS Astrium, Thales and Alenia Space to build a multi-purpose satellite communications system. The first satellite Y1A is currently being built and will be launched in the first quarter of 2011, and Y1B will follow in the second half of 2011.

Y1A will facilitate the development of Abu Dhabi

into a regional communications hub through providing a broad range of cutting-edge communication solutions that are cost-effective, reliable, flexible and convenient for end-users. With the launch of Y1A, Yahsat will activate its services YahLive, YahLink and YahSecure. YahLive will provide Direct-to-Home television capacity and services to more than two dozen countries across the coverage area. YahLinkwill allow for cost effective communication

links for applications such as corporate data networks, internet trunking and GSM backhauling. With YahService, Abu Dhabi's first satellite will also provide ultra-secure government communication resources for the areas of administration, defence and emergency management. Furthermore Yahsat, the satellite development firm, has picked an Emirati engineering student to watch the launch of Abu Dhabi's first commercial satellite from South America.Shamma al Dahmani's essay on the benefits of satellite communications and her interest in wireless engineering was picked from 160 submissions. Her prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to French Guiana to watch the satellite lift off. "Shamma was selected for her insightful and passionate response," said Jassem Mohamed al Zaabi, the Yahsat chief executive. "We could tell from this submission that participating in this

opportunity would provide fantastic exposure for Shamma to continue to investigate her interest in satellite communications."

Ms al Dahmani, 21, said in her essay that she was proud of the country's move to build a satellite communications industry. Yahsat, owned by Mubadala Development, the Abu Dhabi Government's strategic investment company, is spending Dh2.2 billion on the satellite, which will provide commercial television and broadband internet services to 20 countries.

Yahsat's new website for the launch, yahsatlaunch.ae, has details of the event and the satellite's orbit. The site will continue competitions for giveaways of iPad computers. T

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Jassem Mohamed al Zaabi Chief Executive - Yahsat

TMT Finance Middle East 2011 Conference


Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure

Secretary General - ITU

ICTs are constantly reshaping the way the world

communicates while creating opportunities for a better life through long-term, sustainable development, not least among the most disadvantaged sections of our society.This year, as we celebrate ITU’s 146th anniversary, we focus our attention on the world’s rural communities in our quest to connect the remotest corners to the benefits of ICTs.Today, ICTs are the powerhouses of the global economy and offer real solutions towards generating sustainable economic growth and prosperity. ICTs also act as catalysts in accelerating progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.In the rural context, ICTs provide enhanced opportunities to generate income and combat poverty, hunger, ill

health and illiteracy. ICTs and related e-applications are key instruments in improving governance and rural services, such as providing community health care, safe drinking water and sanitation, education, food and shelter; improving maternal health and reducing child mortality; empowering women and the more vulnerable members of society; and ensuring environmental sustainability.Half the world’s population — nearly 3.5 billion people — resides in rural districts and far flung communities, representing the poorer, less educated, and more deprived cousins of the world’s urban citizens. Among them are as many as 1.4 billion of the world’s extremely poor people, who are also among the least connected to the benefits of ICTs. We cannot

allow this situation to continue. It is time for global action to connect rural communities to the opportunities offered by ICTs.ITU is committed to connecting the world and to ensuring that the benefits of ICTs reach the remotest corners as well as the most vulnerable communities. I am proud to say that our work at ITU in developing the standards for ICTs, managing vital spectrum and orbital resources, mobilizing the necessary technical, human and financial resources, and strengthening emergency response in the aftermath of devastating natural disasters has met with unprecedented success as we enter the second decade of this millennium.Although mobile penetration has spread rapidly with over 5.3 billion subscribers worldwide, the thrust now is to drive

content through enhanced broadband access aimed at establishing the information and communication highways — networks that will feed both rural communities and urban centres with the means to meet their development goals and aspirations. ITU’s leadership role in the Broadband Commission for Digital Development is aimed at increasing the roll out of this state-of-the-art technology to firmly establish a universally accessible knowledge-based information society.I urge you to celebrate World Telecommunication and Information Society Day this year by focusing on connecting people around the world and harnessing the full potential of ICTs so that we can all enjoy a more productive, peaceful and — in every way — a better life, particularly in rural areas.

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 17 May 2011

ICTs are the powerhouses of the global economy

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Iqtidar Zaidi

President & CEO - Techaccess

Today, Information Communication &

Technologies (ICT) play a massive role in our lives, whether in the form of the fundamental changes it made in the way we work, or how we entertain ourselves and interact with each other. However, this phenomenon of information revolution can also be used as a tool to serve a greater purpose of alleviating poverty around the globe.ICTs are often surrounded by the misconception of only referring to computers and the Internet, while excluding the more traditional and usually more common technologies of radio, television, telephones, and newspapers, basically any medium through which information could be carried.

While computers and internet are a vital part of every urbanite’s life in the corporate world, they have bypassed the majority of humankind; there are billions of poor people for whom these innovative progressions hold no meaning. Under these prevailing circumstances the basic aforementioned technologies can be strategically employed to extend the reach of the information revolution to the most deprived people living in the remotest corners of the world.Information and the knowledge it generates are critical components of poverty alleviation strategies, and ICTs provide the channel through which useful information can be made easily accessible to the poor. However, as the

technology advanced, so did the digital divide between the urban and rural regions, which, not surprisingly, reflected the divides in other resources that have relatively more insidious effects. The disparities in access to food, clean water, health, education, capital, shelter, and employment can be viewed as being a result of this imbalance in access to information. We believe it to be the responsibility of each capable organization to contribute towards the betterment of our nation. For years now Techaccess has been giving out merit-based scholarships to students enabling them, through education, to generate powerful knowledge from useful data. We have also

established an R&D centre in one of the most prestigious universities of Pakistan, NUST, to incubate promising new ideas and develop them into real solutions. Our aim is to create IT entrepreneurs and produce localized solutions addressing exclusively the needs of our society.We must realize the full potential of ICTs and embed the efforts to bridge the digital divide within effective strategies that address rest of the causes of poverty. Making “haves” out of the “have-nots” can be made possible when the disparities between urban and rural districts and far flung communities are ironed out and their lifestyles, converged, it is only then can we excel together as a global community.

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 17 May 2011

Better Life in Rural Communities with ICTs

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The world of telecommu-nications has changed

rapidly over the last decade as we have entered the era of convergence between mobile networks, broadband commu-nication, and the content sec-tor. Consumers are demanding for advanced services such as mobile TV, mobile broadband Internet and other value add-ed applications; the demand has increased tremendously in recent years and is considered as a key driver for further growth of ICT industry. Speed and bandwidth are two main support factors to supply the required wish list of mobile subscriber’s for attaining maxi-mum value from mobile hand-set way beyond a simple voice call. In the growing scenario, where mobile voice services become uniform with increas-

ing price competi-tion, innovative data services made possible by the 3rd Generation (3G) networks are important for generating profit and growth.

According to International Telecommunica-tion Union (ITU) mobile network or service based on the Inter-national Mobile Telecommu-nication-2000 (IMT-2000) family of global standards is commonly referred to as “3G mobile”. These mobile systems provide higher transmission rates than possible in sec-ond generation (2G) wireless technologies, enabling many

advanced applications such as mobile videoconferencing, video phone/mail, mobile TV/Video player, and digital audio/video delivery. Thus, the true provision of com-munication, information, and entertainment via the mobile platform will be impossible without the successful dis-semination of 3G services. The

unprecedented necessity of deploying 3G mobile services has escorted op-erators globally; today there are approximately 1 billion 3G sub-scribers in over 150 economies. The following graph shows the growth of mobile subscrib-

ers over last three years and future growth trends by 2015.

We can clearly observe that the present global market share of 3G subscribers is 18.4 % which is predicted to reach 42.7% by 2015, whereas the 2G mobile subscribers show no further growth trends. 3G mobile services are bring-ing a swift change in mobile broadband adoption, increase in data revenues for mobile operators with steady ARPUs. The following graph under-lines how 3G will drive mobile broadband connections into the next decade, enabling 85% of mobile broadband subscriptions in 2013 via HSPA platform.

In 2008, total global mo-bile service revenues were anticipated at $854B where, voice service revenue con-

Third Generation Mobile Services – Bringing new lifestyles

Muhammad Amir Malik


tributed roughly 78 percent. As forecasted by QualComm, voice service revenue for mobile services is predicted to decline to 66 percent of total

global mobile service revenue ($1,030B USD) by 2013. In comparison, global mobile data service revenue in 2008 generated a revenue market share of over 21 percent with an expected increase of over

33 percent by 2013.

From a global perspective, the deployment of 3G mobile services is significantly more advanced in some countries

than others. It would be im-portant to explore the factors that contribute to deployment rates of 3G mobile services among countries. As impor-tant as these factors are in upsetting the next phase of

mobile technology develop-ment, consumer access to advanced mobile broadband and eventual convergence.

Many stakeholders in the

mobile industry such as policy-makers, mobile service opera-tors, content providers, and end-users play an influential role in shaping 3G deploy-ments at different phases. Regulation, policy framework

and market competition are important factors affecting the deployment of the new 3G technology. Institutional environment such as politi-cal stage also influence the 3G deployment. Economical and social issues like buying power, education level and existing information and com-munication technology (ICT) infrastructure in a country are also a potential factor that might affect the adop-tion of 3G mobile services. Some countries might be more prepared than others to adopt new communications technol-ogy because of their existing ICT development and consum-ers’ experience with relevant services.Business and personal lifestyles are changing and evolving ever faster. As 3G approaches in a society, the mobile phone becomes a life management tool for business, work and leisure. Consumer behavior is driving the devel-opment of applications and services. The key to com-mercial success of 3G tech-nologies lies in understanding consumers, their lifestyles and attitudes and delivering the winning applications. It is said that the transition of the mobile industry from second to third generation is not just a simple technology improve-ment but a major economic transformation of the mobile sector as the industry moves from the provision of gradually commoditized voice services to a new array of communication, information, entertainment and enhanced data services. While the mobile industry is reconfiguring itself to enter next stage of development, a better understanding of the ways along with associated factors to foster 3G diffusion is fundamental to the continuous growth of this market. T

In 2010, more than 600 delegates from 180 global

and regional companies attended the 7th Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference. The delegates took part in active discussions on the ongoing trends in the communication and media industries that are shaping its future. Delegates leveraged the conference online networking system to prepare for their

meetings before, during and even after the conference ended, providing for a continued collaboration and synergy opportunity.The main sponsor of the 7th Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference was Orga Systems including the sponsorship of 10 regional and international companies. the 7th Conference was received well by the vast majority of the participants

in terms of conference content, level of speakers and presentations, overall level of delegates, networking and business development value, organization, value of attendance, and fees. Delegate reactions were systematically translated through the Interactive Audience Response System (Voting System). 68% of attendees indicated that they will join Arab Advisors Group again in 2011. Under the patroange of Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya Bint Al Hasan and the main sponsorship of Zain Jordan, building on the great success of the Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference for the past seven years, The Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference returns once again. Offering deep insight on the highly dynamic world of Telecommunications and Media, The Convergence has deservedly become the region's premiere conference tackling issues facing the MENA region, and providing a platform for new ideas and innovation. The 8th Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference will be tackling key defining topics through panels, presentations, and one-on-one encounters. It will be addressed by a distinguished panel of speakers that include the following:HE Dr. Atef Tal, Jordan’s Minister of ICT - HE Mr.

Mohammad Omran, Chairman, Etisalat - Dr. Abdul Malek Al Jaber, Chief Operating Officer, Zain Group and CEO, Zain Jordan - Mr. Osman Sultan, CEO, DU - Ms. Nayla Khawam, CEO, Orange - Mr. Alex Shalaby, Chairman, Mobinil - Dr. Hessa Jaber, Secretary General of ICT Qatar - Mr. Ghassan Hasbani, CEO International, STC - Mr. Ihab Hinawi, CEO, Umniah - Mr. Michael Dagher, President & CEO, Dama Ventures - Ms. Majd Shweikeh, CEO, V-Tel Holdings -Mr. Hakam Kanafani, CEO, Turk Telecom Group - Mr. Ammar Aker, CEO, Paltel Group - Mr. Ross Cormack, CEO, Nawras - Mr. Hatem Dowidar, CEO, Vodafone Egypt - Mr. David Butorac, CEO, OSN - Mr. Marwan Juma, Founder and co-Owner, dot.jo & Kinz - Mr. Eyad Abu Khorma, CEO, Damamax - Mr. Amer Sunaa, CEO, Wi-Tribe - Mr. Mohamed Youssif, CEO, YahLive and Mr. Usama Fayyad, Executive Chairman, Oasis500.

Presentations and Panels will follow through the 2-day Conference including presentations from keynote speakers representing the Conference’s sponsors: Qualcomm, Arabsat, Motorola, Umniah, Ericsson, Orange, and Oracle among other regional and international companies. The Conference also includes a large exhibition hall where participants, which include Damamax, Mada and JWT, will provide informative materials to highlight their companies’ competitive aspects. Covering the conference before, during and after the media; printed, online or broadcasted, will continue to have a strong presence. The 8th Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference Media Partners include; Teletimes International, Trade Arabia, MENAFN.Com, MediaMe, FTTH Council, CommsMEA, DVV Comm, AMEinfo, and Communities Tech.


Leen Hammad

8th Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference will be tackling key defining topics

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3i Infotech, a global information technology

and business process outsourcing (BPO) company, has announced enhanced capabilities and a new partnership to help corporate clients keep pace with a rapidly changing revenue collection environment and shifting consumer preferences. By focusing on optimizing the entire end-to-end cash collection process, 3i Infotech serves as advisor, facilitator and integrator for companies concerned with the growing costs and management requirements of their many billing and payment channels.

“We are dedicated to helping clients handle changing consumer billing and payment habits through the intelligent application of technology and key partnerships with top tier service providers,” said Kathy Hamburger, Chief Executive Officer and President, 3i Infotech, BPO & Developed Markets.

“Whether it’s managing multiple existing billing and payment channels for clients or guiding them through the integration of new presentment and cash collection capabilities, we simplify their complex processes while relieving administrative, operational and cost pressures.”

As part of this strategy, 3i Infotech separately

announced a partnership with Zumbox, preceding the NACHA Payments conference in Austin, TX. This partnership enables 3i Infotech clients to send electronic bills and other customer communications via Zumbox’s digital postal system. Zumbox is a prime example of 3i Infotech’s larger effort to provide clients with a wide array of billing, payment and technology options for their customers, whether delivered by 3i Infotech directly or through one of its ever-expanding list of partner relationships.

Currently, companies assembling an electronic revenue collection strategy have to wrestle with a fragmented marketplace

involving a multitude of vendor and technology relationships. Alternatively, 3i Infotech acts as a single resource to manage those relationships, implement new technologies and serve as a guide to help determine the best approach for each individual company. For example, 3i Infotech can act as a central revenue collection hub for clients. Taking a single billing file from the client, 3i Infotech splits the file among multiple outbound delivery channels based on customer preferences. When the corresponding inbound payments are received from different sources and processed, paper and electronic payments of all types are consolidated into a

single A/R file and returned to the client. All the while, the client has complete visibility and control over the entire process through an intuitive web interface.

These new services and partnership fall under 3i Infotech’s Global Billing & Payments Center of Excellence (CoE). The CoE leverages the company’s deep domain expertise and global resources to best serve companies interested in optimizing their entire billing and payment lifecycle. 3i Infotech’s services extend beyond electronic channels to paper billing and remittance, document processing, data management, software, and IT services for a truly comprehensive solution.

3i Infotech extends electronic billing and payments strategy with new partnership and services

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Telecommunications today is increasingly a commodity business. For traditional telecom companies, maintaining customer loyalty and delivering growth in the face of fierce price competition and new market entrants requires a new way of operating.

To achieve this, they must go through an e-business transformation. This entails developing online capabilities—

similar to those of the best online retailers—across their entire business operations, from back-room processes and logistics to customer service and sales. This is an essential

step for capturing and retaining today’s savvy customers, who expect the same kinds of benefits from all technologically oriented service providers.

An e-business transformation will also reduce costs in the long run, and it is a prerequisite for effectively delivering digital goods and services that bring new revenue growth.

But an e-business transformation is not a simple step for telecom operators

to take. Complex legacy

systems and isolated business functions are difficult and costly to migrate and integrate without disrupting operations.

Simply improving websites and introducing multichannel marketing are not enough.

Adopting an e-business model involves a reevaluation of all business

operations. How this is done, and in what sequence, varies from company to company and requires careful planning, but the benefits are the same: better customer service and greater customer retention, an increase in average

revenue per user, significant operational cost savings, and a platform foundation for digital services and the world of apps.

Some telecom operators—those with management structures that have developed and thrived in silos—may resist the change. But if they do not undertake this transformation, they will

risk losing market share and missing the opportunity to leverage their current clout for long-term growth. Telecom operators have been slower than most to capitalize on the new e-business opportunities. The time to catch up and move ahead is now.

THE E-BUSINESS IMPERATIVE

For most of the past decade, telecom operators have faced 10 percent annual declines in the price of their basic services. By now most of these companies have reached the limits of optimization and cost

reduction with their current architectures and operating models. Customers are less interested in who provides the connections than in price, service, and features. Couple this with the global recession, fierce competition, and the emergence of powerful new players that successfully leverage or bypass telecom operators—such as Apple and

Google with their smartphone and application ecosystems, or Amazon’s digital goods and cloud service business—and there is reason to question where significant future growth will come from for the once dominant telecom monopolies.

This transformation applies to technology platforms, organizational structures, people, and business processes. It is a redesign based on lean management principles that includes determining which legacy processes and systems can be transformed and how. But it

can also mean a greenfield start, in which new processes are designed and off-the-shelf systems are built into the e-business online platform. The goal is to take a typical siloed operation with its legacy systems, processes, and organization and turn it into a seamlessly integrated business system built around an online core.

E-Business Transformation:Challenges and Opportunities for Telecom operators

The goal is to take a typical siloed operation and turn

it into a seamlessly integrated business system built

around an online core.

Carlos Severino

José Antonio Tortosa

Dr. Florian Gröne

Christopher Rischard


Few companies have yet made a full commitment to an online platform. Most offerings so far focus on core data and voice transmission services. Some have leveraged Internet-enabled technologies to offer online e-shopping and e-care channels. There are also a few cases of online channels integrating successfully into a cohesive multichannel environment. But all of these efforts fail to capture the full potential and power of a comprehensive e-business transformation.

The good news is that most telecom operators start with significant advantages: deep experience in Internet technologies, large customer bases, well-known brands, and substantial online and storefront operations.

The bad news is that time is running out. The competition has already embraced the e-business paradigm. Mobile virtual network operators have built their entire

operations around e-business cores. IT, media, and the big e-tailers have e-business in their DNA and are already luring the traditional telecom subscriber with communications products,

add-ons, and services.

STEPS TO E-BUSINESS SUCCESS

Telecom operators must first understand the four business rationales underpinning the e-business imperative:

• To keep and defend their customer base, companies must provide superior, consistent, personalized customer experiences. This requires a consistent way to follow customers on their journey across sales and service channels—an automated support system that remembers customers’ needs and preferences and

is accessible from all in-ternal and external touch points.

• To own and monetize the cus tomer interface, com-panies must establish a

strong e-business platform for the delivery of goods and new services. This platform would deliver next-generation digital services. For example, a telecom operator’s smart app could use customer profiling to suggest and deliver new offerings rang-ing from music and video suggestions to personal banking, health, and secu-rity services.

• To be the provider of choice, a company must be agile and flexible in the face of fast-changing cus-tomer needs. That means

it must have the technical ability to add new features quickly when customers demand them, such as providing log-ins across social networking sites and setting up e-commerce

accounts tied to phone bills.

• To increase efficiency and auto mation, telecom operators must be able to scale up their online customer offerings. That means predicting and tai-loring products and servic-es to individual subscrib-ers quickly and seamlessly. It also requires in-depth knowledge of customer preferences. This is a basic prerequisite for holding on to your customer base.

Achieving this level of transformation is not easy. There are general principles

and methodologies to follow, but the specific e-business approach for your company should be distinctive, reflecting your goals and ambitions, the constraints of your legacy systems, your market environment, and your investment capacity.

BASIC E-BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE

Today most telecom operators are either implementing or updating a multichannel sales and service approach. One main objective of this strategy is to give customers the same personalized experience whether they interact with the company online, in a store, or through a call center, thus enhancing the customer relationship

Mobile virtual network operators have built their entire

operations around e-business cores.


and delivering better service and more opportunities for customer retention and up-selling.

This approach is effective, but it does not go far enough to realize the full benefits of “e-enabling” business processes across the entire operation. The key difference between this and the horizontal e-business cross-channel strategy is the degree and scope of the integration (see Exhibit 1). The horizontal e-business

platform is applied across all channels and business processes, not just Web and mobile portals. An operator that uses a multichannel approach may be able to present a seamless interface to the customer, but behind the scenes its back-office processes, such as billing and product delivery, are handled by separate platforms. Sales and customer service effectiveness are compromised, and costs mount.

A fully integrated e-business approach builds online technology and capabilities

into all front- and back-room business processes, eventually transforming the operation into an “online company” with Internet technology-based processes at its core. In the face of the increasing costs for network expansion, upgrade, and maintenance and the falling margins, telecom operators can use this online platform transformation not only to integrate sales and service channels but also to lower overall cost structures. E-business capabilities can

shift high-volume, high-cost transactions, such as customer profiling and setting up accounts, to much lower-cost processes by encouraging customers to complete transactions online. This improves process efficiency and delivers better service to both internal users (account managers, billing departments) and customers.

Our analysis of the short- and long-term effects of introducing an e-business platform, based on the experience of several European telecom operators, demonstrates the bottom-

line benefits. There are five e-business value creation levers:

• Reduced acquisition and retention cost: Telecom operators can save €50 (US$71) to €200 per cus-tomer by migrating sales and top-ups online, which cuts out commissions and processing costs.

• Capturing new customers: Today’s 18- to 34-year-olds buy online. If telecom operators fail to capitalize on this fact, they will miss

key market segments. In addition, the high-value customer demographics are increasingly using the flexibility and compara-bility of online shopping, even for expensive items. Our benchmark analysis shows benefits of as much as €700 per postpaid cus-tomer and up to €600 per fixed-line customer.

• Enhanced average revenue per user (ARPU): Op-erators can expect an in-crease of 0.5 to 1 percent in ARPU from e-business optimization. For a cus-tomer base of hundreds of thousands, this is a sig-

nificant bottom-line boost. First-time sales and up-selling are cheaper, easier, and more flexible online. Products that stimulate greater data usage (games, social networking) are available only online. The creative use of Web pages provides opportunities for both advertising and affili-ated marketing. Customers spend more, and per-sale costs are less.

• Extended customer lifetime:• We estimate that enhanced customer satisfaction from cross-channel offerings of both new products and better service translates into a reduced churn of 2 to 4 percent. These extra offerings are often called “loyalty options,” since they give customers free add-on services that cost the company little or nothing but generate high levels of loyalty.

• Reduced cost-to-serve: When customers migrate to the online world, they cost less to service. This savings can represent 50 cents to €4 per contact, depending on the channel.

• Paper billing and mailing costs evaporate, and self-service product selection cuts down the need for expanded call centers. The trick is to not only make the platform a compelling service center but also use it as a sales platform to further maximize customer visits.

Overall cost savings and addi-tional income present a com-pelling case for an e-business transformation. But the proof is in the implementation, and for this, companies must fol-


low a well-defined step-by-step planning process.

STEP-BY-STEP IMPLEMEN-TATION

Resistance to change is often broad and deep, so strong leadership is a critical factor for a successful implementa-tion. For a seasoned tele-communications executive, transforming a company into a true e-business means, in effect, making it a different type of business: an “on-line” company, with a strong specialization in telecommu-nications services. Unless the benefits of such a change are clearly understood, it will not win the support of those who are key to its implementation. Moreover, there is no single “silver bullet” approach. Every company’s starting position and goals differ and require careful assessment.

In introducing fundamental change to a telecom business, the correct execution and sequence are critical. Moving too quickly can lead to exces-sive organizational stress; moving too slowly can sap support for change. Careful planning and top manage-ment buy-in can avoid these mistakes.

Management must first carefully determine both the scope of change and the timetable. The answers to five key questions explicitly define the objectives and help map the journey (see Exhibit 2):

• Why? The company must establish strategic busi-ness priorities. Is the transformation for growth, market differentiation, cost leadership, or a combination of the above? The goal will significantly determine the transforma-

tion road map.

• For whom? Is the trans-formation necessary for all business units, or can it be applied to a particular market? The company will have to decide which parts of the business will be im-pacted: consumer product lines, small and medium-sized businesses, large corporate accounts, mobile customers, fixed-line customers, or everything. Scope determines com-plexity, cost, and speed.

• What? The operator must decide which processes and which channels will be e-enabled and in what sequence. For example, will the e-business trans-formation be limited to marketing and sales or will it focus on retention and

loyalty management or customer care processes? And will it move beyond the Web and mobile inter-face to e-enable additional customer touch points, such as call centers or the retail footprint?

• How? An e-business transformation can be an incremental process, or it can take place all at once. Each company will have to decide which implementa-tion model is feasible and how it affects processes, people and culture, and technology platform archi-tecture.

• Who? Is there an in-house capability to develop the necessary IT framework

for all parts of the busi-ness, or should this be bought or licensed from off-the-shelf providers? How critical will bring-ing in external skills and talent be to the success of the transformation?

E-business transformations follow one of three imple-mentation models:

• Incremental development: The company decides to enhance specific processes and e-channel capabilities that are closely aligned to the existing operat-ing model. It then plans a system-wide front- and back-end evolution by ensuring that current enhancements are compat-ible with the future target design (choice of vendors, standards, interfaces).

• Big bang: The company may be confident and bold enough to decide that it doesn’t have time to introduce incremental transformation but will instead opt for step-change improvements by completely redesigning its business processes around an online core. This could mean using one of several commercial off-the-shelf platforms and enlist-ing external help. A “big bang” initiative should be driven by a clear top-level mandate and managed by an internal leader who is authoritative and well connected.

• A greenfield approach:

This company-within-a-company model starts from scratch without the burden of legacy systems and builds an e-business platform for a specific market segment using new people and new methods.

ConclusionONCLUSION

E-business is the future of telecommunications, just as it is for banking, travel, retail, and other industries. Telecom operators that do not adapt not only will lose out on sig-nificant growth opportunities but also may find it hard to fend off core business attri-tion. E-business is not just a new sales or service channel; rather, it involves a holistic end-to-end rethinking of all operations from back-room IT architecture to front-end cus-tomer touch points. The ulti-

mate goal is to bring as many operations as feasible online in an integrated fashion, not only for better customer rela-tionships but also to improve internal business operations.

An e-business transformation may seem daunting, but it can be an invigorating pros-pect for large companies.

If it is done well, the payoff is substantial in terms of cost savings and growth poten-tial; more important, it gives telecom operators a chance to reset their business model. By taking this opportunity to adapt to the online sales environment now, they can move quickly and confidently into one of the 21st century’s strongest growth businesses.

An e-business transformation may seem daunting, but

it can be an invigorating prospect for large companies.


New recruits commence induction procedures as

Omantel responds to recent employment initiative from His Majesty.

Omantel Chief Executive Dr. Amer Al Rawas has formally welcomed 200 new Omani recruits to the company as the Telecommunications giant demonstrates its commitment and response to His Majesty’s Royal Decree to create 50,000 new jobs in the Government and private sector across the country.

Omantel’s Human Resources department interviewed hundreds of potential candidates and eventually selected 200 highly talented, motivated and enthusiastic young Omanis to enter the world of modern telecommunications.

The fresh employees reported

to Omantel’s new headquarters building in Mawaleh to commence their induction and training programmes and meet new colleagues and senior Vice Presidents for the different business divisions within the company.

The new members of staff will be working across a broad range of departments and sectors across the country helping ensure Omantel continues to offer excellent service to its customers with the largest network coverage of any operator in the Sultanate.

During the recruitment process priority was given to individuals who have educational qualifications in telecommunications or information technology or other qualifications that meet the requirements of Oman’s

leading telecommunications company.

Omantel’s Human Resources Vice President Dr. Ghalib Al Hosni said: “We are very proud to be welcoming these new employees to the Omantel family. This is a highly important development for Omantel and will further strengthen our Omani workforce within the business.

“This is recognised at the very top of the company which is why Chief Executive Dr. Amer Al Rawas was so keen to meet and personally welcome our new employees to the company.

“We take great pride in the development of our staff that is our greatest asset and ensuring their long-term development and training needs are fully met.”

Dr. Al Hosni explained that

the company had been delighted at the response to hire additional staff and the quality, enthusiasm and ability of the individuals who were interviewed and then were able to offer positions to.

Omantel brings individuals, families and businesses together and has successfully connected different parts of the country to each other and with the rest of the world.

Omantel Business, the corporate business

arm of Oman’s leading telecommunications provider, announced a range of new and exciting ADSL permanent deals that business customers benefited from during COMEX 2011.

Effective internet connectivity and data transfer systems are increasingly the lifeblood for a wide range of commercial operations in the Sultanate which has meant that Omantel Business has responded with packages that offer higher speeds, more features and lower prices.

Reflecting the huge range of corporate customers Omantel

Business serves across the Sultanate, the company has created a range of packages to reflect the different demands of smaller and larger organizations that have different usage rates and different requirements from the ADSL services.

For low end business customers who have a limited budget there are three packages on offer with different download and upload speeds of 2 MB and 256 KB; 2 MB and 512 KB and 4MB and 1 MB. Monthly fees for these services are RO 13, RO 19 and RO 37.

Meanwhile high end Business customers who depend heavily on the internet for the smooth operation of their business are

being offered five different packages that offer download speeds of between 2MB and 24MB and upload speeds starting from 512KB to 6 MB. Monthly fees for the five packages will be charged at RO 45, RO 91, RO 121, RO 181 and RO 321 depending on the package selected with free fixed line rental included in the price.

Additional features for business customers include free email boxes, free on net fixed line to fixed line usage and free minutes on net fixed to mobile line usage.

Omantel will also be automatically moving its existing customers on the new plans that reflect their existing usage and requirements – ensuring that

both old and new customers benefit from these value packed new packages. It will ensure that they will benefit from either higher download and upload speeds, lower prices or in some cases enjoy both.

The company has also announced that it will be introducing new special pricing packages for the Government educational sector to ensure that government schools, colleges and universities, are able to offer the widest internet connectivity to students. In addition to introducing special pricing packages for non-profit organizations, sports clubs and youth stadiums recognized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs.

Omantel's chief Dr. Amer Al Rawas welcomes 200 new Omani employees to Oman's largest telecommunications company

Omantel Business introduces a wide range of ADSL deals for business customers at COMEX 2011

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Nawras launches RechargePlus offer giving prepaid customers up to 40% extra valueNawras is giving prepaid

customers extra value with free credit each time they recharge their mobile through RechargePlus. With this incredible offer, custom-ers can gain up to 40 percent of free credit for calls to other Nawras customers, as well as up to 20 percent of free credit to use for international calls.

When using either a recharge card or paper recharge in the denominations of 2, 4 or 8 Omani Rials, customers simply enter the code *115*1* before the usual recharge code, to benefit from great savings on Nawras to Nawras calls. With this special code, custom-ers recharging for 8 Omani Rials for example, will receive

11.200 including 3.200 Omani Rials of free credit.

When recharging for inter-national calls, customers can use the code *115*2 to enjoy fantastic savings. Buying 2 Omani Rials of credit, custom-ers will receive an additional 10% free and when recharg-ing for 4 Omani Rials the free credit increases even further to 15%. Customers choosing to recharge for 8 Omani Rials will gain an amazing 20% of free credit for calls made to any destination outside Oman.

Aziz Al Harrasi, Marketing Manager – Prepaid, said, “Nawras continues to intro-duce innovative offers giving fantastic value. Recharge-

Plus is the latest great offer designed to help our prepaid customers get closer to their friends and family more often without paying more.”

RechargePlus credit is valid for the same number of days as the amount of recharge. For example, when crediting a mobile account for 8 Omani Rials in international credit, the total of 9.600 Omani Rials is valid for use dur-ing the following eight days. Similarly, after recharging for 4 Omani Rials, customers can use their credit at any time over the next four days. Re-chargePlus is valid from today up to and including 6 August 2011.

Nawras customers can also

benefit from other great value offers that are currently avail-able. Responding to popular demand, the 6th anniver-sary offer of calling any other Nawras customer on Fridays for only 10 Baizas per min-ute is extended until 17 June 2011.

Yet more savings can be enjoyed on international calls. After talking for six minutes to any international destina-tion during off peak hours, (8:00pm until 6:00pm Satur-day to Thursday and all day on Fridays), customers will get the following six minutes of the call for free. To benefit from this special promotion simply requires sending a blank SMS to 80020.

Thanks to another Nawras ‘first’ launched recently at

COMEX, postpaid mobile cus-tomers in the Sultanate of Oman can now be the proud owner of one of the latest BlackBerry® Smartphones after simply pay-ing a small down-payment and selecting a data plan. The cost of the smartphone can be spread over a period of either 12 or 24 months according to customer preference.

The convenient payment scheme being offered for the latest smartphones covers the Black-Berry® Bold™ 9780, BlackBer-ry® Torch™ 9800 and BlackBer-ry® Curve™ 9300. After paying the down-payment of 21 Omani Rials, monthly repayments are as little as 6 Omani Rials over 24 months. A standard warranty of 1 year is included in the price.

Product Manager, Issam Al Ismaily said, “We have listened

to the requests of our customers and in response we have de-signed this easy payment scheme to help with the purchase of a quality smartphone. Customers can choose one of three differ-ent models offering a variety of functions and then select the data plan that best suits their individual usage style.”

The choice of great val-ue data plans includes BlackBerry® Lite, National and Global. Monthly subscription plans start from just 9 Omani Rials.

Once again, Oman’s customer fo-cused communications provider is changing and simplifying how customers buy. With this easy payment scheme, a BlackBerry® Smartphone is now more af-fordable, particularly for small

business enterprises.

Help is easy to obtain too. By calling 1506, customers reach the 24 / 7 BlackBerry® helpdesk manned by friendly customer

service champions who are well-versed on all aspects of Black-Berry® service from Nawras.

The new BlackBerry® Smart-phone plans were announced as part of the exciting line-up of

new products and services un-veiled by Nawras at last week’s COMEX event held in Muscat.

Further details of BlackBerry® Smartphones from Nawras can

be found by contact-ing [email protected], or visiting www.nawras.om/nbs or any Nawras Store. Nawras multi-media con-tact centre can be reached around the clock by calling 95011500 or simply 1500 for Nawras customers.

Six years ago, Nawras, a Qtel company, began changing the telecom-munications landscape in the Sultanate of Oman by

changing what people buy and where as well as how they get help and pay. Nawras continues to offer innovation and great value with new products and services as well as ‘firsts’ for Nawras customers.

Nawras launches buy now and pay later scheme for BlackBerry Smartphones

Julie Amann

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A Jersey company intends to launch satellites into space

that will allow three billion people in the developing world to access high-speed internet connections.

O3b Networks is backed by on-line giant Google and HSBC and is chaired by Jersey resident John Dick, the owner of St John’s Manor. The business has announced that it has raised US $1.2 billion to help fund the project.

Dick said that eight satellites were being built in France and it is planned that they are to be launched from French Guyana in 2012, with more to follow. He has said that as the company got closer to launch, it would

establish a proper presence in Jersey.

“We have offices in a number of places around the world, but the headquarters are in Jersey, which is where our sales are being done. We will be recruiting and will be expanding as we get closer to the operating launch date,” he said.

O3b stands for "the other three billion" and refers to the 70 per cent of people living in areas where there is no ground-based internet access.

The company plans on providing broadband to 150 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

The plan is to launch eight

satellites around the equator to provide high-speed internet connectivity. The idea came from work that Dick and colleague Greg Wyler did in Rwanda when they had difficulty securing broadband access. He said that they had been working on the project for three years.

Dick, who is the honorary consul for Rwanda in Jersey, said that it would be very expensive to lay fibre-optic cable under water to provide broadband to the regions the satellites will serve. Instead, the 150 countries would receive the same performance as fibre-optic cable but from satellites.

Apart from Google and HSBC,

the project is backed by, among others, ING, Crédit Agricole and Dexia banks, as well as SES Luxembourg.

The company says it has already signed deals worth between $500m and $800m, with businesses that want to use the planned network.

O3b will primarily serve mobile operators and internet service providers, providing for voice and data. The network will consist of eight ‘Ka-based satellites’ orbiting at 8,000 kms, four times closer than regular geostationary satellites. The company says that the proximity of the satellites and their use of the Ka-band will mean strong performance.

O3b Networks uses Jersey Channel Islands as base

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Integral Systems, Inc. has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, SAT Corporation, has been awarded a contract by O3b Networks Limited, the developer of a new global, high-speed, satellite-based Internet network for telecommunications operators (Telcos) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Under the terms of the contract, SAT Corporation will provide its industry-leading Monics Satellite Interference monitoring and detection system. Monics will monitor O3b's global Internet backbone for Radio Frequency (RF) interference to ensure the network runs at peak efficiency. Ensuring the free flow of data on the network

supports O3b's goal "to make the Internet accessible and affordable to those who remain cut off from the information highway."

"We found the Monics system to be a perfect fit for our wide bandwidth Ka-band system, one that can be seamlessly expanded as the O3b satellite constellation grows," said Jay Bloom, Ground Systems Senior Vice President of O3b Networks.

"Monics is uniquely suited to support O3b's state of the art satellite-based, global Internet backbone for Telcos and ISPs in emerging markets," said Bob Potter, President of SAT Corporation. "Our work with nearly every satellite operator in the world and our deep

understanding of satellite interference monitoring and detection will increase the efficiency of O3b's global network, thereby providing the best possible experience to its customers."

Utilizing SAT Corporation's Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology, Monics with SAT-DSP is a state of the art RF monitoring system that will provide automatic carrier monitoring of O3b Networks' entire constellation of Satellites. The System provides carrier monitoring in a fraction of the time of a classic spectrum analyzer and provides interference detection and fingerprinting capabilities that are not available in any other product on the

market today. Monics' unique algorithms automatically detect, characterize and display interfering signals, and allow results to be viewed at any time.

The O3b satellite constellation will consist of a number of equatorial orbit satellites. Relative to a fixed point on earth, all satellites will trace an identical arc across the sky. Customers and Teleports will use a variety of antennas to track the satellites and maintain network connectivity. O3b satellites will serve regions of the earth within +/-45 degrees latitude using steerable antennas. Two dedicated Teleport beams will provide aggregated multi-channel RF links to the regional Teleports.

O3b awards Integral Systems contract to provide Carrier Monitoring and Interference DetectionMonics From SAT Corporation to Monitor O3b's Entire Constellation of State of the Art Satellites

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ConnectCard looks to enter Mideast market

CMA approves ITC plan to offer 35% of shares in an IPO

American telecommunications company Connect Card is looking to improve on communications in the Middle East in the post-revolution atmosphere through a new calling service that will enable calls to take place for “only pennies on the dollar”, the company said in a press statement.

The move comes in light of the suspension of Internet and telecom services in Egypt in late January that left Egypt blacked out from the rest of the world. Connect Card said it was one of the lone operators to maintain a stable connection during the

time, “continuing service with uninterrupted calling ability.”

It added that it hopes to build on that success that allowed “direct access to Egypt’s telecom communication for US callers reaching Egypt despite ordinances that disabled the majority of Egypt’s Internet and cell phone companies.”

It said that efforts to bolster its services are part of initiatives to maintain line and mobile coverage with “premium quality” during any periods of fluctuation or blackout.

Connect Card hopes to encourage communications between North America

and “revolutionary countries” in the North Africa region, the company’s CEO and founder Robert Davari said in a statement.

“We at Connect Card feel blessed to live in a country where we are allowed such freedoms as expression of voice; it is disheartening to see that the very same exercise can be so devastatingly consequential elsewhere. To be in a position to offer the families of those in the midst of the revolution a clear voice and cheap rates to contact their loved ones abroad is a contribution we’re eager to make,” said Davari.

Saudi Arabian stock market regulator Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has

approved Riyadh-based telco Integrated Telecom Company's (ITC) plan to offer 35% of its shares in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Saudi Stock Exchange. ITC will reportedly offer 35 million shares at SAR10 (USD2.7) per share between 2 May and 8 May; five million shares will be allocated to the General Organisation for Social Insurance. According to TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database, ITC operates the Saudi National Fibre Network (SNFN), a 16,000km fibre-optic cable system that connects 19 major cities. The telco also operates two international landing stations in Al Khobar and Jeddah, which connect Saudi Arabia to the rest of the world via submarine cables.

Mideast unrest leaves telecoms weakerBeltone Financial has issued

a new report saying that the political unrest and mobile operations that were disrupted in the region left telecom operators weaker in the first quarter of 2011. However, the investment bank added that they expect a slowdown this year, but are optimistic that overall profits will improve as the political instability lessens.

“We foresee a likely change in the consumption pattern of subscribers on the back of an anticipated economic slowdown,” the MENA Region, report said.

“This should result in slower revenue growth, tightened earnings and weaker earnings

growth, compared to previous years, especially in light of the already expected slowdown in the markets’ overall growth momentum, as mobile penetration rates soar,” the report continued.

Beltone said it expects mergers and acquisitions to occur in the region’s telecom markets, but the overall speed of these mergers “will cool.” It said that despite the overall tension that has resulted from the political instability, mergers and acquisitions as a whole, however, would not disappear altogether.

The investment bank did highlight their “buy high-risk recommendations for

Orascom Telecom (OT), owned by Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris,” to what it said was “the higher likelihood that the VimpelCom deal will be completed successfully, providing significant support

for OT’s financial position amidst an inability to repatriate cash outside Algeria, alleviating concerns regarding OT’s significant debt caused by refinancing.”

Analysts in Cairo tend to agree with the reports assumptions, saying that the next few months will be “critical” to the sector maintaining its position.

“I fully expect the telecom sector to rebound more than better than its past shows. The region is ripe for mobile expansion and we expect the last part of this year and early next year to show major gains,” said Ahmed Metwally, a securities analyst with the country’s Stock Market. T

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Naguib Sawiris


Batelco, the leading telecom company, has donated

BD10,000 ($26,522) to Shaikh Ebrahim Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Centre for Culture and Research, as part of its commit-ment to cultural initiatives in Bahrain.The cheque was presented to Minister of Culture and President of the Centre Shaikha Mai Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa by Batelco General Manager Government Relations Nadia Hussain at a meeting held at Bin Mattar House in Muharraq. Shaikh Mai, as a leading histo-rian and scholar, is the founder of the Shaikh Ebrahim Centre.Shaikh Ebrahim Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Centre for Culture and Research opened its doors in 2002 following extensive res-toration work. The centre acts as a forum for dialogue between people in philosophy, literature, poetry, culture and the arts. Over the years hundreds of art-

ists, speakers, philosophers and poets have visited the centre to share their knowledge and exchange ideas.Furthermore, to date, the Shaikh Ebrahim Centre has spearheaded the restoration of several traditional Bahraini houses in Muharraq and Manama includ-ing Bin Matar House, one of the most outstanding examples of traditional Bahraini architecture,

which preserves the memory of the Bin Matars, a leading Bah-raini pearl trading family.“The support from companies such as Batelco is invaluable in carrying out the extensive resto-ration work on these historical sites. Not only are we able to preserve a glimpse of our heri-tage for future generations but the beautifully restored build-ings are important tourism sites

for visitors to Bahrain,” Shaikha Mai stated.“We have been extremely impressed with the level of workmanship and highly recom-mend that residents of Bahrain take the time to pay a visit to these heritage sites to experi-ence Bahrain’s rich past,” added Batelco board secretary and GM Media Relations Ahmed Al Janahi.

Batelco, the leading telecom service provider in Bahrain,

won a number of awards at the recent Dubai Lynx Inter-national Advertising Festival for its innovative advertising campaigns of 2010.Batelco claimed one Grand Prix, one Gold, 11 Silver and several Bronze awards at the event.The Dubai Lynx International Advertising Festival, which is part of Cannes international advertising festival, is a yearly event to award creative excel-lence in advertising and related fields in the Mena region.This year, Dubai Lynx received more than 2000 entries from the region including telecom

operators and major interna-tional corporations.“For the first time in Bahrain’s and Batelco’s history, we have been awarded with not only

one Grand Prix prize but ad-ditionally, one gold, 11 silver and many bronze prizes for our 2010 advertising campaigns,” said Batelco chief executive

Bahrain Rashid Abdulla.Batelco’s general manager Consumer Division Muna Alhashemi said that it was a great honour to be present at the awards ceremony to collect such an amazing selection of accolades on behalf of Batelco.She also noted FP7’s major contribution to Batelco’s suc-cess saying that the creativity of their team demonstrated the high quality of advertising standards available in Bahrain.“This success gives Batelco a big boost and validates all our hard work. It also spurs us on to continue with our efforts with the aspiration to bring further success for Batelco in 2011,” she said.

Batelco supports Bahrain cultural centre

Batelco wins big at Dubai advertising event

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Libyan rebels set up independent mobile network 'Free Libyana' up and running

Zain Bahrain upgrades WiMAX network

Fujitsu, Morocco’s Meditel join forces

Rebels in Eastern Libya have set up their own

independent mobile phone network, less than a month after they were cut off from the country's centralised infrastructure, which required all calls to be routed through the international gateway in Tripoli. The new network, called 'Free Libyana', is the brainchild of UAE-based telecoms executive Ousama Abushagur, a Libyan national who was raised in Alabama. He admitted that the the move was necessitated after humanitarian convoys that he had organised suffered logistical problems because the Gaddafi government was broadcasting jamming signals to cripple the satellite telephones used by the rebels.

Free Libyana was supplied with the necessary telecoms equipment by UAE telecoms giant Etisalat, which

stepped in when Chinese telecoms manufacturer Huawei rejected Abushagur's approach; an unnamed Libyan businessman based in the UAE bankrolled the project. The network was rolled out by a team of international telecoms engineers – three Libyans and four Westerners – who flew to Egypt before crossing the border into Libya and commencing work in the rebel-held capital Benghazi. The rebels were reportedly aided by Benghazi-based employees of Libyana, the country's largest mobile phone operator by subscribers. According to Abushagur the new network launched in April, and currently has 750,000 active SIM cards in operation. Although the network is widely available in the east of the country, international calling is limited to selected senior rebel figures.

Zain Bahrain has announced its upgrade

to the ‘latest version’ of WiMAX wireless broadband technology across its nationwide fixed-wireless internet access network. According to general manager Mohammed Zainalabedin, the upgrade will enable Zain to ramp up broadband speeds and offer a ‘much wider range of broadband offerings,’ as well as increased reliability. Customers are also

promised more innovative voice and data solutions and higher data usage thresholds. As part of its rollout plan, Zain Bahrain will also be replacing end-users’ WiMAX routers to enable access to upgraded WiMAX services. The company, a subsidiary of Kuwait-based Zain Group, launched the WiMAX network as a fixed-wireless complement to its mobile 3G cellular voice and data services in 2007.

Morocco’s leading mobile provider and Fujitsu

have announced the creation of a new ICT platform for the company’s Next Generation Intelligent Network (NGIN) 3G system in the country.

Analysts said the move is likely to continue Meditel’s push to bolster its 3G market as users continue to push for broader and better options.

“Meditel has been looking

for a way to increase its productivity and product development, so t his could be a great move by them and for Fujitsu to get a larger footprint in Morocco,” said Ibrahim Said.

According to the companies’ statement, “Meditel is using Fujitsu technology as the foundation of its next-generation network technology, and to underpin

its growth strategy.”

Meditel said it chose Fujitsu “on the strength of its highly-reliable platform products, led by its PRIMEQUEST mission-critical servers based on mainframe heritage, combined with the company’s solid services organization in Morocco and other locations around the world.

“The deal with Meditel demonstrates the strength of

Fujitsu’s platform products as an optimal infrastructure for deployment in ICT systems that demand the highest levels of reliability and scalability.”

Said added that Morocco as a whole is moving toward data services and if successful “this will enable more customers to receive the products and services that they have long wanted.”

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Nasir M. Kharl


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PTCL has once again banged the industry by

launching 50MB broadband connection for beta testers, with the name “UltraNet”. For now, network deployment is under way, and during this company is offering test account to limited home and business users in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.During a joint press conference of PTCL and Alcatel-Lucent, President of the PTCL Walid Irshad said that PTCL has introduced the fastest internet service in Pakistan. He said that VDSL-2 Bonding technology has been launched in Pakistan for the first time and it would be a first commercial use of this technology at the international level.Answering to a question Walid Irshad said that home users will be offered 50 Mbps for Rs. 10,000 per month, while corporate users will be charged Rs. 20,000 per month. He said that 50 Mbps speed would be provided at PTCL landline, adding that VDSL-2 Bonding technology would be available to customers in the second quarter of this year.Walid Irshad said this high speed network in Pakistan will be first commercial use of VDSL2 technology in the telecom industry in the world. He said that it will be using VDSL2 Bonding technology to provide existing digital subscriber line (DSL) customers with speeds up to 50 Mbps. The project leverages Alcatel-Lucent’s

VDSL2 Bonding expertise and will be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2011.During the press conference, while commenting on this achievement President & CEO PTCL further stated that PTCL is the first service provider worldwide to deploy a commercial VDSL2 Bonding solution that aims at doubling the bandwidths provided to its existing customers.He said that we are thus setting the trend in international telecoms, and are taking the broadband experience in Pakistan to the next level. Alcatel-Lucent’s VDSL2 Bonding technology and comprehensive services and network integration expertise is helping us to keep pace with the increasing bandwidth requirements of our customers, while capitalizing on the existing copper infrastructure, he said. This will enable us to quickly deliver high-quality, high-

speed and high-availability business and residential services even in the areas where it was not possible before, he added.While giving the technical details, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent Adil Rauf said that Alcatel is providing PTCL with its Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) IP access platform, which is the first platform to commercially support VDSL2 Bonding. Alcatel-Lucent will also supply Bonding-ready customer premises equipment (CPE). Alcatel-Lucent serves as the project’s master network integrator, and is providing a range of professional services including project management, installation and commissioning, integration and technical support, he said.Adil Rauf further said that we understand that service providers need the right tools to bridge the gap until fiber deployments have become

ubiquitous. VDSL2 Bonding is an ideal approach for service providers like PTCL can almost double the speeds supported by their DSL infrastructure or expand their network’s reach, he added. Answering to a question he said this makes it a fast and cost-effective approach to bridging the digital divide. This commercial VDSL2 Bonding project with PTCL marks the beginning of VDSL2 Bonding deployments outside of the US, where the technology is typically used to expand the reach of the copper network, he added.He told Alcatel-Lucent is the driving force behind the world’s most advanced VDSL2 roll-outs, with customers such as Belgacom, STC, Swisscom and Telekom Austria. Our VDSL2 solution has also been deployed by competitive operators, including M-net (Germany) and South Yorkshire Digital Region (UK).

PTCL Alcatel-Lucent jointly launch VDSL-2 Bonding Technology


With each new dawn the mode, the medium, and

the quality of communication witnesses some new developments. To cope up with these advancements and the cut throat competition they entail, the telecom companies have to remain on their toes just to survive. Techaccess Pakistan provides these companies with a technological highway leading to advancements in the direction they desire. To accomplish this goal the company maintains partnerships with distinguished organizations, each outstanding in its own unique forte.

In such endeavor, the representatives from Techaccess (Mr. Amin Ul

Hafeez - COO, Mr. Farrukh Alvi - VP Infrastructure & Mr. Amir Rauf Khan - VP Sales & Marketing) attended the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2011, the must-attend annual gathering of the mobile industry. About 50,000 senior mobile leaders

from 200 countries gathered in Barcelona, with a common objective of enabling, accelerating and directing the unprecedented transformation that is leading us into the future of telecommunication. Among these participants was Aircom International, a

UK based company currently operating in 14 countries and the market leader in the provision and deployment of network engineering tools. They provide global and regional viewpoints and resources, and with services encompassing initial consultancy through project implementation, training, and sourcing expertise to take in-house. Considering its technological expertise pivotal for the Pakistani telecom industry, it was inevitable that Techaccess would join hands with it, and with the signing of a contract for the bronze level partnership, both companies now look forward to prospering together for the years to come.

Techaccess is a family of competent and hardworking

individuals dedicated to bring forth excellence in their performance and thus the output of the company as a whole. To maintain this harmony and strengthen the devotion of these employees to their work and to each other, Techaccess continues to explore avenues that would bridge any gaps that might surface between the motivation levels. Last month it arranged

a tri-series cricket match by the title of “Azadi Cup 2011,” with

Ufone and PTCL. This friendly match was directed towards

bringing its employees together with its corporate customers

out side the four walls of their office and in a neutral ground. The invitation was extended to even the families of the players and fun activities and goodie bags were arranged for the children. In the end, although the team from Ufone won the series after playing an exciting final match with PTCL, everybody succeeded in strengthening their telephonic acquaintances and bonding with each other in person.

Captivating partnerships beyond borders: Techaccess Pakistan - Aircom International

Azadi Cup 2011 b/w Techaccess, Ufone and PTCL

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Hassan Shabbir


Qtel and STC are now the only companies remain-

ing in the bidding process for Syria’s third mobile licence.

The other three companies that had placed bids, Etisalat, France Telecom and Turkcell, abandoned the contest.

Etisalat and France Telecom cited the terms of the licence, rather than political instabil-

ity, as the main reason for abandoning the contest.

In particular, the companies appear to have been put off by confirmation from the Syrian government that the third licencee will be required to pay a 25% revenue share to the government.

STC, Saudi Arabia’s incum-bent operator, submitted its

technical and operational offer for Syria’s third mobile license, while Qatari incum-bent Qtel confirmed that it had submitted its financial and technical bids for the licence.

Syria's telecoms industry is relatively under-developed and attractive growth pros-pects. Syria's mobile penetra-

tion was 33 percent in 2009, according to data from the International Telecommu-nications Union, against an average of 62 percent in Arab states as a whole.

"Qtel confirms that it has submitted both the financial and technical bids for the third licence in Syria," Qtel wrote.

Qtel and STC vie for Syrian licenceSTC sees clear business case despite 25% revenue fee

Qatar Telecom unveils new SME research at Enterprise Qatar

Qtel introduced breakthrough new

research into the growth of small and medium enterprise (SME) companies at the recent Enterprise Qatar meeting in Doha, as part of Qtel's support for the thriving sector.

With approximately 98% of companies in Qatar classified as SMEs, providing the correct environment for the growth of this segment is a key strategic priority, and Qtel is at the forefront of providing a range of dedicated connectivity, efficiency and security solutions.

As part of Qtel's support for small businesses, the company commissioned a major study into Qatar's commercial environment. Working with internationally-noted research company IDC, the research team conducted interviews with around 200 companies in the SOHO and SME sectors across Doha.

The research results indicate

that optimism for the economic recovery is high among SOHO and SMEs. While concerns over the economic crisis hampered spending and expansion plans in the past year, the market is poised to pick up in 2011, and more than 60% of companies are looking to invest in services that support a high quality of customer service

In terms of the kind of communication services that customers are looking for, two of the key areas for growth in

2011 will be video (specifically video conferencing) and mobile data.

The research also underlined the status of Qtel as the preferred partner and provider of world-class solutions and services for small businesses in Qatar.

Executives from Qtel's Business Solutions team were present at the Enterprise Qatar event to showcase live demonstrations of innovative solutions.

For customer acquisition

and retention, Qtel Business Solutions is actively working with a number of hospitality and service companies in Qatar to provide wireless Internet hotspot access, which can help generate an increased spend of 50% per customer on average in restaurants and cafes where the Internet is available.

In addition to demonstrating the specific benefits of these dedicated solutions, Qtel also provided live demos of Office in a Box, the company's premium bundle of technical services, and BillXpress, Qtel's management solution that enables companies to handle communications costs online in real-time.

Enterprise Qatar (EQ) is a QR2bn initiative for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which will work with other agencies to enhance public-private partnerships within the framework of the sustainable development strategy for Qatar. T

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Russian telco VimpelCom has completed its $6.6 billion

acquisition of Wind Telecom, creating the world's sixth largest mobile operator by subscriber numbers.VimpelCom now owns, through Wind Telecom, 51.7% of Egypt's Orascom Telecom and 100% of Wind Italy. The combined company has operations in 20 countries and a total subscriber base of some 181 million people across Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Italy.As part of the deal, VimpelCom paid some $1.5 billion to Wind Telecom, which will receive a 20% stake in VimpelCom, giv-ing the combined deal a value of some $6.6 billion, excluding debt. Alexander Izosimov, CEO,

VimpelCom, described the deal as a "large and complex transac-tion" that would position the company to capitalize on strong growth in emerging markets, industry consolidation, and mobile data. VimpelCom has already started to integrate the two operations and is keen to make savings in areas including procurement, while also strengthening its finances through "rapid debt paydown", Izosimov added. Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Wind Telecom, added: "We share a common global vision with our new partners at VimpelCom. The prospects for our new, en-larged and diversified telecoms platform are exciting and a reflection of our high quality as-

sets across each of the geogra-phies where we operate."VimpelCom intends to dis-cuss a possible resolution to an ongoing dispute with the Algerian government regard-ing the ownership of Orascom Telecom Algeria, which is also known as Djezzy. The Algerian

government said last year that it intended to take ownership of Djezzy, which is one of the most profitable operations in Oracom Telecom's portfolio. VimpelCom also announced some changes to its management team, including the appointment of Khaled Bich-ara, former group CEO of Wind Telecom, to the newly created position of president and chief operating officer. VimpeCcom said there will be five main busi-ness units in the newly merged company, comprising Europe and North America, Russia, Ukraine, CIS, and Africa and Asia.VimpelCom originally signed a deal to acquire Wind Telecom, which is owned by Egyptian en-trepreneur Naguib Sawiris, back in October 2010.

Qualcomm Incorporated, a leading developer and

innovator of advanced wire-less technologies, products and services, and Jarir Bookstore Incorporated, a leading Saudi consumer electronics, books and office supplies retailer, have signed an agreement to explore a collaboration framework between the two companies that would reinforce Jarir in its efforts to deliver the latest in wireless devices and services. Jarir’s entering into this agree-ment reflects its ongoing com-mitment to provide consumers with the best user and shopping

experience possible.

Jihad Srage, Qual-comm’s Vice President and General Manager for the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, said, “Jarir is not only a leading retailer in the King-dom, but also a leader in embracing cutting-edge technologies to better meet the needs of its customers. Our agreement with Jarir will support its efforts to open the retail channel in the Kingdom to a new wave of

3G wireless smartphones, device categories and services.”

Nasser Abd El-Aziz Al-Ageel, Chief Operating Officer, Jarir Bookstore said, “Qualcomm is at the forefront of other compa-nies in developing creative new wireless implementations. We are hoping that through this agreement we better serve the needs of our increasingly tech-savvy customers.”

Jarir Bookstore is recognized as the market leader in consumer electronics, office supplies, school supplies and books. It has 28 retail stores and operates in 4 countries: KSA, Qatar, Ku-wait and UAE, and retails space of almost 100,000 square feet.

VimpelCom completes acquisition of Wind Telecom

Qualcomm and Jarir sign joint agreement for wireless collaboration in Saudi Arabia

Russian telco VimpelCom gains foothold in MEA telecoms sector

Jihad Srage

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According to statistics from research firm IDC,

non-structured file-type data is increasing at the fastest rate and predicted to occupy 80% of the total storage capacity by the end of 2012. Highly valuable for an enterprise, performance data generated from operations must be securely stored like bank account information. How to deal with skyrocketing data growth is a challenge to

enterprise users.

Scale-out storage

It is well known that network attached storage (NAS) is the best option for storing non-structured data that may be scattered throughout millions of files. In an enterprise data center, NAS enables users to share data among multiple servers using an IP network. However, as services and data are increasingly faster, NAS devices and even those

with petabyte-level capacity can hardly keep up. To store the ever-increasing amount of data, enterprises have to acquire more and more NAS devices, which, like the legacy direct attached storage (DAS) and storage area network (SAN) devices, give rise to “information islands” – multiple file systems, multiple naming spaces, multiple attachment points. It is these “information islands” that

are a headache for O&M engineers.

There was a rivalry between the NAS and SAN camps – both trying to dominate the market. As time went by, more users have found that NAS and SAN meet diverse demands, and supplement each other. NAS is used to store non-structured data such as web files and image files while SAN is ideal for storing structured data such

Scale-out NASIts development and applicationAs data has grown explosively, finding a solution for data storage has become an increasingly complex endeavor for enterprise users.

Liu Qilong


as databases. So, merging NAS and SAN solutions has been a natural outcome.

Scale-out NAS marks a new trend in storage. The scale-up model is coming to an end, be it NAS or SAN, much in the same way CPU technology is evolving from frequency improvement to kernel enhancement.

Scale-out storage has an unparalleled advantage in flexibility that enables enterprise users to purchase storage on-demand. Enterprise users can purchase storage for whatever performance or capacity levels they require. Without having to acquire expensive large-capacity devices immediately, they can save on CAPEX significantly.

Another advantage of scale-out storage lies in its excellent manageability. No matter how many controllers and disks a user has bought and deployed, they work as one single system. And managing one system is definitely easier than managing multiple ones.

Technical advancements of scale-out NAS

Scale-out NAS can actually be understood as an NAS system that scales out. Unlike scale-up NAS, scale-out NAS is implemented under either of two common architectures: cluster and redundant array of independent nodes (RAIN).

Cluster architecture: As indicated by its name, this architecture is built on the clustered file system. It enables multiple engine nodes to share volumes on a group of SAN devices and provides a global naming system, which evenly distributes access requests onto the engine nodes by running the load balance algorithm. It also

provides a set of file lockout mechanisms, ensuring that all engine nodes can access data on the same volume. Huawei's N8000 is a series of scale-up NAS products that achieve load balance on nodes. The cluster architecture and load balance design eliminate risks from node failures, so even when a server in a data center fails, data access service is uninterrupted.

RAIN architecture: An NAS system with this architecture consists of multiple standalone nodes, each of which has its own computation and storage resources. The RAIN architecture has advantages in costs, expansion, and reliability. In terms of costs, standalone nodes cost less and are structured on X86 hardware platforms, which means that system expansion costs are kept to a moderate level. In terms of expansion, the advantage is clear in the improvement of computing capability, cache buffer, and storage space for the entire system. In reliability, the system is always available as long as at least one node in the system is functioning normally.

The two architectures have their strengths and weaknesses. The cluster architecture has an advantage in response time while the RAIN architecture is strong in scalability. Scale-out NAS systems will keep improving if the two architectures can compete and develop over the long term.

In recent years, scale-out NAS has grown like never before and cloud storage has also had its share of growth. Scale-out NAS and cloud storage have similarities in terms of their technical basis.

It can be said that scale-out NAS is a prelude or subset of cloud storage. Both storage solutions intend to store non-structured data in rapid growth, combining storage devices and applications and functioning as a system to provide data storage and access services. Unlike scale-out NAS, cloud storage covers a far larger scale, far outperforming the range of legacy data centers and surpassing the LAN, WAN, and Internet, including network technologies and distributed file systems.

Now, there are signs of scale-out NAS being used in more and more data centers. In the future, scale-out NAS will be merged with cloud storage as the latter advances.

Two types of applications

Legacy storage fits transaction applications, especially block-based database applications. As digital devices have become popular in recent years, a great number of digital photo and video files have been generated that have caused storage demands to skyrocket. In addition, the development of network applications, especially Web2.0, has created cost and scalability challenges for storage, which legacy storage cannot meet.

Scale-out NAS has come to the rescue, fitting two types of applications: web applications and file archival applications.

Web applications: Common web applications are blogs, online social communities, and online stores as users of these applications demand spacious storage for an uncountable amount of digital photos and video files uploaded onto blogs and

online social community sites, not to mention the digital photos and flash files for thousands of commodities on online stores. Each user demands increasingly larger storage space while the storage dilemma is compacted by more and more new users. Unlike storage demands in an enterprise's data center, storage demands of these applications are not really predictable. To address these storage demands, a highly scalable storage architecture that enables storage to scale out with service growth is required. Scale-out NAS has its advantages in this regard.

File archival applications: Hardcopy paper records are hard to save or retrieve. Advancements in high-speed scan and storage technologies have driven digitizing paper records such as manually processed bills in the financial field and criminal case files in the legal field. Such applications do not have high requirements for performance but do have high capacity requirements, meaning that they are cost-sensitive. Scale-out NAS addresses these demands with its unparalleled scalability.

Scale-out NAS, though helping enterprise users to take on the challenges in surging demands for storing non-structured data with its scalability and manageability, has weaknesses in some functions such as snapshot management and restoration, remote duplication-based disaster tolerance, and multi-protocol support.

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Publisher-Editor: Khalid Athar - Printed by: Javed Khursheed at Khursheed Printers (Pvt) Ltd. Islamabad. Place of Publication: #6, St-39, G-6/2, Islamabad Vol: 06, Issue: 05


The Dell has launched the connected classroom

solution in combining innovative technology, products, services and software, the Dell connected classroom makes learning in the digital Age a reality. Providing teachers with the tools needed to equip students with the 21st century skills they need to be competitive in the global economy, the Connected Classroom is Dell’s education technology blueprint mainly for primary and middle schools learning environment.

“Growing up in the digital Age, our kids have the chance for better access to technology and information than any

previous generation. They have the entire world at their fingertips; a world they can interact with remotely, not just in words, but in moving pictures and sounds. Educators today must prepare this ‘Connected Generation’ with 21st century skills to work in

an ever-changing digital world. Today’s education experts have a clear vision on how technology can transform learning. The Dell Connected Classroom solution is a realistic blueprint for educators to attain that vision,” said Ms. Rani Burchmore, Head

Education Solutions, Dell.

Dell focal points on the desires of all stakeholders in the erudition ecosystem and designs nonstop technology solutions that facilitate make the erudition ecosystem a reality. With the launch of the Connected Classroom, we bring a realistic blueprint that not only comprises IT infrastructure and the software and services that support it, but also rich content, specialized learning, and anytime, wherever access to a prosperity of information.” added Shahzad Khan, Country Manager, Dell AfPak.

Dell launches connected classroom solution

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2Connect given stay of executionBahrain’s TRA set to reverse its earlier decision to cancel 2Connect's telecom licenceBahraini ISP 2Connect will be able to continue operating in the country after Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said it was planning to reverse its earlier decision to revoke the operator’s telecoms licences.

“The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority announced its intention to issue a resolution to cancel its previous resolution which revoked the telecommunications licenses of 2Connect W.L.L upon 2Connect rectifying its status,” the TRA said in a

statement.

Bahrain's TRA originally announced the shutdown of 2Connect on March 20 and at first stated the deadline would be exactly one week later. Within days, the TRA extended the deadline for 2Connect to stop all telecoms services in Bahrain.

The TRA gave no reason for its decision to revoke 2Connect’s licence, although a previous director of 2Connect, Ibrahim Sharif, is head of opposition party Waad, and was arrested during in government clampdowns in March.

Intel Corporation said it has launched its new Atom plat-

form, formerly codenamed “Oak Trail,” and added that it will be in devices starting from May and throughout 2011.

Over 35 innova-tive tablet and hybrid designs from companies including Evolve III, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Mo-tion Computing, Razer, and Viliv are based on “Oak Trail” and running a vari-ety of operating systems.

In addition, at the Intel De-veloper Forum in Beijing, the company will give a sneak peak of its next-generation, 32nm Intel Atom platform, currently codenamed “Cedar Trail.”

This solution will help to enable a new wave of fanless, cool

and quiet, sleek and innovative netbooks, entry-level desktops and all-in-one designs.

“The new Intel Atom ‘Oak Trail’ platform, with ‘Cedar Trail’ to

follow, are examples of our continued commitment to bring amazing personal and mobile experi-ences to netbook and tablet devices, de-livering architectural enhancements for

longer battery life and greater performance,” said Doug Davis, vice president and general man-ager of the Netbook and Tablet Group at Intel.

“We are accelerating the Intel Atom product line to now move faster than Moore’s law, bring-ing new products to market on three process technologies in the next 3 years,” he added.

Intel to introduce new Atom platform

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Teletimes International is pleased to announce the launch of its new awards program. TheTeletimes International Industry Excellence Awards are designed to recognize the contributions and the achievements of key market players from around the Middle East, Asia and Africa regions. The launch of this program marks the beginning of another major initiative by the PPA and the Teletimes team. Teletimes, with the goal to serving the regional ICT industry and the commitment toward recognizing those who have expended their investments and energies toward serving the consumer, believes that this initiative would serve to bring or to complement recognition for organizations and the industry leadership of this region.

The Teletimes awards program comprises 11 categories.

Teletimes Man of the Year Award (1)

This awards category is specific to Teletimes and the selection process for which commences in June 2011, regionally. The name of the Man of the Year will be announced in December 2011, after thorough evaluation of the

nominees, whose names will be made public in a subsequent edition of the Teletimes. This category recognizes contributions of leaders from around the above mentioned regions.

Teletimes Industry Excellence Awards (10)

Nominations for the following categories are also being considered. The names of the winning organizations and the industry executives will be announced by July 2011:

• Telecom Services Excellence Award

• IT Services Excellence Award

• Dynamic Regulatory Leader Award

• Best Regional Telecom Carrier Award

• Best Converged Services Provider Award

• Best Telecom Infrastructure Solution Provider Award

• IT Enabled Services Leadership Award

• IT Financial Services Leadership Award

• Most Innovative Mobile Plan Award

• Best ICT Contributor Award

Teletimes openly invites and appreciates its readers inputs and feedback and looks forward to sharing the awards details and the coverage of the awards ceremony in a future edition of the magazine.

Teletimes International Industry Excellence Awards

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Global Telecom event 2011

June

September

May

July

October

November

MECOM 2011

16 - 18 May - Abu DhabiGITEX Saudi Arabia

16 - 19 May - Riyadh - KSALTE World Summit

17-19 May - Amsterdam TIA 2011: Inside the Network

17 - 20 May - Dallas, US

Saudi Com

23 - 24 May - Manama, BahrainSAMENA Mobile Broadband Summit 2011

23 - 24 May - Islamabad, PakistanICT Kuwait

25 - 26 May - Kuwait

Media & telecom Convergence Conference

Arab Advisors Group

6 - 7 June, Amman, Jordan7th Mobile Roaming Asia

07 - 08 Jun - Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaWest & Central Africa Com

15 - 16 Jun -Le Meridian Dakar, Senegal

VAS Africa

06 - 07 July - Johannesburg, ZASan Francisco Data Center Conference

28 Jul - San Francisco, US

GITEX Technology Week

9-13 Oct - Dubai - UAEmedialive!, 2011:

16 - 18 Oct, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Technology for Marketing & Advertising

26 - 27 Oct - Shanghai, China

SAMENA Convergence to Qatar 2011

18 - 19 Oct - Qatar CTO Telecom Summit

02 - 05 Oct - Scottsdale, AZ, USWHIR Networking Event:

20 Oct - Washington DC, US

GIL 2011: China

01 Nov - ShanghaiSCIP 2011: European Summit08 - 10 Nov - Austria Centre Vienna

4th Annual Indonesia Telecoms International Summit 15 Nov - Jakarta, IndonesiaCustomer Contact Indonesia16 Nov - Jakarta, Indonesia

LTE Asia

06 - 07 Sep - Singapore Nigeria Com

20 - 21 Sep - Lagos , Nigeria Wholesale World Congress - WWC

07 - 09 Sep - Madrid, Spain

OSS BSS World Summit

08 - 09 Sep - LondonIT Siberia. SibTelecom. Broadcasting Siberia

20 - 22 September - Novosibirsk, Russia



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