Teletimes April 2012

www.teletimesinternational.comApril 2012

Arnaldo PalamidessiVice President, MEA, LCC

Etisalat becomes the first to introduce

3G services in Afghanistan

Abu DhabiTELECOMS CEO Summit 14 May 2012

"Our traditional leadership in Wireless Communications has been progressively complemented during the last decade"

6 th TMT FINANCE & INVESTMENTMIDDLE EAST CONFERENCE

AND AWARDS, DUBAI 2012

2-3 May 2012

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"Our traditional leadership in Wireless Communications has been progressively complemented during the last decade"Arnaldo Palamidessi, VP, MEA, LCCKhalid Athar

"We pride to serve all GSM, ISP and fixed licensed operators in the Kingdom"Laurent MariniVP, Integrated Telecom Company - KSA

UN system collaborates on electronic Waste disposalITU and Secretariat of the Basel Convention to protect environment from hazardous e-Waste

Arab telco leaders discuss ITRs reforms with ITU Secretary General

Kingdom's ICT spending reaches SR83bn in 2011; to grow 10% in 2012

20th Convergence India 2012Pawan Dixit

Etisalat becomes the first to introduce 3G services in Afghanistan

UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development names eight new Commissioners

Board accepts STC chief’s resignation

Internet economy to grow at a rate of 8 % annually in developed countries – to hit USD 4.2 trillion by 2016

du and Nokia extend purchasing Nokia Store apps without credit card

Tata Communications completes global cable network

Mobile subscriptions in Middle East to see massive growth

Microwave Telemetry selects Telenor Connexion for global wildlife tracking solution

Un-authentic mobile SIMs – No morePTA launches automated pre-sale mobile SIM procedure

3G deployment discussed at TeleCON 2012

The 9th Convergence Summit 2012Arab Advisors Group

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Research & Analyses

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05April 2012 www.teletimesinternational.com

Special Reports

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Developing countries to lead the way for ICT developmentMuhammad Amir Malik

Managing telecom portfolios for sustainable growthBooz&co.

LTE spectrum and network strategies Strategic options for mobile operators in dynamic 4G mobile marketsArthur D. Little

ME & Africa Server Shipments Grew 10.3% Revenue Increased 2.9 % in Q4 of 2011Gartner

6th TMT Finance & Investment Middle East Conference

Saudi leaders discuss "Future of Internet" at Google's thought leadership Arabia 2012 Teletimes Report

Sustainable growth possible with convergence of industries through WiMAX Broadband Teletimes Report

Consolidation and deregulation in the regional ICT industry will drive shareholder and customer value: SAMENA ChairmanRola Osseiran

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Dear reader,Welcome to the April edition of Teletimes International. As the smart phones war is getting more intense, a latest announcement from RIM (Research IN Motion) reported a quarterly revenue loss due to sharply lower sales. The Canadian company made a net loss for the three months up to 3rd March of $125m (£78m), compared with a profit of $934m a year earlier whereas Samsung Electronics, posted record a quarterly profits of $5.15 billion on booming sales of its Galaxy smart phones and the Note, a mini-tablet and phone. Nokia and HTC on the other hand have also reported to post low revenues as compared to last year figures. This edition is bringing post event reports on 20th Convergence India 2012 held in New Delhi from 21st March - 23rd March, Beyond Connectivity 2012 organized by SAMENA Telecommunications Council from 3-4 April at Muscat and WiMAX South Asia 2012 at Islamabad organized by the WiMAX Forum and co-organized by Wateen Telecom under the patronage of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on 3rd April 2012. We are accumulating two exclusive interviews featuring Mr. Laurent Marini, Vice President, Integrated Telecom Company, Saudi Arabia and Mr. Arnaldo Palamidessi, Vice President MEA, LCC International. This edition also brings two research reports titled "LTE Spectrum and

network strategies" by Arthur D. Little and "Managing Telecom portfolios for sustainable growth" by Booz&co. while also presenting various informative articles covering different subjects and issues. We are focusing on two important upcoming events taking place in the month of May; TMT Finance & Investment Middle East Conference on 2-3 May in Dubai and 9th Convergence Summit 2012 by Arab Advisors Group on 22-23 May in Amman, Jordan. Teletimes International is the Media Partner for both events and will be participating accordingly. We will also be publishing a Special Supplement on "International Operations of STC" planned to be launched at the above mentioned events sponsored by STC. This edition is also featuring results from our latest online survey, asking the participants an interesting opinion to choose one most preferably option between Internet, Mobile, Computer and TV. You will also enjoy reading latest news and reports from Etisalat, Thuraya, VIVA Kuwait, Qtel, Ericsson, Tata Communications, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Batelco, Zain Jordan, PTCL, Airtel, STC, and du. As our regular feature, the edition also present "Teletoons" and upcoming events calendar for Global ICT and Telecom events. We always look forward to receive your comments and suggestions as those are a great source of encouragement for us.Enjoy your reading.

Khalid AtharChief Editor

Letter to readers



International collaboration to promote environmen-

tally sound management of e-Waste was strengthened with the signing of an agreement between the Secretariat of the Basel Convention (SBC) and ITU aimed at protecting the environ-ment from the adverse effects of e-Waste.The rapid spread of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) has raised public attention on the negative effects arising from inadequate disposal and waste management. Electronic waste, which contains toxic materials used in the manufac-turing process, can cause wide-spread damage to the environ-ment and human health. The ITU-SBC collaboration seeks to collect and recycle the hazard-ous materials by introducing safeguards in the management of the Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), or e-Waste.Developing countries are ex-pecting a surge in e-Waste, with mobile phone waste expected to grow exponentially. Sharp increases of e-Waste have until now not been matched with policy and regulatory mecha-nisms nor with infrastructure to cope with the influx in develop-ing countries. Currently, only 13 per cent of e-Waste is reported to be recycled with or without safety procedures.The issue of e-Waste as an emerging telecommunications policy and regulatory issue has received recognition at the highest level in ITU. Key examples of ITU´s activities in this area include: ● The adoption of Recom-

mendation ITU-T L.1000, “Universal power adapter and charger solution for mobile terminals and other ICT devices”, which dramati-cally reduces production and cuts the waste produced by mobile chargers.

● The adoption of Recommen-dation ITU-T L.1100, which details the procedures to be employed when recycling rare metal components included in ICT equipment.

● Designing e-Waste man-agement strategies for environmental protection; publishing and disseminating best practices; and assisting countries in the drafting, adoption and implementa-tion of policies, laws, and regulations related to e-Waste management.

At the level of global envi-ronmental policy, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which came into force in 1992, is the most comprehen-sive environmental agreement on the management of hazard-ous and other waste. But many countries have not yet success-fully translated its provisions into their national legislation. Now, with the signing of the ITU-SBC Administrative Agree-ment, efforts between both UN mechanisms will be leveraged, maximizing value at the global level and strengthening col-laboration between telecom-munication/ICT and environ-mental policy makers for the global good.“The ICT sector is already

making significant progress in improving its environmental performance and reducing e-Waste through improved best practices and standards,” stated ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré. “The col-laboration with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention will allow the global community to address this ever-increasing problem through a holistic ap-proach, involving the recycling industry as well as environmen-tal policy makers.”“The positive impact of ICT on development, particularly in developing countries and countries with economies in transition is well recognized and acknowledged,” said Mr. Jim Willis, Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. “How-ever, ICT equipment has to be dealt with in view of its entire life-cycle, and this includes the time when the equipment comes to its end-of-life and becomes e-Waste. Collabora-tion between ITU and SBC will further our shared objectives in support of sustainable development that essentially includes environmentally sound management of waste.”ITU and SBC have agreed to cooperate through regular dia-logues and meetings; exchange of information, practices, experiences and materials; coordination of activities in areas of mutual interest, includ-ing development of green ICT standards, international cooperation and capacity build-ing; and execution of supple-mentary activities, projects and programmes.

UN system collaborates on electronic Waste disposalITU and Secretariat of the Basel Convention to protect environment from hazardous e-Waste

Jim WillisDr. Hamadoun Touré

Sharp increases of e-Waste have until now not been matched with policy and regulatory mechanisms nor with infrastructure to cope with the influx in developing countries.


Developing countries are already driving global inno-

vation in technologies and busi-ness models related to infor-mation and communications. Ongoing technological change may give new life to business and regulatory models adopted and then abandoned in the era of the dot-com boom in devel-oped countries, and developing countries may take the lead in such changes. As networks and applications spread, catalyzing the impact of ICTs for develop-ment will become a challenge of the broader environment for their exploitation.The spread to global ubiquity of the telephone has been rapid. According to ITU, more than half of the world’s households now own a fixed telephone; in addition, there are in the region of 2 billion mobile subscribers, and the mobile footprint covers as much as 77% of the world’s population. Developing countries now lead the way in the mobile revolution, not least China, by far the world’s largest mobile market, and there are considerably more mobile subscribers in the developing than the industrial world. Because of great demand, continued technological advancement, and continued reform, developing countries may invest as much as US$100 billion in information infrastructure rollout each year over the next few years. They will account for the great majority of new network

subscribers. As many as 80% of new subscribers added to global mobile networks over the 2006–2011 period will be in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe. As a result, it is quite likely that developing countries will be setting trends in applications, revenue models, and cost-saving approaches, especially for mobile networks. In particular, these networks will provide an increasingly important platform for retail services to poor people.At the same time that the reach of networks and especially mobile coverage is growing, the capacity of the spectrum to carry information is also exploding. Over time, technology has evolved in ways that make it possible to build much more efficient and dynamically

responsive radio systems that can allow many users and uses to simultaneously share the same frequency bands. Technologies like smart antennas, spread spectrum modulation, and cognitive radios are making it feasible for transceivers to dynamically change their frequency, modulation, or power levels to enable more efficient and

intelligent spectrum sharing. As a group, these technologies enable users to transmit at the same time, in the same place, on the same parts of the spectrum. Combined with technologies such as 3G and WiMAX, they have the potential to significantly increase the capacity of the spectrum to support data applications and wireless broadband.For developing countries, cheap, simple mobile devices will remain central to extending access to poor people. Given convergence and greatly increased spectrum capacity, however, the number of applications available over those devices is likely to expand. And, if the last few years are any guide, it may be that developing countries will again provide a base of

innovation. Adding together the ARPU of mobile, fixed and Internet in Pakistan comes to US$16, compared with a similar figure in the United States of US$143. Nonetheless, the “triple play” of voice, video, and data may be particularly important to developing country operators to preserve ARPUs and reduce churn. Despite rapid progress and

global leadership in business models in some parts of the ICT sector, developing countries still face many challenges to ensure they can fully reap the benefits of the next decade’s changes in ICT provision and use. Barriers to progress include the need for further regulatory reform, issues surrounding the taxation of ICTs, continued concerns about the extent and quality of backbones, and perhaps most importantly, attention to the broader business environment.Perhaps the next 10 years will see the revival of business and regulatory models launched in the past 10 years that were before their time. For policy and regulatory agencies, if spectrum scarcity really does come to an end while competition spreads, and countries follow the model of controlling content through law enforcement agencies and the courts rather than an industry-specific body, the role for an independent regulatory body for telecommunications infrastructure may become questionable. The market may become so competitive that regulation is not required, or so complex and fast-changing that regulation cannot keep up. The history of communications is littered with past failures to predict the future; at a time of such dramatic change, confidence regarding the particular direction of future change might be particularly unwise.

Developing countries to lead the way for ICT development

Muhammad Amir Malik

For developing countries, cheap, simple mobile devices will remain central to extending access to poor people.

is one of the media partners toGITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 2012


The 6th annual TMT Finance & Investment Middle East

Conference and Awards is shaping up to be the biggest ever, with over 50 speakers and delegates representing the very top level of telecoms and finance internationally. The conference provides a unique knowledge sharing and networking platform for leading telecom and technology executives, investment bankers, investors and advisers to debate strategy, financing and partnership opportunities across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.This year’s event will focus on new strategies as telecom operators restructure portfolios, invest in new technologies and realigning business models to capture the next wave of growth. As telecom moves through this

transformational phase the next wave of partnerships, joint ventures, and mergers will shape the sector for the next decade.Session Themes For 2012● The Global Leadership

Round Table – Leading the next wave of international investment

● The M&A Debate – How will consolidation shape new markets?

● Digital Media Leadership Round Table - Delivering killer content and applica-tions

● CFO Round Table – Creating New Paths to Operational Efficiency

● Raising Finance Keynote – Assessing available capital from debt, equity, vendor and alternative financing

● Policy, Regulation and Growth Round Table

● Accelerating Broadband Strategies

● Infrastructure Sharing – Strategies for Mergers, Sales and Leaseback

● Future Telecom Growth Drivers – Where next for the industry?

Who Attends?● CEOs, CSOs, CFOs, Heads of

M&A and Regulation from Telecom Operators and larger Technology and Media Companies

● Global and Regional Heads of TMT and M&A from lead-ing Investment Banks, Law firms, Strategic Consultan-cies, Financial and Technical Advisers

● Chief Investment Officers from Private Equity and In-stitutional Investors, Buyout Specialists, Government backed financiers, Policy makers and Regulators

● International lenders, Struc-tured Finance Heads, Due Diligence Experts, Specialist Lenders and Intermediaries

5 Benefits of Attending1 Meet the leading players

from telecom, finance, investment, law and govern-ment

2 Gain the latest strategic thinking on deal activity and establish key partnerships and relationships

3 Take part in assessing new scenarios, ideas and opera-tional strategies

4 Establish partnerships and syndicates across global markets in telecoms, media and technology

5 Enjoy networking with your peers for two days in the sumptuous setting of the Mina A Salam Madinat Jume-riah one of the finest hotels in the region.

6th TMT Finance & Investment Middle East Conference and Awards 2012

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6 th TMT FINANCE & INVESTMENTMIDDLE EAST CONFERENCEAND AWARDS, DUBAI 2012

2-3 May 2012


Teletimes - Please tell us about the services offered by LCC. Arnaldo Palamidessi - LCC provides integrated IT, fixed line and wireless technology solutions to the public telecommunications, enterprise and government markets – worldwide since almost 30 years. Our traditional leadership in Wireless Communications has been progressively complemented during

the last decade by a significant expansion in our scope, to include virtually any

Telecom Networks and Systems, with specific focus to Broadband Communications. Today we offer a complete portfolio of Professional and Solutions spanning from Consulting to Turn-key Projects and Managed Services.We are proud of having planned, designed, implemented and operated more than 350 public networks worldwide. Most of the leading operators have been - and are still

- relying on our professional support, and our leadership in LTE is also based on their trust.Recently, LCC has been investing in Security and Surveillance solutions, based on the huge demand in the MEA Region.

Arnaldo PalamidessiVP, Business Development, MEA, LCC

speaks to Teletimes

"Our traditional leadership in Wireless Communications has been progressively complemented during the last decade"

Interview: Khalid Athar


TT - How would you describe the development of telecommunication market in Middle East region?AP - One of the most rapidly evolving markets in the world, where a number of ambitious FTTH and LTE projects are in progress. LCC is playing its part as a leading consultant in both fields. Further boost to the market is given by Government Mega Projects with a significant part of investment addressing the outstanding growth of data usage. KSA is the biggest and probably most competitive market in the region, where current Internet usage still leaves room for important growth.TT - What is the status of LTE testing and deployment scenarios across MEA region?AP - Soon after the LTE trial period was over, all operators, in KSA especially, are in a race to provide 4G (LTE) services to their customers. As a result, the LTE testing and deployment in this region is in full swing. The demand for consultants & engineers is so great that we had to launch extraordinary plans to meet it fully in such a short time. LCC is proud to be a part of the telecom evolution in MEA.TT - Do you have any

particular regulatory

challenges in MEA market?AP - No, we have not experienced any regulatory issues yet. In general, we find good cooperation from regulatory bodies at any levels, even if our interaction with Regulators

has been taking place almost

exclusively on Technical aspects. In fact, we are observing an increasingly liberal regulatory system in place.TT - What are the driving factors to expand LCC’s interest into MEA region? AP - The mobile market is

The mobile market is very dynamic and continues to

develop at a very high rate as the competition continues to grow.


very dynamic and continues to develop at a very high rate as the competition continues to grow. LCC is growing at a very fast rate, with established presence in four countries (KSA, UAE, Egypt and Pakistan) and operations across the region. We have grown now to company with more than 450 employees in a very short time. We credit this to our attention to details, quality & listening to the customer requirements.TT - How important is partnership with telecommunication operators for LCC? Please share some noteworthy engagements in MEA region.AP - LCC partnership with operators is extremely important. Independence, high professional standards and commitment to deliver results are the key differentiating elements for

us to maintain long term relationship with them. We have been providing Network Consultancy during the last 7 years for a leading operator in the Region. Recently, we have been awarded 4G/LTE and FTTH design consultancy by the same operator. Similarly, existing engagements and new projects - mostly related to LTE deployment projects - have been finalized with both operators and vendors across the region. Some of the above engagements cover more than one year. TT - Please share some highlights of your public safety and land mobile radio solution. AP - In addition to our ongoing activities on Public Safety and LMR solutions worldwide, LCC has just recently been involved with

a power utility company for their Wireless network upgrade consultancy. Our experts were able to show potential savings of tens of millions of SAR on the costs of the frequency usage alone

in the next 10 years. LCC

consultants designed a state of the art National Unified LMR Network.TT - Would you like to share some success stories for LCC in MEA region. AP - The Last two years have been remarkable to LCC. A major operator has awarded design of its LTE and FTTH Network to LCC, this is a major step in trusting LCC to help build it future network. We are working with three major LTE vendors in Network audit & survey. LCC is also providing end-to-end services for the In-Building Solution (IBS).TT - What impact is being set up by the present rapid technology evaluation on business development strategies for telecommunication service providers like LCC? AP - LCC has always been in the forefront on new technologies. We have a dedicated Research & Innovation Unit, taking care of strategic consultancy

for all the major operators, in addition to prepare and deliver training to both our internal staff and clients.As in every knowledge-based businesses, our challenge is to anticipate the technology trends and make our

resources become familiar with them before the need is raised by our clients.LCC is able to keep pace with rapidly changing technology, and is continually expanding its resources base. Currently LCC has a flexible international work force of 2200 plus. LCC is well known in the market, and our brand awareness helps us in attracting talents across all technologies. LCC future growth plans are centered on Broadband Networks services (Fixed and Mobile), IBS and Enterprise Services.TT- Your thoughts about Teletimes International?AP - I found Teletimes International an important source of information, very much focused on the key issues of the Telecom Industry and proposing remarkably updated contents on both Technologies & Markets. I wish to have more interviews of experts & event reporting of this region in the coming issues.

Our challenge is to anticipate the technology trends and make

our resources become familiar with them before the need is

raised by our clients.


The Chief Executives of the region’s leading

telecommunications groups converged in Dubai recently to share views on the proposed reforms to the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) with the head of the International Telecommunications Union, Secretary General Dr. Hamadoun Touré. The meeting will help to shape the Arab region’s contributions to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) to be held at WCIT-12 in Dubai in December 2012. The meeting was chaired by Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, Chief Executive Officer at the Etisalat Group who was accompanied by Mr. Nasser Bin Obood, Acting CEO for Etisalat UAE. The meeting was attended by the ITU, Secretary General Dr. Hamadoun Touré, the UAE’s Director General for the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA), Mohammad Al Ghanim and its Executive Director for Spectrum Affairs, Tariq Al Awadhi. Also present were Sheikh Mohammed Bin Issa Al Khalifa, CEO of Batelco; Dr. Amer Al Rawas, CEO at Omantel; Dr. Nasser Marafih, CEO at Qtel; as well as Dr. Fareed Al Ghayath representing du and Mr. Mohammed Zainalabedin from the Zain Group.During the discussions, the

region’s operator community congratulated the ITU on the recent successful Connect Arab Summit held in Doha and exchanged views and concerns regarding the reforms to the existing ITRs being proposed by various countries and which will be agreed at WCIT-12.WCIT-12 will review the global treaty widely credited for creating the basis of today's connected world, thus the international regulatory framework governing all ICT technologies. A number of the current member state proposals seek to change the status, scope and operations of the ITU and if adopted will have wide reaching implications not just for telecommunications companies but also with respect to sustainable long term investments in and the growth of telecommunications markets. Mr. Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar said: “The final changes to the ITRs to be adopted in

December 2012 will have a long lasting and profound effect on our industry. It is therefore essential that the sector engages with state administrations in preparation for WCIT. It is a shared responsibility upon us all to ensure that the final outcome reflects the need to balance the aspirations for socio-economic development, derived from advanced communications products and services, with the requirement to maintain a legal and regulatory environment that provides suitable incentives to support and encourage long term sustainable investment.” ITU Secretary General, Dr. Touré, thanked Mr. Ahmad Julfar for the opportunity to explain the preparatory procedures for the WCIT and called on private sector to participate in the process by way of contributions as established by the Plenipotentiary Resolution: “This is a multi-stakeholder

process, including all Sector Members of the Union and we should seize the opportunity”. His Excellency Mohammad Al Ghanim assured the meeting that his team would be working tirelessly with industry to reach the optimum outcome for the UAE specifically and Arab countries as a whole. Commenting on the process he announced “the TRA UAE team will soon be inviting all UAE stakeholders to participate in the preparatory process for WCIT; to share ideas; to understand concerns and find solutions that will protect and promote the interests of the UAE and its telecommunications markets”.The region's telecom operators will continue to monitor the discussions on the ITRs and will work with their respective governments to ensure that the amendments to the ITRs have a positive impact on the telecommunication and information technology industry.

Arab telco leaders discuss ITRs reforms with ITU Secretary GeneralUAE meet offers opportunity for dialogue on the status, scope and operation of reformed global treaty

Dr. Hamadoun TouréAhmad Abdulkarim JulfarMohammad Al Ghanim


The Communications and Information Technology

Commission (CITC) estimates that the volume of spending on the ICT services in the Kingdom rose to SR83 billion in 2011 com-pared to SR21 billion in 2002, an average annual growth rate of about 14 percent. The spending on information technology is around 30 percent of the total, mostly concentrated on hardware and IT services, said CITC report.It said the spending on ICT products and services is expected to grow by more than 10 percent in 2012, driven mainly by expected strong growth in demand for smart phones, high-speed networks and interactive applications resulting from strong growth of investment in the sector, and implementation of government projects, all of which will lead in turn to the growth of support services in the sector.The ICT market in the Kingdom is the biggest in the Middle East in terms of capital value and volume of spending, and it accounts for more than 68 percent of the GCC ICT market. The capital investment of more than SR125 billion in the past 10 years is due to industrial diversification in the Kingdom and has led to increased demand for software, equipment and services that make up the fastest growing sector in the ICT market.The total number of mobile subscriptions grew to around 53.7 million at the end of 2011, with a penetration rate of 188 percent.Prepaid subscriptions constitute the majority (over 87 percent) of all mobile subscriptions,

according to a new report from the Communication and Information Technology Commission.The newsletter also states that fixed telephone lines stood at 4.63 million at the end of 2011, of which around 3.3 million, or 71 percent, were residential lines.This represents a household teledensity of around 69.3 percent and a population teledensity of about 16.2 percent. This is slightly lower than the world average of over 17 percent but is higher than the averages in the Arab world and in developing countries.It is clear that the rate of demand for fixed line service has been relatively stable since 2004. The main reason is the rapid spread of mobile telecom services due in part to the ease of subscription and the gradual decrease in prices.This has led to a lower number of requests from consumers for fixed services.However, the demand for fixed services, especially in major cities, is expected to grow as a result of growing demand for broadband services, especially for fiber optic network (FTTx) services.Internet penetration increased at a high rate during the past years from 5 percent in 2001 to about 47.5 percent at the end of 2011.The estimated number of Internet users in the Kingdom is now 13.6 million.The significant growth in the availability of high-speed broadband services and applications, continuing decline in the prices for devices and services, and significant usage

of electronic transactions (banking, commercial and government) have stimulated the growth of Internet services. It is expected that the demand for Internet services will increase significantly in the next few years due to the availability of optical networks (FTTx) at very high speeds, especially in large cities at first, growing Internet content and the spread of handheld smart devices and applications. Fixed broadband subscriptions including ADSL, Fixed Wireless (WiMAX), FTTx and other fixed lines grew to around 1.95 million subscriptions by the end of 2011. The fixed broadband penetration rate was about 33 percent of households.Total mobile broadband subscriptions reached 11.3 million at the end of 2011, representing a penetration of 39.6 percent of the population.The mobile broadband market continues to gain momentum in the Kingdom. The key reasons for this growth are vigorous competition, a healthy expansion of smart phones, and offers of various data packages by the mobile operators. It has become easier to access the Internet via mobile devices such as smart phones. The mobile networks are also improving as 3.5G technology (HSPA) continues to be deployed and as new 4G wireless broadband technologies emerge over the next few years.It should be noted that in calculating the number of subscriptions, CITC has adopted the new methodology recommended by ITU in early 2011. This allows for inclusion of combined voice and data

subscriptions at broadband speeds. As a result, the broadband subscription and penetration totals for 2011 are substantially higher relative to those reported previous years.Studies indicate that broadband services will be the main driver for the growth of telecommunications and information technology in the coming years and an important source of income for the sector.The opportunities for deployment of broadband networks in the Kingdom are good in the immediate future, especially for fixed wireless and mobile networks, to meet increased demand for broadband services and applications.The gap in the penetration of broadband services in the Kingdom is still large compared to the developed countries.The objectives of the Ninth Development Plan of the Kingdom include “the pursuit of a knowledge-based economy through the application of electronic transactions and the dissemination of use in all regions of the Kingdom.” Therefore, in order to achieve this objective and to facilitate the flow of information, there is a great need for high-speed and high-quality broadband networks at reasonable prices to be made available in the Kingdom.The growth of capital investment, development and expansion and of ICT networks have significantly contributed to the national gross domestic product (GDP). This has been the result of liberalizing the telecommunications sector


Contd. on page 19


and opening the markets to competition, which in turn has attracted investments and growth of the sector.The deployment of modern technology and availability of applications have the positive effect of raising the efficiency of other economic sectors as well. The growth in GDP in 2011 was SR2.1 billion or about 7 percent.Mobile services revenues represent about 80 percent of all telecom sector revenues in the Saudi market. In addition

to revenues from the domestic market, investment by licensed Saudi telecom companies in foreign telecom markets have led to a rapid growth of revenues for the sector from foreign operations, from SR455 million in 2007 to around SR18.2 billion ($4.85 billion) in 2011. Domestic revenues, however, still represent over 78 percent of the total telecom sector revenues of SR84 billion ($22.4 billion) in 2011.The performance of mobile

operators in Saudi Arabia during the year 2011 was within the international standards.The analysis of quality of service indicators by CITC shows that the performance of mobile operators during the year 2011 was within the upper limit of 2 percent for the call success and call drop rate indicators. These two indicators are means of checking the ability to make and maintain a continuous call without being dropped during the connection.

The analysis also shows that the performance of operators was within limits with regard to the quality of service indicator to answer 80 percent of customer service calls within 60 seconds of the request to speak to an agent. In addition to quarterly reports submitted by the operators, CITC monitors the operators’ performance through extensive drive testing throughout the Kingdom, covering over 50 cities, towns and major highways.


KSA becomes e-govt 'emerging leader' Saudi Arabia has been ranked

41st out of 193 countries relating to the level of its e-government infrastructure development, the United Na-tions' Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in its "E-Government Survey 2012" report released recently.Saudi Arabia advanced 17 positions from its rank of 58th in 2010. The report is released every two years and determines the ranking of countries based on online services available, telecommunications infrastructure, and human capital. Due to Saudi Arabia's large jump from 58 to 41, it is now among the top 25 emerging e-government leaders. In addition, it is highlighted as one of the countries that made the most progress over the past two years. The top five countries in the 2012 e-government development index are South Korea, the Netherlands, the UK, the Denmark and the US.Saudi Arabia is a regional e-government leader, following only the UAE. and Bahrain, and its individual component indexes are all well above the

global average. Saudi Arabia has also been identified as a whole-of-government top performer, noting the overall commitment of the Saudi government and its focus on developing a system that incorporates all aspects of the government.The majority of countries do not utilize multiple channels to deliver services, such as traditional channels, free access to services via internet kiosks or WiFi, and mobile applications. However, Saudi Arabia is one of only seven countries to provide all of the following services: SMS text notification, dedicated mobile government websites, mobile applications, and payment by mobile phone.Saudi Arabia has also been active with promoting its services using social media. It is one of 78 countries that have a "Follow Us" link for Facebook or Twitter and among the 14 that provide a chat feature on government websites. The Saudi e-government portal, www.saudi.gov.sa, provides both citizens and businesses with a single location to access a range of information and services. Among the various

services offered is the ability to apply for professional licenses; download government forms; renew work licenses; apply for education programs; pay utilities, education, and business fees; and submit comments and queries to government agencies. The Saudi government also offers an Open Document Initiative through the portal, which provides users with informational documents and reports from government agencies. The goal of the e-portal is to increase productivity and efficiency, encourage public participation, solicit public opinion, and provide services in a way that is focused more on the individual.The 2012 Survey finds that member states have begun to move from a decentralized single-purpose organization model of e-government to an integrated unified whole-of-government model for the people. This approach supports the strengthening of institutional linkages with interconnected departments and divisions; greater efficiency and effectiveness of governance systems;

and better public service delivery. However, the efforts of countries at all levels of development are still affected by a lack of integration of administrative simplification with e-government development plans, lack of infrastructure and human resource capacity and a gap between e-services supply and demand. Low-income countries, in particular, continue to contend with traditional barriers to ICT investment such as lack of technical skills, high costs of technology, and ineffective government regulation. The United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 finds that many have put in place e-government initiatives and information and communication technologies applications for the people to further enhance public sector efficiencies and streamline governance systems to support sustainable development. Among the e-government leaders, innovative technology solutions have gained special recognition as the means to revitalize lagging economic and social sectors.

Contd. from page 18


In association with Saudi Arabian General Investment

Authority (SAGIA) , Google held a thought leadership Arabia 2012 day in Riyadh gathering more than 120 top executives and government officials from the Kingdom. In his openning keynote speech, Mohammad Gawdat, Vice President of Emerging SEEMEA region, Google highlighted how the Internet has become a key economic, social and cultural net contributor to nations in the region. Gawdat said: “Since its inception, Google has worked with countless entrepreneurs and businesses across the world which has allowed us to witness at first hand just how transformative the Internet can be? We’ve seen some incredible success stories right here in the Kingdom which make us realize how much untapped economic potential there is here and that’s why we’re here.”Encouraging debate amongst the Kingdoms telecom operators, Google also invited key industry players to discuss the role of technology in scaling and fostering

innovation and the future of the internet and its role in Saudi Arabia. The speakers included His Highness Prince Turki bin Saud Al-Saud, VP of

KACST, Jameel Al Molhem, STC CEO, Barig. Siraj, CEO of ICT Ventures, Rashid Al-Balla, CEO of N2V.Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, Head

of Emerging Arabia at Google said “The Internet is creating a tremendous impact in Saudi Arabia on various economic, social and cultural levels. We are gathered here to continue building meaningful relationships with our partners which will help Google understand their interests in order for us to provide them with the tools they need to positively influence the Kingdoms’ ongoing social and economic development.” Also speaking at the event was Patrick Walker, Senior Director, Content Partnerships, YouTube in Europe, the Middle East & Africa, where he delivered a session on the shift to the digital programming

highlighting how YouTube is home to the content creators of the future.“YouTube is on fire with usage, sharing, channel views, partnerships, and advertisers are all up. In the past year the number of uploads to YouTube in KSA alone has jumped 200% and views increased 260%.” Walker said. “Walker also discussed the YouTube partner program which offers content creators a range of benefits including, generating revenues, and access to analytics and content management tools which help them target their preferred

demographics, while providing viewers with a high-quality branded experience.“Partners are the heart of our platform, and we want to see even more of them take the next step in their YouTube careers and turn their video hobbies into careers or even businesses. We’re going to

invest heavily in our YouTube Partners, because we believe they are the next generation of content creators. Our partners across the world are driving billions of views a year, including KSA where we have hundreds of successful examples such as the Saudi, La Yekthar show, Khawatir and many others.” Google continues to actively engage with the Kingdom through a number of activities including its upcoming technol-ogy event g|saudi arabia in Jeddah. Taking place over two days, g|saudi arabia will be gathering software develop-ers, webmasters, IT & business professionals, tech entrepre-neurs, and university students for training and informative discussions around the future of innovation in the region, and how Google’s suite of products is a major driving force behind that innovation.

Saudi leaders discuss "Future of Internet" at Google's thought leadership Arabia 2012

Prince Turki bin Saud Al-Saud

Jameel Al Molhem

The speakers included His Highness Prince Turki bin Saud Al-Saud, VP of KACST, Jameel Al Molhem, STC CEO, Barig. Siraj, CEO of ICT Ventures, Rashid Al-Balla, CEO of N2V.

Teletimes Report


The WiMAX Forum, the global body that certifies

and promotes the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products, hosted the South Asia Conference 2012 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The event was held under the patronage of the country's regulatory body, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, and co-organised by Wateen Telecom, Pakistan's leading converged communications service provider. It brought together over 100 professionals from government organisations, telecom operators, equipment manufacturers, solution providers, media and other ICT related industries, who had travelled from across the region to attend the conference. The aim of the conference was to create awareness about how WiMAX is a cost-efficient, sustainable and easily scalable solution for broadband distribution. It can help improve the country's economy by helping industries such as electricity, aviation, oil & gas, agriculture, healthcare

amongst others in becoming more efficient, transparent and vertical through its various applications. For instance, WiMAX can help resolve Pakistan's electricity crisis through smart grid applications, through efficient and secure electricity distribution. “WiMAX technology has achieved a penetration rate of 50% of all broadband connections in urban centres in Pakistan. This success of the technology is unparalleled anywhere else in the world. I am delighted to come to Pakistan and look forward to returning to continue supporting the success of WiMAX operators in the country." Mr. Declan Byrne, President of the WiMAX Forum, stated in his welcome address to representatives from across the globe. The Conference included speakers from Airspan, Fanoos Telecom, Gemtek Technology and Banglalion among others who discussed various go-to-market strategies, planning considerations and applications for WiMAX operators.

Alepo, a leading provider of WiMAX solutions shared how broadband and mobile networks can collaborate for better provisioning of data services for consumers. Pakistan has four WiMAX operators in the country, namely Wateen, Qubee, Mobilink Infinity and Wi-Tribe who account for around 29% of the total broadband market share. Consumers in the country are showing their preference for wireless broadband, which offers a lucrative untapped broadband market. Pakistan is the first country in the world to have rolled out a nationwide WiMAX network, established by Wateen Telecom, making the country a perfect setting for the WiMAX community to host its South-Asia Conference. Chairman PTA, Dr Mohammed Yaseen, shared his vision for the country's broadband policy in enabling the country's economic and social needs, spoke to the delegates present at the conference. "The PTA is thankful to the WiMAX Forum for bringing together industry leaders from the

region to discuss vital issues such as exploring different go-to-market strategies and applications to make investments by the telecom investors in the country profitable. Pakistan has a huge untapped market with only 7% of households having subscribed to broadband internet. The fixed market space is virtually untapped and future potential for growth is immense for broadband operators," said Dr Yaseen. Speaking about Wateen's com-mitment to WiMAX, Naeem Zamindar, CEO Wateen Tele-com, said,"Wateen Telecom is focused on proliferating broad-band internet in Pakistan and we are firmly committed to the idea that WiMAX can change every aspect of life in Pakistan for the better. Being one of the pioneers for the technology in the world, Wateen believes WiMAX is the solution of choice for emerging countries and can leapfrog Pakistan to progress." Naeem Zamindar has the hon-our of being the first Pakistani to join the Board of Directors of the WiMAX Forum.

Sustainable growth possible with convergence of industries through WiMAX Broadband

WiMAX Forum South Asia Conference 2012 concludes successfully

Teletimes Report


Global telecom operators—including several in the

Middle East—have been enjoying a decade-long growth spurt. Thanks to numerous rounds of mergers and acquisitions, their invest-ments span several continents; for some, international business has emerged as a vital part of the company, accounting for more than half of total corporate revenue. Others have portfolios of far-flung business units that do not mesh with each other or with the overall goals and operations of the parent company.Operators initially looked to integrate their acquisitions by creating group level units that could mine synergies from costs, brand recognition, and services. Now, many telecom companies can unlock further value from within their portfolios by analyzing their level of coherence, a process that starts with determining their capabilities and identifying their “way to play”—the strategic approach necessary to distinguish themselves from competitors. They can then assess whether their capabilities system supports their way to play and whether all their products and services leverage these capabilities. This strategic exercise will tell operators whether they have what it takes to succeed in each market—the right to win—and then enable them to focus their strategy

on the right combination of capabilities and a successful way to play. As a result, operators will achieve a “coherence premium,” an edge over the competition that could manifest itself in a number of ways—for instance, stronger profits or higher market share. There is no single solution; each operator has unique capabilities, and each market represents a different opportunity with its own set of characteristics that are distinct from others.Once a telecom company has this understanding of its capabilities and the elements that will enable it to best the competition in a market, it can then rationalize each of its investments and opportunities in a way that will allow for greater coherence in its portfolio. That will include evaluating acquisitions and divestments, entering or exiting markets, launching new products, or making other

strategic moves in order to maximize the operator’s value proposition to both customers and investors.From Growth To FocusOver the past decade, many major telecom operators expanded far beyond their domestic borders, pursuing growth in new, undeveloped markets to counter slowing growth in saturated local markets. Operators pushed into new markets in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Today, several operators have achieved global status, deriving a significant portion of their revenue from international operations (see Exhibit 1). Some have footprints spanning multiple continents. In the Middle East, and specifically in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), incumbent operators, buoyed by strong balance sheets, participated in this strategy, consolidating within their

region and beyond. Many operators, however, did not keep a close eye on how each newly acquired operation fit into their overall portfolio. During the rapid growth phase, a veritable land grab of assets, capabilities and capability systems were less important than getting big fast. As growth starts to level off and a certain level of maturity is reached, competition will increasingly be won on the basis of capabilities. Over time, operators acquired some assets that appeared attractive on a stand-alone basis; later, however, operators realized these businesses were not adding value to their portfolio. Many international operators turned to group-level integration, intending to draw more value out of their investments, seeking to generate synergies, strengthen brands, and combine capabilities company-wide. In doing so, some divested

Managing telecom portfolios for sustainable growth

Karim SabbaghChady SmayraAmr GoussousNans Mathieu


percent of its operations are in markets where the penetration rate exceeds 90 percent.

● Ownership Level: Operators need different engagement models for dealing with operations that they control as opposed to those in which they own a minority stake: Majority-owned operations require greater operational involvement from telecom groups whereas minority-held operations require financial investment capabilities. América Móvil, for example, controls 100 percent of its operations, enabling it to enforce decisions at all its subsidiaries in order

to create synergies and instill common marketing approaches.

● Type of Operations: Several telecom groups have invested in a mix of operations, from fixed to mobile operators, from network-based operations to service-based operations (such as MVNOs). Because each business requires a different set of capabilities, some operators have succeeded by focusing on a specific part of the business. One such example is Zain, which focused exclusively on mobile telephony in emerging markets. By focusing on this area, Zain has been able to build a strong

group products and services function and enjoy synergies in the markets where it operates.

● Market Position: An incumbent operator needs a radically different set of capabilities from a market challenger. An incumbent, for example, might focus a lot of attention on reducing churn among existing customers, whereas a new entrant would set sights on attracting customers who have never used a phone before. Vodafone is an example of an operator with strong customer retention capabilities; more than 78 percent of its operations are in markets where it is either the

market leader or quasi-incumbent.

The cluster approach to capabilities reveals patterns that have formed successful platforms for operators. Operators can use the same methodology for measuring their overall coherence score to measure the coherence of their individual clusters.Managing Portfolios For Better CoherenceSome global operators already have undertaken substantive divestitures to focus on their differentiating capabilities. For example, Vodafone recently embarked on a program to divest all minority-held assets, seeking to focus on operations in which it could better deploy its capabilities (see Exhibit 4).It is not always practical—or wise—for an operator to sell or spin off a unit that does not fit into its strategic strength, especially if that unit performs well on a financial basis. Nonetheless, operators can set aspirational targets or better understand the contribution to the company from each of its operating units by undertaking a two-pronged assessment of strategic and financial considerations. The strategic assessment measures whether an operator’s investments or potential investments are a fit with its capabilities and ways to play; the financial assessment takes into account the needs of the corporation in terms of growth and profitability. Together, they give an operator the diagnostic tools to perform an ongoing evaluation of its portfolio to determine which of its operating units it should keep and which ones it might consider divesting. In addition, the methodology serves as a forward-looking tool to assess future acquisition


holdings that they saw as non-strategic and others upped their stakes and took greater control of partly owned assets in an attempt to manage them more effectively. For example, Etisalat increased its stake in Atlantique Telecom, its West African operator, from 50 percent in 2007 to 100 percent in 2010. In April 2011, Saudi Telecom (STC) boosted its stake in Axis, an Indonesian operator, from 51 percent to 80 percent. And in November 2011, Qtel increased its Tunisiana stake from 50 percent to 100 percent. International investments today have reached a critical mass and contribute significantly to the value of many large operators, elevating the importance of group-level integration. In several cases, because local markets are saturated international operations are contributing to more than 50 percent of revenues and are the growth drivers (see Exhibit 2).As operators continue in their efforts to maximize the value of their portfolios, they can benefit from assessing their operations to recognize their essential differentiated capabilities—the combination of processes, tools and systems, skills and knowledge, and organization— that distinguish them from their competitors. At the same time and based on their capabilities, operators need to determine the way to play for each of their subsidiaries—the strategy that will allow them to succeed and beat the competition in each of the markets in which they operate. These factors combine to present an operator with the right to win that, in turn, will translate into stronger profits,

increased market share, or a number of other results—the coherence premium that operators can achieve when their capabilities and way to play operate in concert. Along with the coherence premium—an inherent advantage in focusing an entire company around a set of capabilities—there also is an incoherence penalty that can grow over time as companies expand into new markets and their strategic focus broadens.Finding The Right To Win Companies can measure their coherence premium via a coherence index, determined

by an algorithm that takes into account the different operations in a group’s portfolio and the capabilities required for each one to succeed. The more overlap companies have in terms of the capabilities they require across the portfolio, the higher they will score on this index. There is a demonstrable correlation between the coherence of operators’ portfolios—a focus on the factors that provided them a right to win—and strong financial returns (see Exhibit 3). There is no single right to win formula that will

apply to all operators. Each operator has a unique set of capabilities and conducts business in markets that have distinct characteristics and are at different stages of development. An operator can have a set of capabilities that enables it to succeed in one market that is very different from what enables it—or a rival—to flourish in another. Ideally, an operator will have a single set of capabilities that will provide its coherence premium in the markets in which it operates. However, this is not always the case; sometimes an operator has

to organize itself into what we call clusters—countries or regions that it can group together to leverage capabilities that are specific to those markets. Operators succeed by organizing their investments in clusters—a grouping of investments with relative similarities such as geography, market maturity, ownership level, type of operations, and market position. That is not an exhaustive list; there are other clusters. ● Geography: A geographic

focus provides operators with supply chain synergies, advantages in dealing

with similar cultures, and the ability to provide offerings that cater to regional travelers’ needs. MTN is an example of a company that has used geography as a cluster to provide it with a coherent focus and augment its chances to succeed. The African operator centered its expansion on mobile telecom operators within the African continent that are, or have the potential to be, first or second in market share in their region.

● Market Maturity: Markets and businesses with

different maturity levels require different sets of capabilities across the value chain. Among other factors, operators need fundamentally different approaches to marketing and sales in a nascent market as opposed to a mature one. A global operator with operations in markets with different maturity levels faces challenges in developing and implementing different approaches successfully. For example, Telefónica has developed robust capabilities to operate in mature markets, and 80


opportunities by testing their anticipated impact on the coherence and financial performance of the portfolio. Strategic AssessmentTwo questions will inform the strategic assessment, which allows a company to calibrate its set of capabilities against those required to succeed in each market or cluster. Is the market relevant? And does the company have the capabilities to be successful in the market? Ultimately these questions will assist the operator to identify the fit of specific operations with the cluster in terms of the capabilities it requires for success, or the coherence of a cluster within the overall multi-regional portfolio. The analysis will lead to a clear understanding of what set of capabilities the company would need to have in order to be successful in each market. If the analysis reveals some key capabilities are missing, the company then can assess the possibility of acquiring or developing these capabilities or phasing out from the market or cluster. Is the market relevant? An operator needs to assess each market in which it operates to ensure that the market meets the company’s investment guidelines, which ultimately stem from the shareholders’ vision and aspirations for inorganic growth. Those guidelines could include factors related to growth potential, market size, and the competitive landscape. This step of the strategic assessment process also involves developing an understanding of whether the market presents synergies with other markets.Does the company have the capabilities to be successful in the market? Operating

companies should identify what they do exceptionally well—their capabilities system. A company’s primary source of advantage is a system of three to six capabilities that together allow it to fulfill its way to play. The process of answering this question will enable a company to evaluate its overall coherence, first addressing whether each subsidiary has the capabilities to be successful in that market. If it does, the next question to address is whether those capabilities fit the capabilities of the larger portfolio and thus contribute to the coherence of

the group. Financial AssessmentAs with the strategic assessment, two questions provide visibility into the financial viability of a company’s operating unit.What is the business’s current financial situation? An operating company should have a clear view of its financial situation and priorities going forward. These priorities should then be used to rate portfolio companies.

For example, a company can be looking to maximize profitability and cash. That would require it to have more mature and developed market-leading operations and fewer growing ones in its portfolio. Alternatively, an operating company could have revenue generation and growth as its top priority and thus would likely need to shift its resources to invest in growth companies in its portfolio. Is this investment maximizing shareholder value? A company should assess each of its portfolio companies on their ability to generate cash in the

future. Then it can compare the net present value (NPV) of the portfolio company to the market value of its investment in that business using different valuation techniques. The relative value of the NPV to the calculated market value determines the financial assessment for the investment. The higher the NPV is relative to the market valuation, the higher the financial assessment.The outcome of the strategic

and financial analysis allows companies to plot each existing operating unit or new opportunity on a matrix that could provide guidance to management in performing portfolio decisions (see Exhibit 5). This analysis might reveal that a particular asset is financially attractive and coherent with the overall portfolio and warrants further investment to unlock additional growth or increase exposure. If it is a case of limited coherence, a telecom operator might consider divestment, especially if it can generate more value

from disposing of the asset either on a stand-alone basis or by bundling it with a less-attractive asset. This is the concept of “best ownership.” If a subsidiary is profitable but does not fit in the wider group’s capabilities system, the operator could benefit from selling the asset to a company in whose capabilities system it would really fit.Furthermore, management can rely on the assessment framework to demonstrate the


appeal of acquiring new assets, as it reveals how an operating company would fit into an existing cluster and the overall portfolio from both a strategic and financial perspective. The process of conducting the strategic and financial assessments relies on a few considerations:● The assessment should

be forward looking: The assessment should not look at what has happened in the past as previous decisions do not have any bearing on future ones, other than to act as a yardstick to gauge future performance. Thus, any framework accounts for future expected returns and treats past decisions as sunk costs.

● The assessment should be per formed periodically: The value of an investment is a moving target that shifts with changes in market conditions, as well as factors specific to each company. As a result, companies should undergo assessments regularly to maintain the relevance of their investment decisions and ensure that they are regularly able to seize attractive opportunities.

● Business plans should be objective and realistic: As noted above, the value of the analysis hinges on a company’s forward-looking assessment of its portfolio companies. Accordingly, business plans on which the assessment is founded should be fair and realistic.

● The assessment should consider the value of synergies: The analysis should incorporate potential synergies that a company can capture from its operating units, a


benefit financial analysis often overlooks. Capturing potential synergies ensures that a company is assessing investments that are in the right context, enabling it to maximize the value of each of its business operations.

● Full-fledged due diligence is man datory: Divestment or investment recommendations are guidelines and mandate further assessment. The framework provides management with a short list of potential candidates for divestment or acquisition—but requires further validation from a detailed due diligence process before a company can make a final decision.

ConclusionA wave of expansion has transformed local telecom incumbents into regional operators, with footprints that span the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. For many of these GCC opera-tors, migrating to group-level operating struc-tures has enabled them to unlock value from this expansion. In the aftermath of the global economic slump and debt crisis, management and investors increasingly are clamoring for better performance. And, as international operations account for an increasing con-tribution to corporate revenue, investors and management continue to scrutinize and rationalize their investments outside of their borders.Telecom operators can undertake an effort to assess and manage their portfolio holdings more effectively by analyzing the concept of coherence across their footprints—a process that will inform and guide their portfolio decisions going forward to generate sustainable growth and avoid the incoherence penalty.Applying the coherence lens involves deter-mining what specifically an operator does best—the ingredients that enable it to beat the competition. It also includes assess-ing each of the markets that an operator competes in, to ensure that the operator’s capabilities will help it succeed. The analysis is not only an assessment tool for the existing portfolio but also a great driver for growth as it can guide telecom group operators in their investment decisions by helping them focus on clusters of strength, the most relevant opportunities for them. The result will leave some global telecom operators with wide-reaching investments that deliver the maxi-mum value to customers and shareholders.


Teletimes - Please tell us about Integrated Telecom Company, its solutions for telecommunication segments of Saudi market. Laurent Marini - Integrated Telecom Company (ITC) is a leading Riyadh-based telecom provider, established in 2005. Since then, ITC has grown into one of today’s fastest-growing telecom companies offering next-generation solutions for businesses, wholesale and consumer segments of the Saudi market. ITC is a licensed DSP, ISP and VSAT operation.Committed to play a major role in helping the Kingdom meet its future data communications needs, ITC has invested in its own independent infrastructure to give our customers robust capacity and all the confidence to meet their growing and evolving needs, not only today but well into the future.Our independent infrastructure includes two international submarine landing stations, in Al Khobar and Jeddah, connecting the Kingdom to the rest of the world, in addition of its London POP and 5 regional neighbouring interconnections with Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE. These gateways are in turn connected to all cities in the Kingdom through our 16,000-kilometre Saudi National Fiber Network (SNFN). Design with the highest resiliency, our core network with its 8 rings provides foundation to our native MPLS, SDH and DWDM platforms, bringing the fastest

transmission infrastructure in country. In addition to the SNFN core network, ITC metro-fiber rings span all major cities. This year, in its continuous commitment to deliver greater service to its Saudi communities, ITC is rolling out FTTx.Integrated Telecom Company portfolio span from national and international connectivity, shared and dedicated,

comprehensive Internet solutions, Storage replication services, Data Centers, Business Continuity suite, Professional Services and ICT Integrations. What makes us really different is our people and how we deliver the technology and service. At ITC we believe in taking customers business personally because we consider client business is as precious as ours. Supported, by our

team structure that mirrors customers segmentation and specialization, to the core plus the ease of accessing the team, ITC people create new value for the Business. TT - How would you describe the development of Broadband market in Saudi Arabia? What will be the future scenario?LM - Back in 2006, ITC spearheaded the broadband rolling out the first WiMAX

Laurent Marini Vice President - Business Services Sales Integrated Telecom Company - Saudi Arabia

"We pride to serve all GSM, ISP and fixed licensed operators in the Kingdom"

Teletimes Interview


licensed operation in the Kingdom, delivering service to meet consumer and business needs.Broadband growth in KSA is astonishing. Inhabitants are witnessing fiber to their homes in every quarter of the major cities. Operators have set reference in the region providing wire line and wireless unprecedented high speed internet for consumers. Boosted with new technologies, communities are accessing 20Mb, 40Mb at home or “on the go”. Those new speed standards are though facing shortfall of promises, as those “up to” speeds are rarely accessible or under very privileged circumstances. Users are now accustomed of such marketing message and with experience they set their expectations, hence the continuous very high broadband adoption in the Kingdom. Broadband is often associated with consumer demand, though the focus for service providers is growing towards the enterprise sectors. There, broadband is also reaching new standards. Enterprises SME are moving from shared services to dedicated resources for their office connectivity. Cloud computing boom in the Kingdom is stressing on the necessity of high quality connectivity medium. If fiber and wireless offer both pros and cons, the main challenge for enterprises is the quality and specifically the availability of service, or “speed and stability” reported through market studies in Saudi Arabia. The later refers to post sales organization and aftersales services.Enterprises are requesting greater and greater capacity. From its 7 year experience

serving the business community, ITC witnessed the demand shifting from small dedicated capacity on frame relay, to larger capacity on MPLS network, to nowadays very high capacity on dedicated network SDH or DWDM. Operators serving consumer bandwidth appetites are in demand of far bigger transmission and internet supply. STM1 or STM4 became over past 2 years low capacity for the wholesale team. When planning new investments, operators are ordering lambdas.To keep pace with the exponential demand of bandwidth, Integrated Telecom Company is rolling out its FTTx network, extending its fiber metro to the curb, to commercial and residential buildings. This decision

comes in addition of ITC 2011 investment in a new fixed licensed operation, sister company named Saudi ITC undergoing a 4G LTE rollout. Greater bandwidth to come in near future, new services are bandwidth hungry, although wireless access prime in convenience, fiber will cater the scalability required to keep with speed trend. So wire line and wireless will remain in the run for broadband with specific usages and attitudes. Service hand-overs are turning now

into common service features between both medium type, whether you’re at home or on the move, your service switch from one access to another whichever provide the best quality, cost efficiency, i.e. the best experience. Fiber and LTE will coexist for the years to come. TT - How does the Integrated Telecom Company team manage such diversified range of solutions?LM - While offering services to medium and large organizations, our customers have offices spanning across the Kingdom, even in area where access technologies are limited. With such experience, our strategy is to offer services agnostic to medium access, in other words, ITC currently offers connectivity solution for enterprises, public or private,

with a broad range of accesses: fiber, WiMAX, microwave (P2P, P2MP), DSL, VSAT. Those technologies are offering dedicated and shared service to accommodate every organization budget, priority and applications. All those services are monitored by our Carrier Class Network Operation Center. Worth to mention, Service Level Agreements are on offer at ITC with our services, whatsoever the medium access. The key is to understand

customer needs and commit to deliver to their needs wherever they are. According to thorough research in the market, customer are primarily after “speed and stability” which is by the way the theme of our Business campaigns.To address adequately the need of our customers, we have structure our teams, all customer touch points to reflect a market segmentation primarily structure on the main service & industry verticals, for instance this segmentation applies to our sales force, solution team, call center to name the most obvious. To enhance our comprehension of our customer challenges and needs, we went farther by identify their ecosystems with partners, enablers, tools critical to their success and service continuity, this to set ITC as a community enable and business facilitator.TT - Integrated Telecom company profile presents an ideal situation to be a telecommunication operator for Saudi market. Do you have any thoughts to emerge as fourth mobile telecommunication operator?LM - Integrated Telecom Company is licensed telecommunication operator with DSP, ISP, VSAT licenses. With regards to mobility, the market is still structured around individual rather than corporate value and benefits, whether you look at the personal mobile plan or fleet service offers. Integrated Telecom Company has always been very careful in launching services to ensure responding corporate client objectives with integrity rather than fulfilling vendor desires.ITC sees growing needs in M2M and cloud computing, in this regards mobility is a must looking at.

Integrated Telecom Company has always been very careful in launching services to ensure responding corporate client objectives with integrity rather than fulfilling vendor desires.


The introduction of MVNO plans with a public consultation process initiated by the regulator is now getting full attention in the Kingdom and abroad. Though, reselling agreement of mobile network has started for a little while in Saudi Arabia with Friendi. Complex commercial agreement, MVNO are also deeper and longer engagements from an organization perspective, both party successes are tied-in. Integrated Telecom Company has adopted a cautious approach. Reason for pragmatism is self-explanatory. Indeed, demographic and active GSM subscribers reach nearly 200% penetration, i.e. any possible clients in KSA carries 2 devices. Room for new market share is slim, even considering the population organic growth. Acquisition costs are high nowadays, so are the retention costs, and without true value-added service, operators fell differentiating themselves on price while offering similar customer experience. International voice, roaming, mobile data, those once very profitable services are now offered on thin margins. MNOs motivations into MVNO venture are also driven with offset and cost optimization strategy, ultimately to improve Consumer Unit bottom lines.Considering at a possible 4th mobile license, some factors to enter this market needs to be facilitated, such as but not limited to, infrastructure sharing, price protection for new entrants; appealing wholesale tariffs and national interconnects. Monitoring the recent 4th mobile license award France to Free Mobile could bring valued experience on how to accommodate another mobile licensed operator

in a yet very crowded and competitive market.In line with its aspiration for multiple plays and unified communication solutions, Integrated Telecom Company took ownership in a fixed licensed operation; Saudi ITC introduced on Tadawul stock exchange in 2011, sister company which will add a 4G

network to ITC infrastructure with the optimum LTE spectrum in KSA, FTTx and iPTV deployments. TT - Fiber or Wireless access? How would you define them in Saudi Arabia? LM - Fiber or Wireless access? is on every agenda when meeting our clients. Experience brought from more mature infrastructure markets claims the advantage of fiber rightfully for its lifetime, scalability, cost and standard consensus. Though, at Integrated Telecom Company, we tend to appreciate both media types as complementing each other with tangible benefits. The Kingdom construction industry has not suffered as most G20 countries; new buildings, new residential areas, new universities, new hospitals, new cities are flourishing all over the country. Keeping the pace of business area development is a challenge for fiber roll-out coverage whereby the permit acquisition

is a tedious process, the coordination between utilities and transportation government bodies can quickly turn into a maze. Wireless offers “go to market” and timely delivery, in addition wireless connectivity are less exposed to random fiber cut due to high level of construction sites and street maintenance. While answering

customer concerns about their access medium, the most valid element is to understand their priority: time, availability, scalability. Ultimately for critical operations, our team recommends to use both access methods to optimize resiliency and service availability. TT - What is the present clientage detail of Integrated Telecom Company?LM - Integrated Telecom Company is born with the objective to serve operators, medium and large enterprises. On the wholesale sector, we pride ourselves to serve all GSM operators, ISP, fixed licensed operator in the Kingdom, set apart the incumbent. Further to national market share, our wholesale team also supports regional and Tier1 operators in need of in-country termination or transit service across the Middle East.With regards to the Business sector, our unmatched 7 year

experience of the enterprise market sets our presence in every industry and service verticals, private and public organizations. From first year Integrated Telecom Company has grown a very high market share in the financial and oil&gas sectors, building reputation on our teams' operation excellence. In recent years, further to these successes, a systemic approach has been developed in understanding each vertical ecosystems and tying business partners together over our network to strengthen each business community. Amongst clients, Integrated Telecom Company counts national banks, universities, giant holding company, ministries, content providers, global F&B companies, automotive distributers, compounds, iconic Kingdom projects, worldwide largest turnover companies, ….TT - How are you planning to facilitate Next Generation Networks (NGN) deployment in Saudi Arabia?LM - Integrated Telecom Company designed and implemented from inception a Next Generation Network, bypassing all legacy technologies, burden of incumbent operators. As such Integrated Telecom Company was introducing in Saudi Arabia market the first and largest native MPLS network in the Kingdom.Information Systems and Network integration are critical to deliver best in class OSS/BSS experience to our customers. Operators such as Integrated Telecom Company are moving up the ladder by providing more application oriented services than commodity infrastructure services.The cloud computing buzz,

Integrated Telecom Company has developed a new service, supporting large public and private organizations, to replicate their datacenter synchronously in order to run their operation on an Active-Active datacenters as opposed as Active-Standby configuration.


addressing primarily consumer and small enterprise market today in the Kingdom, is pushing the next paradigm shift of large IT organization calling for hybrid cloud services from their service providers.TT - Would you like to share some success stories for Integrated Telecom Company. LM - Besides pioneering the enterprise market in Saudi Arabia, with the establishment of Service Level Agreements, our resilient Submarine Cable Landing Stations, first native MPLS platform, the only Business Continuity Suite in the Kingdom, at ITC, we praise ourselves about fantastic collaboration with our strategic clients. In 2011, calling on a national bank request, Integrated Telecom Company has developed a new service, supporting large public and private organizations, to replicate their datacenter synchronously in order to run their operation on an Active-Active datacenters as opposed as Active-Standby configuration. This unique service in Saudi Arabia enables synchronous replication of data in microseconds from one datacenter to another. Such solution offers the ultimate service availability a large organization can aim for its clients and its strategic business continuity plan. When transiting very sensitive information, such architecture gives a substantial marketing edge.Beyond the success of this new Fiber Storage Synchronous Service, Integrated Telecom Company is first and foremost delighted by the relationship, our teams have built with our client, with equal satisfaction than the trust and the commitment our clients are putting in our common project developments.

Furthermore to this success story, Integrated Telecom Company unveiled its latest service feature for datacenter replication at TELSA conference, presenting its DWDM encryption service. Once known as very secured Fiber strings are easy to tap in with very affordable device. Data integrity and privacy are at risk, without a feel of service interruption or service interruption. With its DWDM encryption service, Integrated Telecom Company confirms its leadership in data center connectivity and secure replication solution. In the same vain, Integrated Telecom Company was extremely proud to be selected as Connectivity Partner for the Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF 2012), in Riyadh last January, under the leadership of our customer Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority (SAGIA). ITC team was exclusively called to power this global infrastructure and operation with the most resilient connectivity for the event’s 2000 connected delegates, international and national media and the event organizers. TT - Infrastructure sharing might be of great help for expanding telecommunication access and coverage in Saudi Arabia. What is your point of view?LM - Infrastructure sharing is essential moving forward in a large country with distributed population and home of four network infrastructures.Beside, initiatives discussed between GSM operators for outsourcing their infrastructure, Integrated Telecom Company took the lead by entering into agreement with a client mobile operator. So far a commercial approach has been taken by

service providers, though some regulation should take place and pave the way. The Ofcom in The United Kingdom imposed on incumbent to spin-off its access network to offer a neutral offer to all entrants requirement access infrastructure, Open reach has proven being a success. Similar discussion should soon take place in Saudi Arabia. From a town planning perspective it does make genuine sense to rationalize street diggings for rolling-out fiber, and tower erections in cities paced by technology evolution and appearance of new entrants.For GSM operators, the introduction of MVNO license will lead the way on sharing infrastructure starting from the core, ultimately making access network high operational expenditure also a reason to wholesale spare capacity and space.From the wire line side, although the RODA is offering a catalogue of services form the incumbent, yet remain to trigger the unbundling of the local access and of the submarine landing stations.As ecology appeal is picking up in the Kingdom, sharing infrastructure will also contribute to a greener environment for communities. TT - What are the critical challenges faced by telecommunication sector of Saudi Arabia?LM - Access infrastructure is a major challenge for all licensed operators. Capital and Operation expenditure are very for telcos and this tends to concentrate the value end-users are getting, consumer or enterprise, in the low layers rather than on the applicative levels. Network ROI are prime and spent on service differentiators are a second

priority in budgets. Organizing infrastructure sharing service will give more room to telco to concentrate creating added-value to the community. Connectivity, mobility, availability are no longer services, they are commodities.ISPs are currently facing concentration of the market, most have been acquired by leaders, the remaining are repositioning in a survivor strategy as ICT integrators with Professional Services, their Internet offer shifting from star to collateral service.GSM operators are also experiencing a fierce competition on their consumer markets, a strategic repositioning on wholesale and enterprise sectors became a must to sustain profitability growth. Born service providers for consumer markets, with Inter-net or Mobility as core offer, strategy focus have shifted to the business segment, in order to achieve today financial objec-tives and to maintain share-holder dividends. A challenge in today telecommunication sectors will be to create real value for the enterprise and to avoid the copy/paste.Looking at the enterprise segment, providers are offering same services with no differentiator except the color of their logo colors. For some, service innovation is brought from other markets with little adaptation and little local business insigth, pushed by new vendors in quest for green field market. TT - Your thoughts about Teletimes International?LM - Teletimes International offers its readers a comprehensive coverage of the telecom industry in the MEAA region, with rich analysis, interviews and white papers.


The LTE spectrum auctions across Europe are the start

of LTE becoming market reality. Operators are focusing on one of two spectrum strategic options: major investments into 800 MHz or smart hybrid multiband solutions with >1GHz spectrum on 1800, 2600 FDD and TDD bands. These options are linked to their network deployment strategies and are increasingly implemented via network cooperation agreements. By choosing smart spectrum and network deployment strategies, operators can improve their position in dynamic 4G markets. Spectrum auctions in Europe indicate LTE will quickly have a significant impact on market dynamics.In reaction to the explosion in mobile data traffic and to improve access in rural areas, the European Union ensured that the Digital Dividend, 800 MHz spectrum previously used by analogue terrestrial TV, would be used for mobile data

networks. Most countries are auctioning off new 2600 MHz spectrum at the same time, and also enable operators to refarm 900 and 1800 MHz bands for usage via UMTS/HSPA or LTE. The availability of this new spectrum is creating a range of opportunities for incumbent and challenger operators alike to improve their competitive market position. Arthur D. Little has identified auction patterns and a variety of smart network deployment strategies. In this viewpoint, we will review the lessons learned and assess possible auction and network deployment strategic options for mobile operators in 4G markets. Auction results indicate operators highly value 800 MHz spectrum, but alternative auction and spectrum strategies have also emerged LTE auctions have already been completed in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland (see Figure 1). Competition for the 800

MHz spectrum has dominated auction results, especially in markets in which four mobile operators compete for three licenses of 10 MHz each on the 800 MHz band. While prices for 800 MHz skyrocketed in Germany, Italy and France bidders in other countries managed to keep the auction fee rather low. In Germany, e-plus chose not to acquire 800 MHz spectrum due to the demanding obligations to cover remote areas, as well as the high price. Deutsche

Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica Germany (O2) paid €1.2 billion for 10 MHz paired 800 MHz spectrum each. €3.6 billion of the total auction proceeds of €4.4 billion was paid for just the 800 MHz band – which means that 82 percent of the auction proceeds were paid for just 60 MHz (18 percent) of the 335 MHz of auctioned spectrum. In Italy, H3G pursued a similar strategy as e-plus. After initially also bidding for 800 MHz, H3G chose to stop bidding for 800

LTE spectrum and network strategies Strategic options for mobile operators in dynamic 4G mobile markets

Dr. Karim Taga Christian Niegel

Giancarlo Agresti Andrea Faggiano Dr. Nicolas Racz


MHz once the price reached the very high level of €0.81/MHz/capita. Instead, H3G then focused on bidding for 1800 and 2600 MHz spectrum. The three largest Italian mobile operators, Telecom Italia Mobile, Vodafone and Wind, ended up paying a total of close to €3.0 billion for the three licenses of 10 MHz each in the 800 MHz band, i.e. 75 percent of the total auction proceeds of €3.9 billion. In France, Orange, SFR, Bouygues and Free competed for 800 MHz spectrum, until Free dropped out knowing it could roam on one of the operator’s 800 MHz networks. The bidders ended up paying €2.6 billion, or €0.68/MHz/capita for 800 MHz spectrum.In contrast to Germany, Italy and France, competition for the 800 MHz band was much lower in Spain and Sweden. In eachof these countries, special circumstances resulted in only three bidders for the three 800 MHz licenses. In Spain, overall LTE auction fees reached €2 billion, which was less than expected. A pre-auction phase ensured spectrum for the fourth player, Yoigo, leaving three bidders for the three 800 MHz licenses in the main auction. In Sweden, Telenor and Tele2 bid via their joint venture, Net4Mobility, leaving three bidders for the three 800 MHz licenses.Austria has so far auctioned 2600 MHz spectrum with auction proceeds of €39.5 million, or €0.025/MHz/capita, at the lower end of benchmarks. The country plans to auction 800 MHz spectrum in 2012.Figure 2 details the results of 800 and 2600 MHz auctions in markets with high and low bid competition. In Switzerland, the regulator just

completed an auction of all frequencies already owned by operators, as well as on 800 and 2600 MHz spectrum. Prices per band cannot be derived as the auction followed a combinatorial clock methodology, bundling spectrum from various frequencies into packages. Two LTE strategies: acquire 800 MHz + 2600 MHz LTE spectrum or go for a hybrid multiband 1800/2600 MHz FDD/TDD approachDepending on the competitive situation, auction rules and spectrum availability in the particular market, there have been two primary operator

strategies in the auctions thus far (see Figure 3): push aggressively for 800 MHz spectrum or side-step, go for bands above 1 GHz and develop smart hybrid multiband solutions.Operators without 800 MHz spectrum can deploy LTE 1800

in urban and semi-urban areas if they have free spectrum and add an LTE 2600 MHz layer for capacity reasons.The 800 + 2600 MHz approach needs to take 800 MHz deployment obligations into account The auction results are a strong indication of the value of 800 MHz, which can be explained by two of its physical features. Firstly, it carries farthest, so that wide rural regions can be covered with fewer sites.Secondly, it enables the best indoor coverage, which is critical as people will mostly be using LTE-based data connections indoors on their

smartphones, notebooks or tablet PCs. Operators with 800 MHz spectrum will also have the only nationwide LTE networks, and be able to provide the best customer experience; large cell overlap areas of 800 MHz antennas ensure continuous data

connections while moving in cars or on trains. As good coverage remains key to customer satisfaction, most operators long for 800 MHz spectrum, which explains the high price paid at auctions. However, coverage obligations have decreased the attractiveness of the 800 MHz spectrum in several countries: ● In Germany, each federal

state has been divided into four “priority stages”. Stage 1, for example, consists of towns and districts with less than 5,000 inhabitants (“white spots”). Operators have to cover 90 percent of each stage before they can start to deploy 800 MHz in more attractive rural, semi-urban and urban regions. Operators are in a hurry to meet these obligations, and 800 MHz networks are already being deployed in more densely populated areas in some states.

● In Spain, owners of 800 MHz spectrum must jointly cover 90 percent of villages of less than 5,000 inhabitants with a speed of at least 30 Mbps by the end of 2019.

● In France, each LTE 800 MHz license holder has to cover 40 percent of priority areas, which are mostly rural areas, by the end of 2016, 90 percent by the end of 2021 and more beyond.

● In Italy, there is no obligation on the first 800 MHz block, but each owner of the other five blocks has to fulfill rural coverage obligations. Those operators have to start deploying networks from the beginning of 2013, by when analog terrestrial TV is expected to have been switched off, and have to cover 30 percent of a


specified list of towns of less than 3000 inhabitants three years later (by the end of 2015), 75 percent five years later (by the end of 2017), and 100 percent 7 years later (by the end of 2019).

The hybrid 1800/2600 MHz approach drives a new evolution: 1800 MHz is becoming a strong LTE ecosystem Rather than waiting for the 800 MHz spectrum to become available, several operators have begun to deploy 2600 MHz or 1800 MHz in cities. As 1800 MHz has better outdoor and indoor coverage propagation parameters, operators with 10 or 20 MHz of free 1800 MHz spectrum are deploying LTE 1800 MHz networks. LTE 1800 MHz deployments are becoming a key trend. World-wide over 20 operators have committed to deploy LTE on 1800 MHz, either on newly acquired spectrum or on spectrum freed via refarming strategies. Examples of mobile operators pursuing an LTE strategy on 1800 MHz include Yoigo in Spain, Telstra as first operator to offer LTE services in Australia, e-plus in Germany and H3G in Italy. Polkomtel in Poland is using the 1800 MHz spectrum of smaller sister mobile operators, Aero2 and Mobyland, to offer LTE services nationwide, well before any of the other mobile operators, which have to wait for LTE auctions to be held early in 2013. LTE will have an impact much faster than UMTS – myths of LTE skeptics are being refuted LTE is becoming a market reality much faster than UMTS did a decade ago. At that time, operators invested into UMTS assuming it would

push customer demand for better connectivity, but demand initially remained low. In contrast, today mobile operators need to deploy

the LTE spectrum in order to cope with the already existing rapid growth in demand for mobile data. This, in addition to operators’ and suppliers’ need to show that LTE can become a much needed growth area, has resulted in significant pressure on all market players to ensure that LTE will be adopted more rapidly than UMTS. Still, the buzz around LTE has included several myths arguing that there will be a slow deployment of LTE. Our reality check indicates that these myths do not hold true. ● Myth #1: LTE will not

provide sufficient indoor coverage for data services

Reality: Indoor coverage on 800 MHz has proven to be strong, and 1800 MHz can also provide reasonable coverage in urban and suburban areas. Femto-/Pico- and Microcells can also resolve indoor coverage concerns

● Myth #2: There will be a

lack of LTE devices, as was the case in the early days of UMTS

Reality: LTE devices are already available and the

premium compared to handsets without LTE is shrinking rapidly due to intense competition among smartphone device suppliers such Apple, Nokia, Samsung, Huawei and HTC. A range of LTE-compatible smartphones, dongles, tablets and modems were already presented at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 and at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona

● Myth #3: LTE tariffs will be very expensive, limiting uptake on the consumer side

Reality: UMTS tariffs were more expensive than GSM tariffs for many years. We expect that the price premium for LTE vs. UMTS-only data tariffs will rapidly decline, fostering LTE uptake. In Sweden, for example, LTE data tariffs were already substantially revised downwards

● Myth #4: LTE is only suitable for mobile, not fixed, broadband services

Reality: LTE is also used to provide fixed broadband services via stationary LTE modems as promoted by Vodafone Germany

● Myth #5: LTE is not suited for mobile voice

Reality: Solutions enabling voice for LTE are in the making. Yoigo plans to introduce VoIP for LTE in Spain this year. Qualcomm and Ericsson announced the first successful test of VoIP over LTE to WCDMA handover. Voice over LTE, in particular IMS-based, is now strongly pushed by the industry. Additional solutions will be available soon.

The five hurdles often put forward as likely to slow LTE uptake are hence being overcome by infrastructure and device suppliers, as well as by operators. Utilizing network innovations: Enabling better capacity and coverage on 1800 and 2600 MHz bands ● Suppliers and their network

innovations are the enablers of smart network solutions for the efficient use of >1 GHz bands for LTE, making up to a certain extent for the coverage limitations of these bands compared to 800 MHz spectrum:

● Macro-cells are intended for all LTE bands (800, 1800, 2600 FDD and TDD) n Micro and Picocells can be deployed as an underlay network to a macro-cell network, possibly in another spectrum band – leading to hybrid macro/micro-cell networks with improved indoor coverage

● Femtocells are also an option to increase LTE


indoor coverage and can help to substitute fixed broadband with mobile broadband

● TDD is now back on the agenda of mobile operators deploying 2600 MHz networks in a hybrid FDD/TDD approach – TDD spectrum is used as a capacity overflow buffer and/or for applications using massive downlink, but no or limited uplink capacity

Network cooperation can be a game changer as reduced Opex & Capex can lead to a competitive advantage While numerous network cooperation agreements exist to share 3G active radio network infrastructure, there is so far only one 4G network cooperation – the Net4Mobility joint venture between Tele2 and Telenor in Sweden. We expect to see more 4G network cooperation agreements, as they can enable savings of up to 40 percent of LTE network investment and operating costs

for each partner operator. Such cooperation agreements can also help to overcome three operational hurdles of LTE deployment: 1 Installing LTE antennas on

existing sites – Sites need to be re-enforced, landlords may require higher rental payments as additional antenna are being installed, residents may complain, electro-radio-magnetic emission limitations may be a restriction

2 Installing high-capacity backhaul networks required to transport the LTE data traffic – In rural areas, new high capacity microwave links have to be installed, requiring costly civil works for most sites, and fibre links have to be deployed to some 10-15 percent of sites serving as traffic concentrator sites. Network cooperation can lead to 40-50 percent savings on required backhaul upgrade investments and backhaul

operating costs 3 Identification of additional

site locations, especially in cities, for LTE 2600 MHz deployments – It is increasingly difficult to identify new, especially rooftop, locations to cover major cities well with dense LTE 2600 MHz networks. Network cooperation can help to reduce the need for new locations

Operators with a smart spectrum auction, network deployment and network cooperation strategy can improve their market position Results of recent LTE spectrum auctions and early deployments have highlighted the impact that the availability of LTE spectrum will have on market dynamics. LTE spectrum auc-tions, the speed of network de-ployment and the availability of LTE devices will lead to a much faster LTE uptake than was the case with UMTS. In order to maximize LTE potential, mobile operators need to have smart

LTE strategies in place along three elements: ● Auction strategy – Push

for either a mix of LTE 800 MHz, LTE 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz spectrum – or, if no 800 MHz can be acquired, ensure the acquisition of significant spectrum on 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz FDD and TDD bands

● LTE network deployment strategy – Carefully optimize LTE and UMTS/HSPA network deployment on various available bands and make smart use of hybrid Macro & Micro/Pico/Femtocell solutions

● Network cooperation – Use a smart approach to possibilities of network cooperation and TowerCo deals

Mobile operators with the right LTE strategy have an opportunity to use the rise of fourth generation networks to improve their overall market position.

Integrated Telecom Company (ITC) recently concluded its

participation as Platinum Spon-sor for Data Center Dynamics KSA 2012, the world’s leading peer-led data center confer-ence. The expo series was held around the world, with Riyadh hosting this year’s event. This is the second consecutive year that ITC has participated in the event alongside other leading telecom and IT companies in the Kingdom, demonstrating ITC’s role as one of the leading telecom players in the GCC.During the event, ITC show-cased its range of custom-ized data center services for

various business sectors. ITC demonstrated the high level of security and flexibility of its hosted and managed services and for building data centers. In addition, ITC demonstrated its innovative Storage Fiber Sync service which offers active-active data transport replication and encryption between data centers, fulfilling ITC’s commit-ment to bring the latest and most reliable technologies to its customers.Said Mr. Laurent Marini, Vice President – Business Services, Sales of ITC: “In ITC, we harness our independent infrastruc-ture, next-gen technology and

our proven expertise to serve the needs of various business sectors in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. This is what has brought us for the second year in a row to the Data Center Dynamics KSA: to play an active part in promoting innovation among the IT community represented by senior IT managers from

the business and government sector.” Marini also added: “ITC’s data centers are built and equipped with the latest next-gen technologies and provide 99.9% up-time. These centers undergo regular parallel maintenance with no need for service interruptions. They also comply with the most stringent safety and resolution proce-dures in case of fire, power outage and other circumstances that may cause damage or loss of data. This is what gives us the edge and what keeps us going to provide the best service and technology for our local and regional partners.”

ITC launches customized data center solutions at Data Center Dynamics KSA 2012

Laurent Marini


SAMENA Telecommunica-tions Council’s “Beyond

Connectivity 2012” conference convened some of the leading CEOs in the region to address the critical issue of consolidation and collaboration. The “CEO Live Session” kick-started discussions with Mohamed Isa Al Khalifa, Chairman of SAMENA & Group CEO of Batelco, accompanied by other operator Chief Executive Officers, Dr. Amer Al Rawas of Omantel, Ross Cormack of Nawras, Wilson Varghese of Kali-mat Telecom and Antti Arponen of FRiENDi Oman, who shared their views and opinions about the various pressing issues that the ICT industry is facing.Expressing his views on the role and need of consolidation in the industry, Mohamed Isa Al Khalifa said, “The key is to create clus-ters around the region and use anchors to drive consolidation. Market dynamics have evolved, such that one can no longer be a small player and there is no room for boutique firms, as opportunities are scarce and returns on investment are taking longer.” He added that in order to create shareholder value and promote growth, regulators should let companies drive value by setting their own rules. He highlighted the importance of innovation, “The industry must take the initiative and provide the right platform to young tal-ent by becoming their enablers and incumbating new ideas to drive innovation tailor-made for the region.”According to Ross Cormack, “Mega mergers in last few years

by regional powerhouses have emphasized on the role of total consolidation in order to drive growth, as it focuses on and is driven by customers. The ICT industry has and will continue to be characterized by partner-

ships and consolidation resulting in larger organizations which can better serve and create customer value thereby driving shareholder value. Instead of

competing with OTTP’s, we should collaborate and partner with them to fuel sustainable growth.” Further reiterating the importance of the creation of clusters highlighted by the other CEO panellists, Dr. Amer

Al Rawas stated that clusters should be based on synergy partnerships rather than equity partnerships in order to create value for shareholders. Al Rawas

added, “Increased shareholder and customer value can be cre-ated by focusing on innovation in the back office to improve operational efficiency to attract and retain more customers and to extract value from the network.” Earlier in the day, Thomas Wil-son, CEO and Executive Director of SAMENA Telecommunications Council said, “Our society is very welcoming of information and it is extremely critical to gather and analyze data in order to un-derstand the highly competitive and rapidly evolving market situ-ation. The two-day conference by SAMENA Council was held at the Al Bustan Palace, Ritz Carl-ton Hotel under the theme “Har-monized Policy – An Enabler For Digital Economy Growth?” The conference continued with discussions on open access LTE (Long Term Evolution) Schemes and the future of 4G, and digital dividend and its value for tele-communications.

Consolidation and deregulation in the regional ICT industry will drive shareholder and customer value: SAMENA Chairman

Leading industry CEOs emphasize on the importance of creating clusters around the region based on synergy and building anchors to drive consolidation

Rola Osseiran

Dr. Amer Al Rawas - CEO of Omantel, Sheikh Mohamed Isa Al Khalifa - CEO of Batelco Group and Ross Cormack -

CEO of Nawras at SAMENA Telecommunication Council’s “Beyond Connectivity 2012”


Server shipments in the Middle East and Africa

(MEA), exceeded 78,000 units in the fourth quarter of 2011 an increase of 10.3 percent over the fourth quarter of 2010, while revenue at $428 million increased 2.9 percent, accord-ing to Gartner, Inc."The Middle East and Africa accounts for about 3 percent of worldwide server revenue. Server spending in the region declined in 2009 as a result of the global economic slowdown, however growth has been steady in consecutive years," said Nandita Iyer, research analyst at Gartner. "Despite economic unrest in certain countries in early 2011, the Middle East market ended on a positive note. The oil and gas sector continue to remain the major drivers of IT spend in this region, however other verticals like information technology, banking and financial services, telecom, tourism, and retail will further drive growth as the governments in these countries continue to achieve economic diversification."In the fourth quarter of 2011,

Dell and IBM had double-digit year-over-year shipment growth, while HP, Oracle and Fujitsu experienced declines (see Table 1). In terms of rev-enue, Dell and Fujitsu recorded double-digit growth rates (see Table 2) with Dell benefitting from strong performance in the

x86 segment. Overall, RISC and Itanium Unix revenue in MEA declined 16.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. IBM leads this segment despite a decline of 15.2 percent. HP moved to the

No. 2 position and recorded the sharpest decline of 31.2 percent."We expect growth to continue throughout 2012 in the MEA region with cloud and virtualiza-tion playing key roles in driving this growth." said Ms Iyer. "The MEA market is expect to grow 8 percent by revenue and 6

percent by shipment in 2012. The Middle East region will benefit from the diversification strategy with the governments trying to promote alternative businesses, and the development of local

organizations will help in driving overall IT spending." In the fourth quarter of 2011, the x86 segment in MEA performed better than the overall server market growth rate with ship-ments increasing 11.9 percent and revenue up 13.6 percent year-on-year. x86-based server sales represented 97 percent of total shipments in 4Q11, whilst its revenue share increased to 70 percent in the quarter. Cloud and virtualization adoption is gaining a great deal of attention in Middle East markets. Gartner analysts said demand for richer configurations of rack optimized and blade servers will boost growth in the x86 segment. The x86 blade segment also had positive year-over-year growth with shipments and revenue in this segment increasing 11.3 percent and 20.6 percent, respectively.The mainframe platform and RISC/IA64 servers saw rev-enue decline 15.6 percent. RISC/Itanium Unix servers and mainframes continued to be the weak spot caused by longer sales cycles and product refreshes. The RISC/Itanium UNIX segment in particular is increasingly facing longer term challenges as many users are looking at alternative platforms.Amongst the MEA countries, all the major countries such as South Africa and Turkey had positive shipment growth, while in terms of revenue only Turkey posted positive growth year-on-year. The rest of MEA grew shipments and revenue by 5.4 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

ME & Africa server shipments grew 10.3%

revenue increased 2.9 % in Q4 of 2011Reports Gartner

HP 29,819 37.8 31,137 43.5 -4.2Dell 18, 290 23.2 12,635 17.7 44.8IBM 16,139 20.4 12,064 16.9 33.8Oracle 1,214 1.5 1,452 2.0 -16.4Fugitsu 1,161 1.5 2,621 3.7 -55.7Others 12,319 15.6 11,663 16.3 5.6All Servers 78,943 100.0 71,572 100.0 10.3

4Q11 Units

4Q11 Market Share (%)

4Q10 Units


4Q10 - 4Q11 Growth (%)

Vendors

Source: Gartner (March 2012)

Middle East & Africa Server Vendor Shipment Estimates, 4Q11 (Units)

IBM 158,313 37.0 157,769 38.0 0.3HP 142,385 33.3 153,712 37.0 -7.4Dell 62,899 14.7 50,054 12.0 25.7Oracle 21,557 5.0 20,896 5.0 3.2Fujitsu 10,344 2.4 8,850 2.1 16.9Others 32,201 7.5 24,294 5.9 32.6All Servers 427,699 100.0 415,575 100.0 2.9

4Q11 Units


4Q10 Units


4Q10 - 4Q11 Growth (%)

Source: Gartner (March 2012)

Vendors

Middle East & Africa Server Vendor Revenue Estimates, 4Q11 (Thousands of U.S. Dollars)

Nandita Iyer, research analyst

"The Middle East and Africa accounts for about 3 percent of worldwide server revenue. Server spending in the region declined in 2009 as a result of the global economic slowdown, however growth has been steady in consecutive years."


For over 20 years, the series of Convergence India expos

have played a dominant role in setting principal strategies for enabling growth of Information & Communications Technology (ICT) industry. The annual 20th Convergence India 2012 expo held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, emerged as an effective global event

bringing the industry, policy makers, business analysts and multi-stakeholders on a comprehensive exhibition and conference networking platform. Organised by the Exhibitions India Group, the 20th Convergence India 2012 expo was supported by the Ministry of Communications

& Information Technology, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Department of Information Technology (DiT), Government of India, and Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.Several worldwide endorsements and supports, such as associations including Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council (APSCC); Association of Competitive Telecom Operators (ACTO); All India Avishkar Dish Antena Sangh; CASBAA; Cyber Café Association of India (CCAOI); Consumer Electronics & Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA); Cellular Manufacturing Association of India (CMAI); Cable Operators Federation of India ( COFI); DECT Forum; Fibre-To-The Home Council (FTTH); Global VSAT Forum; Great Wall Club;

Indian Cellular Association; IPTV India Forum; Internet Service Provider Association of India (ISPAI); Manufacturers Association for IT ( MAIT); MPEG Industry Forum; Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association of India (TAIPA); Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA); WiMAX Forum; Mobile Payment Forum of India; National US India Chamber of Commerce (NUICC), etc, were extended to the expo.The 3-day event was spread over more than 15,000 sqm of gross area in Halls 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. The exhibition, with strong international presence, had 400 exhibitors from 24 countries. The expo had a focused format and a comprehensive presence of all ICT verticals including Telecom, IT, Broadcast, Media & Entertainment, Green ICT,

20th Convergence India 2012Pawan Dixit

Contd. on page 40


Cable, Satellite and Information Security. Hailed as South Asia’s largest event on information and communications technology, the milestone edition of Convergence India expo showcased unique technologies and promoted new applications which would enable inclusion and transform lives of people. 12,725 trade visitors attended the event.Developed around the theme of

“India Goes Digital”, the exhibi-tion was inaugurated by Mr. Zhang Yan, China’s Ambassador to India. Addressing the industry gathering, Mr. Yan emphasized on the need for greater coop-eration and support between the countries especially in the field of telecommunications & IT. He was pleased to note that Chinese companies are setting their research centres in India to bring tangible benefits to both

the countries. He hoped that the mutual trade between the two countries would touch over $100 billions by 2015.Technical presentations addressing the changing trends of the dynamic ICT sector were covered in parallel tracks of the concurrent conference sessions. 103 eminent Indian and international speakers from the ICT fraternity shared their expertise and participated during interactive panel discussions. The expo was a hub for business-to-business activities and fruitful collaborations.The inaugural conference of the 20th Convergence India 2012 was also a launching pad for the release of the industry white paper- “Data Services and Customer Experience” by PricewaterhouseCoopers - the Industry Partner of the event.Announcing the year-end

2011 global broadband, IPTV subscribers data at a Press Con-ference, Mr. Robin Mersh, CEO, Broadband Forum acknowl-edged the growing potential of broadband within the country. He declared that India is set to move to the top ten broadband countries in 2012. According to the Broadband Forum, India achieved a growth rate of 24.5% in 2011 and had about 13.3 mil-lions subscribers.With a continuous flow of high profile trade visitors including government officials, diplomats, industry, trade associations, academia, media, and others, the 20th Convergence India 2012 was an exciting event for the ICT and broadcast industry, brim-ming with entrepreneurship and innovation. Teletimes International and Teletekwire were among the media partners to 20th Convergence India 2012.

20th Convergence India 2012

Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of its opera-

tion in Rwanda, expanding its footprint on the African conti-nent to 17 countries. Airtel has already said that it will invest over USD 100 million in its operations over the next three years and generate direct and indirect employment opportu-nities.Commenting on the launch, Mr. Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to launch our operations and bring Airtel to the people of Rwanda. We believe that Rwanda is an extremely promising market and this launch further strengthens our footprint in Eastern Africa. It will be our

endeavour to bring world-class and affordable services to our customers in Rwanda and add value to the economy. We would like to thank the Rwandan government for giving us this opportunity, and we are committed to contribute their aim of bridging the digital divide in the country.”“The government welcomes Airtel into our country. We are looking to partner with the private sector to provide good quality, accessible and affordable telecommunications services,” said Right Hon. Dr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, Prime Minister of Rwanda.Hon. Dr. Habumuremyi added: “We are especially excited about the prospect of

connecting Rwanda with the rest of the East African region and, indeed, with the rest of Africa. As Rwandans begin engaging in business ventures and looking for regional partners, telecommunications companies – like Airtel – that are able to provide access to a pan-African wireless network, become a crucial part of expansion.” Airtel has also partnered with IBM in a move that will enable the teleco

to offer superior customer experience in Rwanda. The partnership will see IBM deploy and manage the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and applications to further support Airtel’s goal of providing innovative mobile services. “As part of our strategic services agreement, we are happy to assist Airtel with its entry into the Rwandan market and ensure the very highest levels of support,” said Steve Martin, IBM Vice President and Senior Project Executive, Airtel Africa. “Rwanda is an important market for IBM and we are actively strengthening our local presence and increasing our ability to serve our customers and partners in the country.”

Airtel launches mobile services in Rwanda

Contd. from page 39


Etisalat has launched the first 3G services in history

of Afghanistan. This achieve-ment comes only after four years of the launch of “Etisalat Afghanistan”. The company of-fers mobile services and ranked number one in building the best networks in Afghanistan. It acquires a customer’s base of more than 3.5 million active subscribers in less than three years since launch.Commenting on this milestone, Mr. Ahmed Alhosani Etisalat`s Afghanistan CEO said, “This day is an auspicious moment in the history of telecommunications in Afghanistan – one that calls for a celebration of a public-pri-vate partnership for connecting people and improving lives for many generations to come. We are proud to be the first to launch 3G services in Afghani-stan as this shall certainly spur a new era of advanced develop-ment in Afghanistan while posi-tively impacting every aspect of people’s lives.”“The launch of the 3G by Etisalat marks an evolution in mobile communications and significant progress only made possible through a strong

public-private partnership”. We would like to congratulate H.E. Chairman ATRA Mr. Abdul Wakil Shergul and H.E. Mr. Amir Zai Sangin, Minister of Com-munications & IT, Government of Afghanistan for their vision which has led to achieve this important milestone as well for their continuous support provided to Etisalat to partner

in the development of Afghani-stan”. Alhosani added “Etisalat has always pioneered impressive series of telecommunications and industry first services and products in challenging environment. “We measure our successes by the long term suc-cess of the customers and com-munities we serve and the long term reliability of networks on which they depend”. Through the launch of 3G ser-vices in Afghanistan, we bring a rich understanding of technol-ogy, business and culture of communities in these environ-ments. We don’t profit on com-munity expense. We partner with communities so they can build their own future. He concluded “we consider ourselves a change agent in the

future of economic develop-ment in the most dynamic regions. And we re-write the economic equations that gov-ern the success of businesses and communities. It is to be mentioned that the service agreement was signed by the Chairman of Afghanistan Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, H.E. Abdul Wakil Shergul and Etisalat`s Afghani-stan CEO, Mr. Ahmed Alhosani during a ceremony held at Ministry of Communications & Information Technology office in Kabul. The ceremony was at-tended by Minister of Commu-nications and Information Tech-nology Mr. Amir Zai Sangin, Dr. Omar Zakhilwal, Minister of Finance, high level government officials and members of media fraternity.

Etisalat becomes the first to introduce 3G services in Afghanistan

Etisalat Afghanistan’s CEO, Ahmed Alhosani (R) and Chairman ATRA, Mr. Abdul Wakil Shergul (L) exchanging signed agreements to launch the first ever 3G service in Afghanistan


Ahmed bin Ali, Group Senior Vice President corporate

communications for Etisalat has received the individual honour at the Middle East Corporate and Media Communication Excellence Awards. He received the Corporate PR Executive Excellence Award, an accolade that recognises an established practitioner for exceptional leadership, professional accomplishments and career achievements.Ali al Kamali, Managing Director of Datamatix Group said: “This tremendous award is testament to bin Ali’s professionalism and leadership. He has built a world class communications function which has grown in size and scope to support the expansion of the Etisalat group across 17 markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Corporate communications has been instrumental in building trust, awareness and understanding of the Etisalat brand among diverse stakeholder groups across the globe, and it has

helped to pave the way for expansion into new markets.”Comprising international and regional industry experts, the judging panel was looking for candidates demonstrating exceptional leadership and outstanding achievements in public relations. Nominees also had to have a sound grasp of public relations strategy and tactics, and make specific contributions to society, the PR profession and their employer. A key factor in Ahmed bin Ali’s success in developing the corporate communications

function is his deep and broad understanding of the Etisalat business and the telecoms sector. He joined Etisalat’s engineering department in 1991 and held a number of commercial, operational, sales and business development roles before joining the corporate communications team in 2003. Today as a Senior Vice President he leads the Etisalat’s group communications across its seventeen countries of operations whose combined populations now exceed 1bn people.

In his current role bin Ali has successfully built a unique and innovative reputation for the group across all its operations and beyond and has helped make the organisation well recognized as a leading international telecom group.His key achievements and responsibilities include building a positive Etisalat Group reputation internationally amongst all stakeholders and media, including industry and government, fostering communication amongst the Group and ensuring coordinated corporate social responsibility activities across the Group and its operating companies.Bin Ali has Bechlor in Electrical Engineering from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, USA, and an MBA from the University of Hull in England. He has participated as a board member of Arabsat and as the Vice Chairman of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA).

Senior Etisalat executive awarded prestigious honourAhmed bin Ali receives individual honour at Middle East Corporate and Media Communication Excellence Awards

Etisalat and Saudi Telecom Company are among the

Global 500 most valuable brands in the annual list prepared and released by Brand Finance, an independent global business focused on advising strongly branded organizations on how to maximize value through the effective management of their brands and intangible assets.According to the ranking published for 2012, Etisalat and STC are ranked at 363th and 400th position respectively

among the world’s most valuable 500 brands.According to BrandFinance® Global 500 , 2011 has been the year of Technology brands which are the real success stories of having experienced an impressive increase of 81% in brand value. Apple has been ranked as the World’s Most Valuable Brand for the first time and achieved the highest ever valuation of USD 70.6 billion. It is also worth mentioning that out of list of top 500 brands, 51 belong

to Telecommunications, 12 belong to Internet and 7 belong to Software businesses, making ICTs as the most valuable sector in the brands list.The study evaluates Etisalat with a present brand value of 3117 million USD whereas STC holds a present brand value of 2847 million USD. Both brands have been recognized for enhancing its brand value through the introduction of new innovative telecommunication services

and products for their respective consumers. They have also been recognized to assist in social and economical development among their communities.In another list featuring top 500 global telecommunication brands, Etisalat has been placed at 47th position followed by STC at 50th position. This International recognition for both companies is quite encouraging and heartening for the region as well.

Etisalat and STC ranked among Global 500 valuable brands


With the Middle Eastern telecom industry under-

going various trend shifts, the operators and other big players have started re-defining their business models and carv-ing out new revenue streams to create value and remain competitive. M&As, consolida-tion, increased service scope have been the key buzz words among the industry players who are emerging from the global recession.Recent studies report that key Middle Eastern telecom companies have been fairly resilient during the tumultuous political period in the region and actually stronger in some instances – in terms of credit health – than their European equivalents, despite the negative economic impact of the Arab Spring.With Etisalat recently launching the UAE’s first commercial LTE network, du providing

metro wi-fi, and STC expanding their LTE network, it is clear that telecom operators have started rethinking their creative engine - unlike before, thereby intensifying the competition from international, regional and local partners.Gathering all the major decision makers in one place with regional leaders, telecommunication managers and international players, the Abu Dhabi Telecoms CEO Summit has been launched for its 4th successful year under the patronage of H.E. Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE

Minister of Economy. This event will play an important role in effective discussions on pressing issues, opportunities and future negotiations in the telecom industry.Taking place on 14 May 2012 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, the 4th Annual Abu Dhabi Telecoms CEO Summit has already attracted support from players such as Cisco, ICT Fund and Genband.The summit comes at an opportune time for the region and will feature discussions from CEOs of leading regional operators and telecom authorities such as du, Thuraya, GSMA, Nawras, ICT Fund and Oger Telecom on the main challenges faced and the upcoming role of satellite and broadband communication in the Arab Spring among other topical issues.“With the Middle East

telecommunications industry taking shape and gaining momentum, it is exciting to see how operators are re-strategising their models to capture & retain market share. With the Abu Dhabi Telecoms CEO Summit running for its 4th successful year, this summit gathers the telco CEOs to exchange ideas, best practices and discuss the economic climate, future growth, revenue opportunities, telecoms finance funding and international expansion challenges”, said Richard Brook, Project Director, IIR Middle East.“The success rate and the attendance of the summit has increased considerably over the last few years. This year’s summit expects to welcome over 500+ senior level decision makers from the Middle East telecom industry”, he further added.

Al Yah Satellite Communica-tions Company (Yahsat)

has overseen the transportation of its second satellite Y1B from EADS Astrium facilities in Tou-louse, France, to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.On arrival in Kazakhstan, the Y1B satellite, which was air-freighted by the world's biggest aircraft built in Europe (Antonov), will receive additional testing before it is moved to its final launch position. The Y1B will be launched by an ILS Proton Breeze M vehicle this month. The Y1B weighs more than

6,000 kg, features a spacecraft power of 14kW and has a

15-year designed lifetime. It is equipped with a commercial multi-beam payload in Ka-band, which will be used to provide

a variety of government and commercial applications,

including YahClick, a new affordable satellite broadband service. "The Yahsat team appreciates the hard work of the teams at EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space to successfully deliver the construction of Y1B and delivery to

the launch site," said Yahsat CEO, Tareq Abdul Raheem Al Hosani. "The successful launch of Y1B will be a key milestone

in the development of Yahsat. It will significantly expand our satellite communication capabilities, which will consequently provide a positive impact on our unique business proposition," he concluded.Yahsat's first satellite, Y1A, which is currently in geostationary orbit, was successfully launched in April 2011 by Arianespace. It provides a number of strategic communications services for both governmental and commercial customers across the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South West Asia.

ME telco players to redefine business models

Yahsat poised for launch of second satellite

Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansoori

Teletimes Report


The InfoVision Awards, designed to recognise

the leading technology innovators in the communications industry, are being brought to Asia for the first time this year, with the launch of the InfoVision Awards Asia. Presented at Broadband-IP&TV Asia, the awards will be an opportunity for Asian market-leaders to be recognised for their excellence and achievements in the industry.The awards will be judged by an independent panel of experts and categories include: Asia Broadband Innovation of the Year, Asia Media Innovation of the Year, Asia Broadband Services Provider of the Year, Asia

Media Service Provider of the Year, Asia Broadband Access Technology of the Year and Asia Service Platform of the Year. Gavin Whitechurch, Executive Director of Informa Telecoms & Media, said: “The Asian market is extremely dynamic and innovative, meeting the specific challenges of the region. Launching InfoVision awards for Asia allows us to spotlight this innovation hotbed. The InfoVision Awards have acknowledged key-players in the industry around the globe for almost a decade and we’re extremely pleased to be bringing these to Asia. For the first time, innovators in the region will be given the

opportunity to receive the recognition they deserve in this rapidly evolving market.”Broadband-IP&TV Asia, the event focussed on delivering growth in an evolving ecosystem and enhancing the customer experience for the connected consumer, will take place at the KL Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 15 - 16 May 2012 and provides over 2,500 of Asia’s decision-makers in the broadcast, broadband and Internet industries with the chance to network and do business.Official show partners include Telekom Malaysia, Yes, Hua-wei, FiberHome, Motorola, Cisco, Adtran, Assia, Irdeto, Dune HD and Cambium

Networks, further strength-ening the event and the position of Kuala Lumpur as a leading central point for the telecoms, Internet and media industry. Broadband-IP&TV Asia features two broadband tracks and one IP&TV track each day, focusing on fixed and mobile broadband access innovations and develop-ments as well as market spotlight sessions and key-notes from leading experts in Internet, social media and OTT development. The pro-gramme also provides the op-portunity to be part of senior level panel discussions which provide forward-thinking and insight in to broadband and IP&TV developments in the region.

InfoVision Awards for Asia - An opportunity for tech innovators Holly Tyrrell

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development

has named eight new Commissioners drawn from technology leaders and development champions from around the world.The new Commissioners are:● Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber,

Secretary-General, ictQATAR● Sheikh Abdullah Bin Moham-

med Bin Saud Al-Thani, Chair-man, Qtel

● Dr. Saad Bin Dhafer Al Qahtani, Group CEO for Strategic Operations, Saudi Telecom Company

● Mr. Vanu Bose, CEO, Vanu Inc.

● Mr. Innocenti Botti, Presi-dent, Invitalia

● H.E. Jasna Matić, State Secretary for Digital Agenda, Serbia

● Dr. Armen Orujyan,

Founder & Chairman, Athgo Corporation

● Mr. Jean-Louis Schiltz, legal counsel, Schiltz & Schiltz & former Minister for Commu-nications, Luxembourg

The new Commissioners join a select group of over 50 global leaders who are putting broad-band at the very centre of their organizational vision.“The Broadband Commission is delighted to welcome these global leaders, who will use their talents and their considerable expertise to add fresh impetus to our mission to spread the word about the importance of broadband,” said Dr. Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General and Co-Vice Chair of the Commission.Commission members com-prise a high-powered interna-tional community, including

prominent CEOs, top-level policy-makers and government representatives, heads of inter-national agencies, and senior figures from academia and orga-nizations with a development mandate. Leaders in their fields, they each believe strongly in a future based on broadband and are working to drive the issue to the top of the political and de-velopment agenda worldwide.The Commission was launched at ITU headquarters in Geneva in May 2010 in response to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s call to step up UN efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is co-chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Mr Carlos Slim Helú, President of the Carlos Slim Foundation, with ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré and UNESCO

Director-General, Ms Irina Bokova, serving as joint vice chairs.At its fourth meeting, held in Geneva last October, Commissioners agreed on a set of four ‘ambitious but achievable’ targets that countries around the world should strive to meet in order to ensure their populations fully participate in tomorrow’s emerging knowledge societies.They also launched a ‘Broadband Challenge’ that recognizes communication as ‘a human need and a right’, and calls on governments and private industry to work together to develop the innovative policy frameworks, business models and financing arrangements needed to facilitate growth in access to broadband worldwide.

UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development names eight new Commissioners


Saud Al-Daweesh, Group CEO of Saudi Telecom Company

(STC), has resigned, from his post. STC‘s board of directors has accepted his resignation. The resignation will be effective from Oct. 1, 2012.“Eng. Saud bin Majid Al-Daweesh requested the resignation from Oct. 1, 2012 and the board held supervisory discussions and accepted his resignation from the mentioned date,” an official announcement said.The chairman and board members expressed their

gratitude toward Al-Daweesh for the efforts he exerted during his term as chief executive of the company, during which STC witnessed remarkable achievements.The company progressed

from a local operator to an international one, working in 11 countries. During his time, the number of STC customers reached 160 million while its revenues doubled to reach SR57 billion.STC also noted that Al-Daweesh exerted tremendous efforts to make it a pioneering company offering modern and innovative services, like 4G and 3G as well as fiber optic and multimedia services. Al-Daweesh chaired the group for two straight periods during which STC won many awards and international

recognitions. He joined the company in February 2006. He holds an engineering degree from University of Southern California and has more than 25 years experience in the telecommunication field.Gulf Business magazine listed Al-Daweesh among the top 100 personalities in the Middle East in 2011, considering his exceptional contributions toward the communications sector. He was also the winner of "Teletimes' Man of the Year Award" for 2011.

Board accepts STC chief’s resignation

Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), Intel and Badal have

jointly launched a Tawasul initiative aimed at realizing the wide-spread deployment of broadband services and computer sets all over the Kingdom. STC Vice President for Personnel Ibrahim bin Abdulrahman Al-Omar, Badal CEO, Tamir Ismail and Intel's VP, John Davies jointly inked the initiative. It stipulates the introduction of a set of laptops featuring Intel's chips and processors at competitive rates

by Badal with an additional alternative of Badal Express, a free Internet subscription from STC, including Quicknet modem, 10 GB data chip for 3 months, aside from an educational

interactive content. The latest move comprises a number of programs, such as basic computer program, a software for self-education developed by Intel, in order to teach the

user to deal with computers. There is also an English language-teaching program provided by Saudi Cultural Council, with instructions to learn the language with the help of Arabic. It includes the educational program, Skoool, which features self-education contents for science and math subjects in Arabic, developed by Intel, classified in accordance with primary, intermediate and secondary stages, according to the Ministry of Education's syllabus.

STC, Intel, Badal together launch Tawasul initiative

Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) signed a wide-ranging

agreement to implement the in-frastructure of communications services at three new quarters in Madinah and Jeddah, on the sidelines of the Jeddah Real Estate, Financing and Housing Conference. The agreement includes construction of infra-structure, deploying commu-nications services at these quarters to support STC’s en-deavor toward modernization

through innovative ideas based on quality and high speed, and providing customers with the best of services. Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Qifari, STC’s VP for network sector, signed the deal on behalf of STC. The first

agreement concerned Jeddah’s 1,722,546 sq m planned Hamad Al-Mussa quarter, the second 176,000 sq m planned Saleh Bin Ladin quarter in Madinah and the third was co-signed with Abdulrahman Al-Rashid com-

pany, the developer of 66,769 sq m planned Al-Nur quarter in Madinah.STC aims to carry out the infra-structure of communications services in these new planned quarters, in order to establish ideal places with no excava-tions and to meet the expec-tations of the developers as well as the dwellers in various regions of the Kingdom with the best of communications services.

STC steps up modernization drive


Internet as a communication and information medium is

considered as most appealing innovation of 20th Century. Since its commercial inception during early 90’s, the Internet has not stopped growing. The way it has embedded itself in our daily lives, the Internet has become simply indispensible.The impact of Internet has gone beyond daily life businesses, it is now considered as an important tool towards economical growth for economies giving birth to a new type economy titled as ‘Internet Economy’. As per its definition, The Inter-net Economy is an economy that is based on electronic goods and services produced by the electronic business and traded through Internet. It also refers to conduct business through markets whose infrastructure is based

on the Internet and World-Wide Web.According to a latest study released by Boston Consulting Group, the Internet economy will reach $4.2 trillion in the G-20 economies by 2016. The “Internet economy” will grow at a rate of eight percent annually in developed coun-tries and more than twice that in developing markets. India, along with Argentina will grow the fastest at 24 percent and

23 percent respectively, while leading developed markets Italy and the UK will grow ap-proximately 12 percent and 11 percent per year respectively, says the report. According to BCG, if it were a national economy, the Internet economy would rank in the world’s top five, behind only the US, China, Japan, and India, and ahead of Germany. Across the G-20, it already amounted to 4.1 percent of

GDP, or $2.3 trillion, in 2010—surpassing the economies of Italy and Brazil. Asian nations including India and China are set to drive unprecedented levels of internet-related economic growth among G-20 countries in the next four years, although the UK will remain at top spot. Interestingly, according to the study, Internet has become so essential in everyday life that as many as 36 percent of Indian online consumers said they would forgo showering for a year in order to keep Internet access, around 64 percent said they would forgo chocolate; 63 percent coffee; and 70 per cent would give up alcohol. The report further said had it (Internet) been a sector, it would have been the eighth largest sector in India, larger than mining and utilities.

Internet economy to grow at a rate of 8 % annually in developed countries – to hit USD 4.2 trillion by 2016

Arabic – One of the fastest growing communities for Wikipedia Wikipedia launched in 2001

is a free collaborative, multilingual Internet encyclo-pedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 21 million articles (over 3.9 million in English alone) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world and it has about 100,000 regu-larly active contributors. As of March 2012, there are editions of Wikipedia in 284 languages. It has become the largest and most popular general refer-ence work on the Internet,

ranking sixth globally among all websites on Alexa and having an estimated 365 million read-ers worldwide.During a recent ArabNet conference in Beirut, Wikimedia Foundation’s Chief Global Development Officer, Barry Newstead revealed that Arabic content is ranked at number 27 in terms of volume, becoming one of the fastest growing communities over Wikipedia. There are 154,000 Arabic articles available at Wikipedia

despite the fact that there are roughly 374 million Arabic speakers, making it the fifth most commonly spoken language in the world. The bright aspect is that Arabic content is growing at a faster rate than both English and German on Wikipedia. Arabic’s growth rate is 3% compared with 1% in both English and German. The figure is quite encouraging considering the fact that the Arabic language is catching up with other online languages.

It was further revealed that half of the Wikipedia’s Arabic content comes from only 2 countries – divided equally between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. There other half comes from the rest of the world.While Wikipedia’s Arabic communities are one of the fastest growing in the world, there is still room from growth. Newstead said, “We are excited about the potential for growth here, as more people come on to the Internet, to build an Arabic Wikipedia.”


Batelco, the integrated communications services

provider and Huawei, a lead-ing global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions provider, have successfully showcased LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile technology at Batelco’s Hamala Headquarters. LTE, commonly referred to as 4G enables deliv-ery of super fast data speeds. During the trial speeds of 150Mbps were achieved. This latest demonstration of Batelco’s capability follows on from successful trials of 4G/LTE at Batelco Hamala in Decem-ber 2011 and again in January 2012 at Bahrain International Airshow when His Majesty King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa was amongst the visitors to Batelco’s corporate lounge to experience the cutting-edge technology.Batelco embarked on its BD14.5 million MNE (Mobile Network Expansion) project in June 2010, to develop a superior net-work performance for Batelco and ensure readiness for LTE. Such financial commitment en-

sures that Bahrain’s infrastruc-ture for wireless is the ‘best in class’ and measures up to the top 10 markets in the world. Delivery of LTE is a crucial en-abler of the Business Friendly Bahrain strategy, established by the Economic Development Board, in line with the King-

dom’s 2030 vision.Batelco Group Chief Executive Shaikh Mohamed Bin Isa Al Khalifa, Chief Executive Bahrain Rashid Abdulla, General Man-ager Consumer Division Muna Alhashimi, Chief Technical Officer John Ford and a number of Batelco officials were pres-

ent at the LTE trial along with Huawei Vice President of ME Gordon Wu and Huawei Deputy President of Batelco Key Ac-count Elsa Tan plus a number of Huawei technical representa-tives.Batelco Group Chief Execu-tive Shaikh Mohamed Bin Isa Al Khalifa thanked Huawei for their invaluable contribution to Batelco in carrying out the successful LTE trial. “Huawei has been a key part-ner in providing Batelco with innovative telecommunica-tions solutions over the past few years and we appreciate their invaluable contribution towards our successful delivery of key services for our custom-ers,” he said.Batelco Bahrain Chief Execu-tive Rashid Abdulla explained that Batelco’s major objective in investing in 4G/LTE was to enhance, upgrade and expand their mobile broadband network to tackle a number of needs such as providing or enhancing data coverage and quality of service in newly de-veloped or remote areas.

Batelco and Huawei showcase LTE mobile technologySuccessful LTE trial achieved 150 mbps speed

Batelco has won four awards at the recent MENA Cristal

Awards. Batelco took home one silver and 3 bronze awards for their innovative and successful advertising campaigns of 2011, implemented by Bahrain’s FP7.The MENA Cristal Festival was established in 2005 with the aim of introducing a new competi-tion for advertising in North African and Middle Eastern countries. The Awards ceremo-ny rewards the best advertising creations with the coveted

Cristal Trophy. The Festival attracts a wide field of commu-nication companies, advertising agencies, producers, directors, media survey companies and TV representatives who participate in a series of rich and convivial exchanges over the events 3 day annual gathering. Batelco Chief Executive Bahrain, Rashid Abdulla extended his sincere thanks to Batelco’s team for their dedication and great efforts throughout 2011 which delivered the Cristal Awards for

the Company.“Such an excellent achieve-ment requires close coopera-tion between all the members of the team and partners, with

every member pulling his or her weight to ensure success,” he added.“This success gives Batelco a big boost and validates all the hard work. It also spurs us on to continue with our efforts with the aspiration to bring further success for Batelco in 2012.”Mr. Abdulla also noted FP7’s major contribution to Batelco’s suc-cess saying that the creativity of their team demonstrated the high quality of advertising stan-dards available in Bahrain.

Batelco wins 4 MENA Cristal Awards


App customers who want the latest Nokia down-

loads can keep their mobiles up to speed even easier than ever. du customers with Nokia phones will now have the op-tion to purchase all the latest applications including games and premium content from the Nokia Store and be charged directly to their du post or pre-paid line, offering custom-ers a quick, convenient and secure form of payment. The service also offers du custom-ers the additional choice and convenience of availing WiFi hotspots for downloading ap-plications.du and Nokia’s easy billing service provides consumers with the flexibility to easily download mobile games, applications, videos and images, delivering more personalization options directly to a wide range of more than 75 Nokia devices. With over 90,000 applications

available in the Nokia Store, Nokia consumers across the globe download over 11 million applications a day. During 2011, the Nokia Store has witnessed a significant 280% growth in the number of downloads in the region.The direct-billing initiative reiterates Nokia’s commitment to further enriching the customer’s user experience by offering a more convenient and secure payment option.“Who doesn’t like convenience? We are making things even easier than ever for our customers, allowing them

to make purchases from the Nokia Store in a much simpler way. Without credit card details to worry about, our customers can purchase Nokia apps from anywhere, at any time, providing them with the flexibility to download the very latest in mobile enhancements as and when they want them,” said Farid Faraidooni, Chief Commercial Officer, du.Nokia customers can download a superb range of free and paid applications from the Nokia Store including over 2000 locally developed Arabic applications. Applications available to consumers include the top gaming sensation ‘Angry Birds’ and ‘Need for Speed’ for gaming fanatics. The service extends to social networking programs and instant messaging applications on offer including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. Additionally there are many locally relevant applications

including applications for Datawatch, UAE Football league, Stock Tracker, Dubai Parking, Al Jazeera, Sport360, Channel 4 Radio Network, Gulf News and a host of local Arabic language and Islamic applications.“Today’s smartphone users demand handsets and services that can respond to their everyday lifestyle requirements and keep with up their social and entertainment needs. Consequently, mobile applications are an essential element for mobile users whose handsets are more than just a phone, they are a lifestyle accessory. The new Nokia and du direct billing service makes it even easier and safer for our consumers to stay connected and enjoy all the latest applications, providing a valuable and convenient smartphone experience,” said Vithesh Reddy, General Manager, Nokia, Lower Gulf.

Alcatel-Lucent's OpenTouch Conversation software will

allow enterprise users to switch among different ways of com-municating -- including instant messaging, voice calls and video conferencing -- without interrupting their conversa-tions. The software will first be available on Apple's iPad, the company revealed. The concept of integrating different ways of communicating is far from new, and is often called unified com-munications in the enterprise market. But products need to

become much simpler for the sector to take off on a grander scale, according to Craig Walker, Director of product marketing at Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise group. That ease-of-use is what Alcatel-Lucent hopes it will achieve with OpenTouch Con-versation. On the iPad screen, a user can see a graphical timeline of recent, current and future conversations, pictures of their current key contacts and a "stage" where their cur-rent conversations takes place,

according to Alcatel-Lucent. Presence information on the availability of their contacts is also visible, it said. By clicking on the screen, users will be able to switch from a chat session to a voice conversation or a video conference. Users will eventually also be able to start a voice call on an office phone, move the conversation to a video conference on a PC or tablet and then conclude it on a mobile phone, according to Alcatel-Lucent.Alcatel-Lucent intends to make

the OpenTouch Conversation client app available on iPhones, Macs, Windows PCs as well as Android-based tablets and smart-phones based on both Android and BlackBerry OS."We were hoping to use just HTML5, so the client would be immediately portable between different operating systems, but it isn't ready yet," said Walker. The company didn't announce any pricing, but enterprises will pay per user and communications technology.

du and Nokia extend purchasing Nokia Store apps without credit card

Alcatel-Lucent lets iPads go from IM to voice and video without hanging up

Farid Faraidooni


Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess

Sumaya bint El Hassan and the main sponsorship of Saudi Telecom Company (STC), and building on the great success of Arab Advisors’ Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference for the past eight years, The Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference returns once again with a new name: The 9th Convergence Summit. Offering deep insights on the highly dynamic world of Telecommunications and Media convergence, Arab Advisors Convergence Summit has deservedly become the region's premiere event tackling issues facing the MENA region, and providing a platform for new ideas and innovation. The 9th Convergence Summit, to be held on 22-23 May in Amman, Jordan will be tackling key defining topics through panels, presentations, and one-

on-one encounters. This year the 9th Convergence Summit will focus on The Post-convergence World: Navigating the new landscape. The 9th Convergence Summit will be addressed by a distinguished panel of speakers, representing the Telecom industry.Presentations and Panels will follow through the 2-day Summit from keynote speakers representing the Summit’s sponsors: Motorola, Orange, Umniah, Qualcomm, Zain and Ericsson among other regional and international companies. During the Summit an exhibition Hall where participants, which include France 24, Deutsche Welle, and YahLive will provide informative materials to highlight their companies’ competitive aspects. Covering the Summit before, during and after whether printed, online or broadcasted, the Summit’s media partners

will continue to have a strong presence. The 9th Convergence Summit Media Partners include; Discover Digital Arabia, Trade Arabia, Telecom Watch, DVV Media, Teletimes International, MediaMe, Telecom Review, MENAFN, CommsMEA, Fanbase and UBA.New to the Convergence Summit this year, and in line with Arab Advisors’ support for innovative ideas in the Telecom and Media industries, the Summit will be hosting The

“Rendezvous”: Convergence Startups & industry incumbents discussion panel. The panel format will include a 3 minute presentation by each startup; industry giants will then be challenging the startups’ ideas and business models. As part of its vision to advance the knowledge and technology industries in the Arab World, the Arab Advisors Group has waived the delegate fees for telecom and broadcast operators. As for paying delegates, they receive their choice of Arab Advisors Group reports for the same value of the registration fees. Social Media will play an active role in Arab Adviosrs’ Summit, as it has done in previous years. Live tweeting and facebook posts will be done during the 2-day Summit, to ensure our delegates communicate their messages directly to the Sponsors, Speakers and Participants.

The 9th Convergence Summit 2012

Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan

The Annual General Meeting of Qatar Telecom (Qtel)

Q.S.C has approved the recommendation of the Board of Directors to distribute a cash dividend of 30 percent of the nominal share value (QAR 3 per share) and a bonus share of 30 percent of the issued share capital. In addition, the General Assembly also approved the increase of authorised share capital to QAR 5 billion and a 40 percent rights issue (two shares for every five shares held, after the distribution of bonus shares), at a price of QAR 75 per share. Addressing the meeting, His

Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, Chairman, Qtel, spoke of the achievements realised by the company in 2011, and outlined the exciting opportunities presented by the Qtel Group’s refreshed strategy. His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah said: “The Qtel Group has

continued to see the benefits of a diversified financial base, both in terms of markets – with 82 percent of revenue coming from outside Qatar in 2011 – and business segments. We intend to use the fruits of our dynamic growth to improve the customer experience; to strengthen the foundations

of our business and to invest in new growth across our operations.”Driven by customer growth and market share gains across its diverse portfolio, Group revenue increased by 16.0 percent, ending the year at QAR 31.8 billion (FY 2010: QAR 27.4 billion).

Qtel AGM approves distribution of 30% cash dividend


Mobile application uses sound to keep mosquitoes awayIndeed, the internet is going to

be massively “mobile” as it is expected that mobile internet users will top 1.7 billion by 2013, increasing greatly from the current figure of 577 million. The future of Mobile Internet Services is however becoming increasingly dependent on the mobile applications business which is plagued by the critical and recurrent issue of fragmen-tation.Mosquitoes are a summertime nuisance in many parts of the

world, and often the deterrents available to hold them at bay are almost as unpleasant as the insects are. In Pakistan, Dengue outbreak is increasingly becoming an epidemic and due to the high cost of treatment, the disease spread more rapidly in 2011 than in previous years. As of January 2012, it has killed over 300 people and over 21,000 are infected by this

mosquito born disease.A new smart phone offers an alternative to all those malodor-ous candles, lotions, ointments

and sprays. Instead of repellent fragrances, the application uses sound to keep mosquitoes away. Specifically, it causes the user's smart phone to emit a high-frequency noise that's inaudible to humans but that the pesky insects reportedly can't stand. When used, the application emits

three different high-pitched frequencies that serve as a deterrent for mosquitoes.

In recent years, a new problem solving / production

model featuring distributed approach has emerged titled as crowdsourcing. It is an online, web-based model that connects a distributed network of individuals through an open call for participation to solve a wide variety of problems. Over the past decade, various such systems have appeared over the Internet including Wikipedia.The official definition of the term arrives from its originator, Jeff Howe, defining it as "the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call.” Experts have predicted crowdsourcing as the future of the marketing, advertising, and industrial design industries. The phenomenon, they argue, will accelerate creativity across a larger network. Probably the

most appealing and interesting commercial usage of the model came from ‘Threadless.com’ that crowdsources its t-shirt designs by having users provide designs and then vote on the ones they like, which are then printed and available for purchase. With less than 20 employees, the company has thousands of members who provide designs and vote on them, making the website’s products truly created and selected by the community, rather than the company. Minted.com is another such example which crowdsources designs for paper goods, like cards, stationary, and calendars.Crowdsourcing model was also utilized during a 2009 DARPA network challenge, a competition to explore the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve

broad-scope, time-critical problems. DARPA placed 10 balloon markers across the United States with a challenge to participating team to be the first to report the location of all the balloons. Demanding a collaborative approach to complete the identification, the winning team from MIT in less than 9 hours was able to identify the locations for all 10 balloons through crowdsourcing model.Another community driven crowdsourcing platform is ‘Ushahidi’, first developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. The platform has grown to become an important resource for citizen journalists in times of crisis like the Haiti earthquake. The Ushahidi platform provides tools for communities to crowdsource real-time information using SMS, email, Twitter and the web.

In view of the open platform provided through crowdsourcing, experts anticipate that such open innovation may lead to bridge gap between public and governments. Using a crowdsourcing approach, government can use it for an open call to group of people, all citizens, potential contractors or industry representatives so that many different people can contribute to the solution of a complex government task. Crowdsourcing enables a platform to engage citizens directly in the decision-making process. As crowdsourcing continues to accelerate, it will certainly guide radical changes to business models, community participation and public systems. The question would remain whether the model is encouraged by the concerned stakeholders, engage the crowd, and build them as a part of this new reality.

Crowdsourcing - Distributed problem-solving model


VIVA, Kuwait's newest and most advanced mobile

telecommunications service provider has announced that it has launched a new promotional campaign for both its postpaid and prepaid customers, giving them the opportunity to attend a Manchester United Premier League game live at the Old Trafford in Manchester, England. The campaign commenced earlier this month. VIVA's latest promotion enables customers to enter a draw and gain chances to win tickets to attend one of the most important matches before the 2012 Premier League football season ends. This year's football season has been one of the closest title races yet, with Manchester United currently leading the race to be champions. The five lucky promotion winners will be able to choose to go to one of Manchester United's final

home games and savor the atmosphere as the team bids to become English Premier League champions once again.The promotion gives customers a number of chances to enter the draw. The number of chances they have depends on the contract they have with VIVA. Prepaid customers get one chance to enter the draw for every Kuwaiti Dinar spent. Postpaid customers (including Internet customers) receive two chances for every Kuwaiti Dinar paid. Subscribers to the Direct Debit service will receive three chances for every Kuwaiti Dinar paid. Customers wishing to enter the draw must send an SMS to 565 to be entered. The SMS is free of charge.Mr. Salman Al-Badran, VIVA's Chief Executive Officer said: "This is a great promotion for our customers and we are very excited to offer it. Through its partnership with Manchester United, VIVA has been able

to present its customers and Manchester United fans many opportunities to win unique experiences during the exciting 2012 Premier League season, including all-inclusive trips to great games at Old Trafford such as this one. Manchester United is presently on top of the league, and we hope to see them crowned as league champions for a record 20th time." "Our fantastic five year

sponsorship with Manchester United, which started at the beginning of the current Premier League season, has given VIVA rights to provide football fans regular chances to win VIP tickets for Manchester United matches at Old Trafford stadium in England. As part of its partnership with Manchester United, VIVA is also introducing and developing a wide range of exciting promotional offers, distinguished gifts, entertaining programs, interactive competitions and other activities to provide customers with multiple chances to get close to the club's international stars and see games at Old Trafford." VIVA's aims are to offer the best and most innovative promotions to its customers as well as providing them with excellent services which uses the latest telecommunications technology available.

VIVA Kuwait launches promotional campaign for users

Ericsson and MTN Group are establishing a strategic

partnership to launch m-wallet services in Africa and the Middle East. MTN will become the first operator to deploy Ericsson Converged Wallet platform, a new complementary service to the integrated pre-paid charging system and mobile financial services solution for MTN consumers in those regions. The new solution delivers a fast track route for MTN to quickly introduce relevant, new and differentiated m-wallet market offerings to its Mobile Money customers to create an optimized user experience.The partnership between

Ericsson and MTN supports the operators' strategy to secure a flexible, reliable and efficient solution in the area of mobile financial services. As part of the co-operation, Ericsson will offer a prime integrator engagement model encompassing software, systems integration and managed operation services.Christian de Faria, MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer, said: "Optimizing the Mobile Money consumer experience directly impacts consumer stickiness, and with Ericsson Converged Wallet we can now address our strategic priorities by enabling rapid response to our consumer's preferences and

expectations." MTN has more than 5 million Mobile Money subscribers in 12 countries. President and Chief Executive Officer of Ericsson, Hans Vestberg, said: "2012 will be the year of partnerships across the emerging m-com-

merce eco-system. Ericsson is the first technol-ogy enabler to integrate a charging system and mobile financial services solu-tion. Ericsson Converged Wallet solution is built for high volume and secured transactions. It also deliv-ers operational efficien-cies by providing a single configuration tool and

rating engine for all packages, prices, promotions, policies and notifications. MTN will initially deploy the Ericsson Converged Wallet as a pilot in selected MTN operations during 2012, with a view to roll out the solu-tion across all its operations in Africa and the Middle East.

Ericsson & MTN collaborate on m-wallet services

Christian de Faria

Salman Al-Badran


Aimed at mid and high-end desktop phones,

Dialog Semiconductor plc has announced a high performance VoIP phone chipset, the SC14453, which integrates hardware blocks for best-in-class audio, security and graphics functionality.The on-board multicore VoIP processor delivers 590MIPS of computational power and integrates stereo analog codecs and a stereo Class D amplifier with 48kHz support. It also features Dialog's acoustic echo cancellation and active noise reduction, boosting audio quality for crystal clear voice

conversation. The SC14453's advanced audio DSPs and its symmetric / asymmetric cryptography accelerator can manage eight simultaneous SRTP-secured IP calls, and its powerful graphic engine and LCD controller enable the output of fluid

graphic user interfaces onto SVGA (800x600) touchscreen LCD displays. Dialog's unique SafeKey feature based on Intrinsic-ID's security IP block ensures bank-level security authentication of files and software. The SC14453 Green VoIP platform provides a high

level of flexibility for wireless and wired extensions to DECT, CAT-iq, Bluetooth, WiFi, LTE, USB and Gigabit Ethernet. The SC14453 is based on the highly efficient and ultra low power 32-bit MIPS M14Kc processor, has two user-programmable Gen3DSPs, an OpenVG1.1 graphic processing unit and comes in a 15x15mm, 228-pin LLGA package with standard and secure variants.To reduce time to market Dialog offers a complete SC14453 VoIP development kit and the certified Rhea VoIP software platform, based on the Linux operating system.

Green VoIP IC family addresses high end phones

Cloud computing has a greater potential for

employment growth than the Internet did in its early years and it can create hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to a new study. Cloud computing is already generating a sizable number of jobs in the US, said the study by Sand Hill Group, sponsored by SAP America.Based on numerous trends and indicators, it has the future potential to create very large business opportunities and new jobs in the US, it said.The study, titled “Job Growth in the Forecast: How Cloud Computing is Generating New Business Opportunities and Fueling Job Growth in the United States,” looked at several ways cloud computing may create jobs and found specifically:

● Eleven Cloud computing companies added 80,000 jobs in the US in 2010, and the employment growth rate at these organizations was almost five times than

that of the high-tech sector overall.

● Companies selling cloud services are projected to grow revenues by an aver-age of $20 billion per year for the next five years, which has the po-tential to generate as many as 472,000 jobs in the US and abroad in the next five years.

● Venture capital in-vestments in cloud opportunities are projected to be $30 billion in the next five years, which could add another 213,000 new jobs in the US.

● The economic impact for companies buying cloud services can be even more significant. Cloud computing could save US businesses as much as $625 billion over five years, much of which could be reinvested to create new business opportunities and

additional jobs.The study says three industry megatrends are propelling the growth of cloud services and employment: the boom in mobile computing devices such

as smartphones and tablets; the “social” trend in online services; and the growth of “Big Data” flows that require more data management services. Government policies and purchasing decisions at all levels will also have a major influence on cloud adoption and job growth, it said.

“The study confirms that Cloud computing can have a significant impact at every key growth stage of the business lifecycle – from launching a startup to expanding a

business to managing a multi-national enterprise,” said Jacqueline Vanacek, Vice President and Cloud computing evangelist at SAP. “Business growth leads to jobs and Cloud computing will accelerate this in certain industries.”“These results support what many in the Cloud community have long suspected,” said M R Rangaswami, study author and co-founder of Sand

Hill Group, a strategic advisory firm known for its insight into the software and services market. “The impending growth of mobile computing, social networking and data management all have one thing in common — the Cloud — which is why job growth in this area cannot be ignored.”

Cloud computing will help create thousands of jobs


Beamed onto iPads and smart-phones, with new

channels going live daily and 3D TV hoping for an Olympic boost, television is morphing into a radically new beast, experts said ahead of a top industry show. “We’re in a time of massive transformation for the entire industry,” Laurine Garaude, head of the TV division at Reed MIDEM, which is organising the four-day Spring MIPTV industry show on the French Riviera. As TV shifts from the home set onto computers and mobile devices, there has been an upsurge in the number of channels worldwide. In Europe alone, 375 new television channels launched last year, with 8,900 now available across the region according

to the latest European Union data.The trend is a global one, with online, on-demand channels launching in Europe, the United States or Australia, but also in Latin America, India or China, Content Digital executive Jonathan Ford told MIPTV News. And with a large Chinese delegation due to attend this show, participants will be watching closely to see which companies and sectors it selects as partners. “International is becoming intrinsically woven into the industry, the people, the business, the content and the audience,” said Garaude.As booming channel numbers set the scene for a battle to capture the biggest audiences, MIPTV is expecting brisk

business from newcomers wanting programming to fill up virgin schedules.The race to win viewers shifted up a gear at the end of 2011 when the world’s largest video-sharing platform, You-Tube, unveiled plans to launch 100 online channels of original programming this year.Google-owned YouTube will launch the new channels in partnership with leading TV production companies and film studios including Lionsgate and FremantleMedia.Industrywide, the TV format business that has spawned such global hits as “X Factor”, “Dancing With the Stars” and “Big Brother”, remains the backbone of most broadcasters’ daily schedule.“2011 was a fantastic

year for all of us and the beginning of 2012 seems to be very strong as well,” Rob Clark, director of global entertainment development at FremantleMedia.Drama also continues to score well with TV buyers and viewers alike. A two-day programme at MIPTV aims to enable commissioners, produc-ers and finance specialists to set-up the international co-productions that are needed to fund lavish high-end drama works.A drama highlight will be the gala screening of the star-stud-ded TV miniseries “Titanic” by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fel-lowes, presented by Britain’s ITV Studios to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the legendary ship.

TV shifts into a mobile - digital age

Tata Communications completes global cable networkTata Communications has

announced the completion of the first round the world optical cable network. The company has finished the final link across Egypt, to enable the official launch of the Tata Global Network - EurAsia (TGN-EA) cable, which connects India to Europe.Tata's global undersea cable network now reaches countries representing 99.7 percent of the world's GDP.The TGN-EA system runs for 9,280km, connecting Mediterranean Europe with India via the Middle East. The connection has low levels of latency, with RTD around 92 msec, and transmission speeds from 2Mbit/s to 10Gbit/s.Tata is offering an express cable route from Europe to India with

improved latency, redundancy and scalability, and the network also uses city-to-city connections in contrast to more traditional networks which only link cable landing stations. This approach is more cost-effective, flexible and provides a faster time to market delivery, as well as being easier to maintain and manage.Vinod Kumar, Managing

Director and CEO, Tata Communications, commented: "Our customers, whether a European auto-manufacturer, an Asian hotel group or a large US financial services firm, need to compete in global markets and are demanding faster and more reliable worldwide connectivity. Companies and carriers in developed and emerging economies

require the confidence and security delivered by a wholly-owned network such as Tata Communications' TGN."This a landmark moment for Tata Communications as we officially launch the world's first wholly-owned global submarine cable network as a complete and robust ring around the world," he added.Tata also announced the launch of its TGN-Gulf subsea cable system that will connect the Gulf to Mumbai. The network, developed in partnership with Nawras of Oman, Etisalat of UAE, Qtel of Qatar, Bahrain Internet Exchange of Bahrain, and Mobily of Saudi Arabia, will offer network access to UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with speeds of up to 10G.


Thuraya has announced the election of a new Board of

Directors at its Annual General Meeting. Serving a three-year term, the newly elected 2012 Board of Directors comprises:1 Mr. Mohammad Hassan

Omran, Chairman – Etisalat2 Mr. Khalid Ahmed Balkhey-

our, President & CEO – AR-ABSAT

3 Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Munarak Saif Al Thani – Qtel

4 Mr. Nasser Bin Obood, CEO – Etisalat UAE

5 Mr. Yousuf Al Sayed, Head of Group Transformation Office

- Etisalat6 Mr. Obaid Al Sharid, Senior

Vice President – Financial Operations - Etisalat

7 Mr. Abdulrahman Al Mubarak – Abu Dhabi Eco-nomic Council

8 Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Abdul Jalil Al Fahim - Abu Dhabi Economic Council

9 Mr. Khalid Bin Kalban, Managing Director - Dubai Investments PJSC

Thuraya also announced that for the first time two inde-pendent directors will join its board. They are:

● Mr. Michael Butler, former President and Chief Operat-ing Officer of Inmarsat, and

● Mr. Charles W. Moore, Presi-dent of Lockheed Martin Global, ME and Africa

The elections of Messrs. Butler and Moore strengthen Thura-ya’s international reach and focus at this time of growth for the company. Thuraya’s Chairman, Mr. Mo-hammad Omran, said on this auspicious occasion, “We are pleased to announce Thuraya’s new Board of Directors with strong representation from

its majority shareholders and global leaders in the telecom-munications and investment sectors who demonstrate their continued support and confi-dence in Thuraya’s internation-al expansion.”Mr. Omran added, “I am con-fident that our newly elected members will enable Thuraya to continue to assert itself as a market leader in the Mobile Satellite Services industry, of-fering the most advanced satel-lite communications services to more than two thirds of the world’s population.”

Thuraya elects new Board of Directors during AGM

Talia has announce the suc-cessful launch of APT new-

est satellite, APSTAR-7. It is the latest advanced telecommu-nication satellite based on the Spacebus 4000 C2 platform. The satellite has 56 operational transponders (28 C-band and 28 Ku-band) on-board, and will replace the current Apstar-2R satellite at 76.5 degrees East

Longitude, offering reliable broadcasting and telecommu-nications services over hemi-spheric footprints covering the Asia Pacific Region, Middle East, and Africa.We are thrilled to join APT during this exciting time and offer a new capacity for Internet, intranet, and closed network solutions on

APSTAR-7's Ku beam, serving Afghanistan, the Middle East, and East Africa.Teleport Services on APSTAR-7Talia also offers teleport services on APSTAR-7, uplinking from the Talia Teleport, a purpose-built enterprise facility in Europe. Talia operates a 7.6 meter earth station antenna

with full redundancy and 24/7 on-site support. With uplink into more than 30 antennas, the Talia Teleport is a complete data centre and earth station, with fully redundant power, redundant network connectivity, and telecommunications interconnect to London Telehouse.

Talia celebrates launch of APSTAR-7

With mobile subscrip-tions in the Middle East

expected to exceed 250 million this year, more content needs to be developed for mobile users in the region, considered one of the hottest telecom markets in the world, according to a recent report by Informa Telecoms and Media. The report, which covered Jordan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UAE and Yemen, indicated that the Middle East will see massive growth in the number of mobile subscriptions

over the next few years. "The number of mobile users in the Middle East will reach over 350 million by end of 2016.Average mobile phone penetra-tion in the region is estimated to exceed 100 percent in 2012, thereby exceeding the North America market for the first time, according to the report by Informa, a provider of market intelligence for the global telecom and entertainment in-dustries. In Jordan, there were 7.482 million mobile subscrip-tions by the end of 2011, with mobile penetration reaching 120 percent, according to figures

posted on the Telecommunica-tions Regulatory Commission website. Noting that 2nd Gen-eration (2G) services will still be going strong in the Middle East over the next four years, the Informa report indicated that most countries in the region will see a rise in 3G connections dur-ing this period. "It is, of course, early days yet for 4G in all of the Middle East, with only a few countries having active imple-mentation," the report said, predicting that Saudi Arabia will be the leading 4G market in the region with just over 11 million 4G subscriptions by 2016, with

the UAE expected to come in second place in terms of 4G usage. In another recent report, Informa indicated that the Middle East and North Africa region is considered a rapidly growing market for online and mobile content, as the number of mobile and Internet users is on the rise. Fixed broadband subscriptions in the MENA re-gion grew by about 160 percent in a three-year period ending in June 2011, while the number of mobile broadband subscrip-tions increased from 919,000 in first quarter of 2008 to 6.9 mil-lion in first quarter of 2011.

Mobile subscriptions in Middle East to see massive growth


Zain Jordan and Jordan Engineering Association

(JEA) renewed their strategic partnership agreement, by which Zain offers its data services and integrated communication solutions that contributes in serving and developing the engineering sector. Zain will also provide special bundles with exceptional rates tailored for the association’s members.Jordan Engineering Association President Eng. Abdullah Obeidat and Zain Jordan CEO, Ahmad Hanandeh signed the partnership agreement that benefits the Jordanian Engineers as well as the Association’s members.Upon the agreement signing, Eng. Abdullah Obeidat stressed on the importance of companies’ collaboration with JEA, and he assured that reinforcing these corporation

ties aims at developing the engineering sector in the Kingdom. Obeidat also praised Zain’s role in supporting the Association’s projects and programs. For his part, Hanandeh commented: “Having the largest customers’ base, as well as having the largest network providing communications solutions in the Kingdom, Zain is devoted to meet the needs of the Association’s members at

the highest standards of quality at optimal rates, reflecting Zain leading position, in addition to enhance the strategic relations with various institutions and associations.Hanandeh added: “This agreement is considered a successful example of the collaboration between the private sector and civil society institutions, and being one of these main institutions, the Jordan Engineering Association

excels in providing services to its members and having a significant role in developing the economy. Obeidat added that the association is keen to offer all the possible services and best offers for its members by collaborating with various institutions, and Zain excels in providing our members with its communication solutions via special bundles that matches the engineers’ demands.Obeidat indicated that Zain’s collaboration with the Association has a key role in improving in the services provided by the association to its members in the field of cellular communications by offering special offers to engineers. He called on engineers to benefit from Zain special bundles in addition to the social and financial services offered by the association.

Zain Jordan renews partnership agreement with Jordan Engineering Association

‘Zain Speed’ meets clients’ diverse needs Zain has launched its new

Zain Speed package. “The introduction of various packages and offers by Zain Saudi Arabia allows its customers to choose what fits their needs and expectations,” says Saud Al-Bawardi, CCO at Zain KSA. Zain KSA continues the launching of 4G (LTE) technology at competitive prices of SR499 within a full-range package containing the broadband unlimited for 4G at a speed of 100 Mbs, in

addition to a modem and free subscription for one month.The company has also launched its new and unprecedented Zain speed package for SR149, which offers its subscribers with a high-speed USB modem with a free-of-charge subscription of 10 GB for the first month.Al-Bawardi says successive offers introduced by the company come as part of its strategy that grants its subscribers the opportunity to choose between 4G or 3G

service in data transmission, and comes as a pursuit of Zain Saudi Arabia to provide all technical and data transmission solutions to all its subscribers, based on their and technology requirements.Al-Bawardi said the company is seeking, through its presence in the Saudi mobile market, to provide the latest state-of-the-art technologies in the world of communications and IT, with a view to allow its subscribers to have access to the latest technologies. Saud Al-Bawardi


Microwave Telemetry Inc., a global leader in

avian and marine tracking has selected Telenor Connexion, the leading enabler of premium connected services, as connectivity provider for its state-of-the-art tracking devices. The company manufactures reliable and accurate electronic devices for tracking avian and marine species using cutting-edge technologies. Microwave Telemetry’s continual effort to develop smaller and smarter devices is driven by the needs of researchers and scientists worldwide.Telenor Connexion is providing Microwave Telemetry with a one SIM and one rate GPRS/GSM global solution working

on six continents. The key component of the solution is Telenor’s patented eSIM, a robust and reliable SIM card especially suited for harsh environments.“Besides being an experienced and reliable embedded connectivity partner responsive to our product requirements, the decisive factor when selecting Telenor Connexion as our exclusive provider for GPRS and SMS data services, was the eSIM. Device size and extended temperature range is critical in our application for avian and marine tracking and the Telenor Connexion eSIM is half the size of a standard SIM card”, says Paul W. Howey, Ph.D., president and founder at Microwave Telemetry Inc.

The premium M2M solution from Telenor Connexion does not only allow Microwave Telemetry to to continue their device design process without any delays to their product development schedule, it also enables them to provide a worldwide tracking and monitoring system, capable of tracking wildlife for thousands of kilometers, covering entire migration routes.

The connected devices collects data and processes locations sent from animals carrying transmitters. The data are then delivered to scientists and researchers around the world via Microwave Telemetry’s proprietary web application.“Wildlife tracking or GPS Telemetry is another high-potential growth area for embedded connectivity applications. We are very proud to be part of Microwave Telemetry’s global tracking solutions as they (the devices) play a valuable role in worldwide behavioral and migration studies and in the protection of endangered spe-cies”, said George LeBron, Head of Market Development Ameri-cas at Telenor Connexion.

Intelsat S.A., the world’s leading provider of satellite

services, and PCCW Global, an operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommuni-cations service provider, have agreed to interconnect their MPLS networks.Intelsat and PCCW Global will be able to offer networking solutions and premier video neighborhoods to customers in Asia and other regions of the world leveraging Intelsat’s fleet of more than 50 satellites and its teleports in North America and Europe. With interconnects in London, New York and Los Angeles, the agreement will enable Intelsat’s customers to expand into new regions via PCCW Global’s extensive and robust network.

This is the first-ever intercon-nect between IntelsatONE and a partner network that sup-ports both video and network services, meeting the growing demand from customers for converged delivery solutions in more locations around the globe.Intelsat can now extend the reach of IntelsatONE to new locations in multiple Asian cities on PCCW Global’s network, including Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Seoul, and major European cities including Amsterdam, Moscow and Stockholm. Customers in these locations can take advantage of the expanding service capabilities and global network solutions offered by Intelsat’s robust ground and space

infrastructure.The fiber agreement also facilitates access to the Stanley Earth Station teleport in Hong Kong, which offers connectivity to most of Intelsat’s primary satellites in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean regions via PCCW Global.Mr. Richard Brolly, President of Americas of PCCW Global Inc., said, “This mutually beneficial agreement gives PCCW Global the ability to support global satellite networking solutions for our customers more effectively. It also allows us to support the expansion of IntelsatONE solutions via our network and enhances the position of the Stanley teleport as a gateway for accessing Intelsat’s expanding fleet of

satellites in Asia.”Mr. Kurt Riegelman, Intelsat’s Senior Vice President of Global Sales, said, “This agreement furthers our vision to develop global, converged solutions to support the current and future requirements of our customers. With IntelsatONE, customers can enter any key market in the world – or multiple markets – and enjoy full access to Intelsat's portfolio of teleport hosting, network managed services and MCPC solutions. In addition, our customers can develop their own point-to-point and point-to-multipoint private network solutions between nodes on the PCCW Global and IntelsatONE networks for contribution applications.”

Microwave Telemetry selects Telenor Connexion for global wildlife tracking solution

Intelsat teams with PCCW Global to expand IntelsatONESM’s terrestrial global network


Pakistan Telecommunica-tion Authority (PTA) and

all Cellular Mobile Operators of the country have commer-cially launched an automated procedure for Sale of Mobile SIMs. According to the details, the framework for the new system, was jointly signed in January this year and has been implemented as per agreed deadlines. As per the new sys-tem, the subscribers’ documen-tation will be maintained elec-tronically and Pre-Sale would be automated thereby linking it with already automated Post-Sale procedure called 789.As per the new procedure, only original CNIC will be required to be presented at any registered Sale Point to buy a new SIM along-with Terms & Conditions document in the SIM jacket. The sale personnel shall send the CNIC of the customer to a short code to authenticate sale. Hence only SIMs sold through registered sales channels

would be activated after call-ing 789, responding to asked questions, agreement to the Terms & Conditions and decla-ration that the SIM will not be

misused.The new system shall not only help to eliminate the misuse of CNIC’s copy but also facilitate in keeping authentic record of SIMs sale thereby enabling track of sale channels in case of any misuse. Moreover,

transition of existing Cellular Subscriber Agreement Form (CSAF) to e-CSAF will help to maintain an authentic subscrib-ers’ database.

Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, visited Call Centers of different mobile companies for inaugurating the commercial launch of the project and was briefed about the arrange-ments made in this regard. It was informed by mobile

companies that under the new procedure all authorized fran-chisees and retailers have been given a unique identification and only authorized sellers shall be allowed to sale the SIM. The sale has been automated to track which SIM has been sold by which particular sale chan-nel to ensure accountability. It was also informed that since its commercial launch, about forty thousand verification requests have been rejected due to new security checks in the system.The Chairman congratulated all stake-holders on reaching this milestone and hoped that the new system will further strengthen the processes of SIM verification. He also thanked the mobile companies for extending cooperation in successful implementation of existing SIM verification processes and hoped that the same spirit of mutual coopera-tion may prevail in future as well.

PTA launches automated pre-sale mobile SIM procedure

If you are given a choice to have only one, what it would be?

Chairman, Paksitan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr. Mohammed Yaseen launching automated procedure

for sale of mobile SIMs

Un-authentic mobile SIMs – No more

Teletimes last Web Poll data

Internet has surely become an important

aspect of our daily lives, acquiring popularity over other medium of infor-mation, entertainment and communication. It is also rated among the top medium with respect to the overall global growth rate. Presently 2.2 Billion inhabitants around the world are rated as Internet users with

Asia as the largest penetration rate of 44.8%. Our latest survey invited an interesting opinion

from asking them to choose one among Internet, Mobile, Computer and TV. A huge

majority of 65.57 respondents picked up Internet followed by 16.39% for mobile.

TV (3.28%)

Computer (14.75%)

Mobile (16.39%)

Internet (65.57%)


The long anticipated auctions for high

speed mobile spectrum are scheduled to begin in near future. The process of auction and launch of third generation networks and the immense supplement of high speed communication to the subscriber of mobile services to the Pakistan is about to begin and magic is still awaited.Pakistan is primarily a voice market where it is not enough to provide the service at an affordable rate. To bring the data advantage of 3G, the operators have to bring the entire ecosystem. Consumers need to see the benefit of 3G through applications, be

it browsers, touchscreen, email client or any other application. These are part of the entire ecosystem and the service providers are robustly working on to

ensure that when they launch, the phones have good form factors, affordable pricing and provide the reason to go 3G other than just voice. Today, everything above PKR 30000 is a 3G-ready Smartphone and consequently it doesn't make any sense to buy anything else. There is a need in the industry of Pakistan to ensure that everything above PKR 8000 should be 3G-ready to make the 3G market larger. People who may otherwise buy a PKR 8000 phone might jump that category because 3G is an enabler. Regular feature phones with small 3G apps are clustering at around PKR 5000 whereas dongles and broadband wireless adapters

that can be plugged into a computer, which started at around PKR 4000 are now trending towards PKR 2000. As expected, with new players are joining the upcoming 3G

ecosystem all levels of the ecosystem with affordable pricing and applications will kick into place. The competition for the consumer along with affordability would make 3G successful.From the Pakistani consumer perspective, the first and foremost thing that one has to look at is that PC penetration is low - Therefore limiting broadband penetration. It is expected that 3G enabled general phones and Smartphone will become the dominant way for Internet access. Already in the youth demographic, the biggest amount of time on the Internet is spent on the computers. Internet access

without giving up on voice is the value proposition of 3G. One most famous youth trend, social networking is becoming a key need, be it uploading pictures or tweeting. There is

also entertainment content like music, TV on the go other than practical content such as maps, among others.Then there is also a need of the rural application. Here not just the Smartphone, but also a need of the desktop being built on mobile chipsets in order to bring a computing experience that comes from the Internet to rural Pakistan. This is unlike the PC that came before the Internet and is complicated for a rural cus-tomer. People actually fear the computer as they don't know how to use software and deal with a virus.The most important thing is that the subscriber has to see value; they have to see that they can get on the Internet at an affordable rate. The operators would do it as voice revenues have gone down to almost zero and data revenues have grown some 15 times the incremental voice revenue. As per analysts, the mix in the next three years could be 50:50. The tradeoff between the analysts’ forecast and necessity of 3G networks is on its way. The Pilot plan is to rollout the 3G services in the major cities of Pakistan just like the 2G networks in past. Two or three operators would struggle for the more and more subscribers and special awareness campaigns are also expected. The demand is really a function of affordability and value, so when would all of Pakistan become 3G is really hard to predict.

3G demand will be influenced by affordability

Muhammad Amir Malik


Shamrock Conferences Inter-national organized 5th Paki-

stan 2012 Telecommunication conference at Karachi. Chairman Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) Dr. Mohammed Yaseen was the chief guest on this occasion.Former Minister for Science and Technology – Mr. Javed Jabbar, and the Chairman of Pakistan Software Houses Associa-tion (P@SHA) – Mr. Nadeem Elahi along with the Member Technical of PTA – Mr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar, acted as the chairpersons during the various sessions. In the opening remarks, Mr. Menin Rodrigues, SHAMROCK, welcomed the delegates from leading Telecom companies and stressed the need for continued dialogue at knowledge-based forums to pur-sue communications, economic and social goals.The theme of the conference was “Riding the wave of Tech-nology and Consolidation”. Dr. Muhammad Yaseen, Chairman, PTA delivered the keynote ad-dress and urged the specialists

to devise solutions for streamlin-ing and enriching the Telecom infra-structure with global advancements.Other prominent speakers included Mr. Riaz Asher Siddiqui, CEO of Universal Service Fund; Mr. Rehan Farooqui, Head of Managed Services, Multinet Pakistan; Mr. Furqan Qureshi, SEVP of PTCL; Mr. Saquib Ah-mad of Comptel Pakistan & Af-ghanistan; Mr. Munib Khawaja, VP of Schneider Electric; Mr. Hamid Nawaz, COO of Supernet Limited; Ms. Shireen Naqvi, CEO of School of Leadership and Mr.

Masood Karim, Country Head, Corporate & Investment Bank-ing of Dubai Islamic Bank. Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, in his keynote address said that, for launching 3G technology Pakistan is facing regulatory, technology and eco-nomic challenges. Chairman said that our market driving factors are high speed integrated and interactive services for which our cellular network is merging towards the 3G and Core and access networks towards IP and NGN Platforms. So this “conver-gence” can bring more revenue

as expected of 5 billion to the country and more over better quality of services and cheaper services to the consumers will be provided. The regulator has to deal with maintaining QoS, Security and IP, numbering and interconnection, for these they have proposed various measures including regulators would be ready for ENUM so IP numbering will allow even more convergence and consumer rights would be maintained.Chairman also added that, ac-cording to the economic growth of Pakistan as given by World Bank knowledge assessment, Pakistan is ranked 117th out of 144. After these improvements, social and economic impacts on ICTs will highlight for every 10 points in Internet Penetration per 100 will be translated to 1.21 % GDP growth (World Bank). Other than this there are more business and entrepreneur-ship opportunities. Chairman, said that there is almost 185% growth in mobile internet users which clearly portrays the trend towards 3G.

Continuing its legacy of bringing affordable

and innovative technology to consumers, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has launched the first ever 3G Android mobile Smartphone, EVODROID “Touch N Fly”.PTCL EVODROID Touch N Fly comes with built-in 3G EVO wireless Broadband service that gives dual support for both EVDO and GSM/CDMA networks. Powered

by Google Android Froyo 2.2 operating system, Smartphone EVODROID lets its users surf and talk simultaneously while on the move and that too at 3G speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps.Supporting all GSM SIMS to ensure maximum outreach without limitations of any specific GSM network, it brings three-months and six-months bundled EVO Wireless Broadband connections equipped with both 3G & Wi-Fi for un-interrupted on-the-go

connectivity.The EVODROID Touch N Fly is packed with hi-resolution 3.5” 480*320, capacitive HVGA TFT LCD touch screen, 5.0 mega pixels autofocus rear camera, 3G Wi-Fi hotspot to enable sharing of Wi-Fi & 3G connections with multiple gadgets simultaneously, 512MB

Flash ROM and 256MB DRAM, 4GB Micro SD card having extendable memory upto 32 GB.

PTCL launches EVODROID ‘Touch N Fly’ with built-in 3G EVO wireless Broadband

3G deployment discussed at TeleCON 2012

Dr. Mohammed YaseenChairman - PTA

Riaz Asher SiddiquiCEO - USF


Sybrid’s contact centre for Telenor Pakistan to create 500 jobs

Lakson Group subsidiary Sybrid (Pvt.) Ltd. has

completed a state-of-the-art contact centre for Telenor Pakistan. The new centre -- which will create jobs for 500 talented Pakistani individuals -- will allow for efficient process handling to meet growing customer needs. The collaboration has led to an investment of Rs.100 million by Lakson Group to build the supporting infrastructure.To mark the completion, an inauguration ceremony was held which was attended by senior officials of Lakson Group, Sybrid and Telenor Pakistan. Iqbal Ali Lakhani, Chairman, Lakson Group and CEO Sybrid, speaking at the inauguration said: “We are proud to have

completed the project well before the stipulated deadline. This is the first step Sybrid

has taken to provide Telenor Pakistan a holistic customer services package, and we look

forward to allow them to enjoy sustained cost and efficiency advantages through this partnership.”Lars Christian Iuel, CEO Telenor Pakistan in his comments said: “Telenor Pakistan is committed to build a strong customer-centric organization. Our partnership with Sybrid is a step in that direction and we hope ourcustomers will benefit from Sybrid’s expertise in customer handling. In addition, we are excited to offer Lakson Group the Easypaisa platform to enable them to disburse salaries of their workers efficiently. The partnership is an excellent example of mutually beneficial synergies created by both organizations.”

Lars Christian Iuel, CEO Telenor Pakistan and Iqbal Ali Lakhani, Chairman, Lakson Group and CEO Sybrid in a group photo with

other top officials, at the inauguration ceremony of Sybrid contact center.

TeraData has awarded its Excellence in IT

Media & Publication Award to Muhammad Amir Malik. In order to create awareness and share information regarding various issues linked with the ICT sector, he has written and published research articles on a regular basis for Teletimes International magazine. Research topics include Child Online Protection, ICT for Disabled, 3G, Mobile Value Added Services, Wireless Broadband, IPv6, Information Security,

Mobile Banking and Internet trends.Amir was awarded TeraData Excellence Award in IT Enabled Service Offering last year. In 2010, he was also awarded Best CIO of the Year (Public Sector) by Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) for his stupendous work for the development of ICT sector of the country. He is also recipient of CSO Compass Award 2010 and Excellence Award for Individual Contribution to Research in ICT at Teletimes International Industry Awards 2011.

Amir Malik gets TeraData National IT Media & Publication Excellence Award

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: 07, Issue: 04


May

TMT Finance & Investment Middle East Conference 2012

02 - 03 May - Dubai, UAECTIA Wireless

08 - 10 May - Louisiana, USAW.Afri-Tel Expo

08 - 10 May - Lagos, NigeriaSoftware Development Expo & Conference

09 - 11 May - Tokyo, JapanEmbedded Systems Expo & Conference

09 - 11 May - Tokyo, JapanData Storage Expo & Conference

09 - 11 May - Tokyo, JapanLTE India 2012

11 May - New Delhi, IndiaICT World Abu Dhabi

14 - 16 May - Abu Dhabi, UAESVIAZ / EXPO COMM MOSCOW

14 - 17 May - Moscow, Russia

Broadband World Forum Asia Exhibition

15 - 16 May - Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaEXPO COMM WIRELESS KOREA

15 - 18 May - Seoul-T'Ukpyolsi, KoreaSatCom Africa 2012

21 - 24 May - Sandton, JohannesburgGITEX Saudi Arabia

21 - 24 May - Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaThe 9th Convergence Summit 2012

Arab Advisors Group

22 - 23 May - Amman - JordanCONNECT

22 - 24 May - Karachi, PakistanTRBK-Telecommunication Exhibition

29 - 31 May - Almaty, KazakhstanEXPO COMM WIRELESS JAPAN

30 - 01 June - Tokyo, Japan

Global Telecom events 2012April

SAMENA Beyond Conectivity 2012

03 - 04 Apr - Muscat, OmanM2M Asia 2012

11-12 Apr - Shanghai, ChinaPlanet of the Apps Arabia

17 - 18 Apr - Dubai, UAEThe Mobile Show

17 - 18 Apr - Dubai, UAENavitech Expo

17 - 19 Apr - Moscow, RussiaCaspian Telecoms

19 - 20 Apr - Istanbul, TurkeyLTE Summit

20 Apr - Mumbai, IndiaSaudi Communications

22 - 26 Apr - Ar Riyad, Saudi Arabia

Planet of the Apps Asia

25th Apr - Suntec, Singapore The Mobile Show Asia 25 - 27 Apr - Suntec, SingaporeOnline Retail World Asia 2012

25 - 27 Apr - Suntec, Singapore Mobile Commerce World Asia

26th Apr - Suntec, SingaporeOn-LiVe Asia

27th Apr - Suntec, Singapore The Mobile Show

30 Apr - 01 May - MelbourneCOMEX 2012 Exhibition & Conference30 Apr - 04 May - Muscat, Oman

June

3rd TMT Finance & Investment Africa

7 June - LondonGEM Forum for CEE, SEE and CIS

07 - 08 June - Prague, Czech RepublicWorld Wireless Congress

11 - 12 June - Stanford/Palo Alto, California

The 2012 Mobile Money Forum

13 - 14 June - Montreal, CanadaInfocomm

13 - 15 June - Nevada, USAMobile Network Optimisation India 2012

14 - 15 June - New Delhi, India


July

August

September

June

Telecoms Loyalty & Churn 2012

02 - 05 Jul - Novotel Cannes Vas Africa 2012

03 - 04 July - Sandton Sun, South AfricaNTCA Region 7, 8 & 10 Meeting

08 - 10 July - San Antonio, TXChina Telematics & Wireless Tech Forum 2012

12 - 13 July - Shanghai, China

OPASTCO's 49th Annual Summer Convention & Tradeshow

14 - 18 July - Minneapolis, MNNTCA Regions 1, 2 & 3 Meeting

15 - 17 July - Hilton Head, SCConnected Health Asia 2012

16 - 19 July - Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore

Office Expo - Delhi

04 - 06 Aug - New Delhi, IndiaMontana Telecomm Association Annual Meeting

06 - 08 Aug - Whitefish, MT

NTCA Regions 4 & 5 Meeting

12 - 14 Aug - Milwaukee, WI

Automation Mumbai

07 - 10 Sep - Mumbai, IndiaComPulse 2012

11 - 13 Sep - Grand Rapids, MITC3 2012: Telecom Council Carrier Connections

12 - 14 Sep - Sunnyvale, North America

Professional Mobile Radio 2012

17 - 19 Sep - Barcelona, SpainLTE Asia

18 - 19 Sep - Suntec, Singapore

MVNOs Industry Summit Africa 2012

18 - 19 Sep - Cape Town, South AfricaTM Forum’s Africa Summit 2012

18 -19 Sep - AfricaNigeria Com

18 - 19 Sep - Nigeria, Africa

Telecom & Mobility

18 - 19 Sep - Oslo, NorwaySIMposium Asia

18 - 19 Sep - Marina Bay Sands, SingaporePT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2012

18 - 22 Sep - Bejing, ChinaService Delivery Platforms (SDP) Global Summit

19 - 20 Sep - Berlin, GermanyCloud Middle East

24 - 25 Sep - Westin Mina Seyahi, Dubai, UAE

Business Analysis Conference Europe 2012

24 - 26 Sep - Radisson Blu Portman Hotel, London Managed Services World Congress 2012

25 - 26 Sep - Jumeirah Beach Hotel, DubaiSIBTELECOM & IT

25 - 28 Sep - Novosibirsk, Russia

Mobile Device Congress 2012

15 June - New Delhi, IndiaWDM & Next Generation Optical Networking

18 - 21 June - MonacoGlobal Messaging World Congress

19 - 20 June - London, UKSIMposium Global

19 - 20 June - Berlin, Germany BroadcastAsia

19 - 22 June - Singapore

CommunicAsia

19 - 22 June - Marina Bay Sands, SingaporeGSMA Mobile Asia Expo

20 - 22 June - Shanghai, ChinaTri-State TCI Technology Conference

24 - 26 June - Charleston, SCMobile Transactions & Commerce

26 - 27 June - Toronto, Ontario, CanadaDigital Asset Management

26 - 27 June - London, UK


Teletoons

I started telling him a bedtime story but the moment I said

"There was one RAJA" he told me he already knew all about the

Indian 2G scam.

True to her promise, Mabel wouldn't let anyone disturb George until he'd played

every song on his iPod at least once."If we could all turn to page 387, turn off your iPod and repeat after me..."

Teletimes April 2012

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Transcript of Teletimes April 2012