Man Of The Year Award - Teletimes

Saud Al Daweesh scoops 

"Teletimes' Man of the Year" Award 

Convergence to Doha 2011 

"Role of the ICT in driving economic growth" 

www.teletimesinternational.com

Vol: 06 Issue: 11 

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Interviews 

16 

34 

"The ICT industry is the cornerstone of modern economy" 

Eng. Saud Al-Daweesh - STC Group CEO 

Khalid Athar 

"A lot of innovation comes out of necessity rather than luxury" 

Ghassan Hasbani, CEO - STC International speaks to Teletimes @ GITEX Sympoxium 


In this issue 

Reports & News 

31 

36 

37 

38 

39 

40 

41 

42 

47 

48 

49 

51 

56 

57 

59 

ICT firms see 50pc hike in business at Gitex 2011 

Teletimes Report 

Etisalat enables e-Hospitality services for 

Grand Millennium Al Wahda 

Thuraya’s industry leading Satcom Solutions 

showcased at GITEX 

Reham Barakat 

du showcases cutting-edge guest services application 

for hospitality sector at GITEX 

Ericsson launches 

own in-app payment service 

Microsoft hopes to storm market with Mango launch 

Naushad K. Cherrayil 

PCCW Global wins Best International Wholesale Carrier at 

the TelecomsWorld Awards ME 

Etisalat’s chairman honoured with ‘Stevie’ 

at International Business Awards 

Omantel EGM approves merger of Oman Mobile with Omantel 

Lucia Mieasa 

Narus unveils a new generation of cyber 

protection solution 

Nawras introduces another first with convenient 

prepaid solution for postpaid customers 

Julie Amann 

STC delegation visits ITU headquarters 

Musalli Almuammar 

3G EVDO Wireless Broadband 

N. Kiyani 

The ICT Summit Eurasia 2011 


PTCL announces a profit of Rs 1.4 billion and 7% 

revenue growth for first quarter of FY 2011-12 

Aqeel Shigri 

and much more .... 

51 

17 

42 

04 www.teletimesinternational.com 

15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

In this issue 

18 

Special Reports 

09 

11 

17 

18 

26 

Research & Analyses 

15 

21 

24 

29 

44 

45 

50 

60 

Steve Jobs: 

A majestic American innovator 


"Teletimes' Man of the Year" Award 

SAMENA's Convergence to Doha 2011 

"Role of the ICT in driving Economic Growth" 

Rola Osseiran 

Smart Handheld Summit 2011 

convenes in Dubai on 5-6 Dec in a time of enhanced... 


O3b Networks Empowers Underserved Markets 

The Inevitability of Infrastructure Sharing 

Izhar Ahmad 

iPad and beyond: The media tablet in business 

David A. Willis 

Telecom firms: 'facing multiple challenges' 

booz&co. 

Policy management: A new battle ground for vendor 

Yankee Group 

Keeping the telecomms service provider relevant 

Franco Bernabè 

IP based messaging: 

Creating new revenue opportunities 

Asia's walk into the cloud 

Soh Yeng Chai 

Pursuit of Global 3G deployments versus Pakistan 


09 

15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011 www.teletimesinternational.com 

05

Letter to readers 

Khalid Athar 

Chief Editor 

Dear Reader, 

Welcome to the new edition of Teletiems. 

One of the most tragic events of this 

industry took place last month. After 

bravely fighting cancer for seven years, 

Steve Jobs passed away. The demise 

of Steve Jobs has emotionally affected 

every literate person on the earth. Steve’s 

whole life was based upon hard work and 

achievements. Teletimes would like to 

express its respect towards Steve for all 

that he has done during his life. A report 

about Steve is given later in this edition. 

In the last edition, it was announced that 

our awards committee has shortlisted 

three personalities for the Teletimes 

‘Man of the Year’ Award. The awards 

committee has now made its final 

decision in this regard, and the chosen 

Teletimes ‘Man of the Year’ for ’11 is Eng. 

Saud Daweesh - Group CEO, STC. 

I would like to congratulate him on 

behalf of the Teletimes team. A complete 

report regarding this and a special 

interview of Eng. Saud are available for 

you later in this edition. 

Three major events are taking place 

during this month. Firstly, SAMENA’s 

Convergence to Doha 2011 on 1st and 

2nd of November in Doha, Qatar with 

the topic ‘Role of ICT in driving Economic 

Growth’, an introductory report about 

this event is included in this edition. 

Secondly, ‘World Telecom Summit’ during 

the 9th to 11th of November in Singapore 

and thirdly ‘CIO Strategies Saudi Arabia’ 

on 21st and 22nd November in Riyadh, 

KSA. Teletimes is the media partner to 

all these three major events and will 

actively participate in those. 

The Arab Advisors Group is organizing 

a ‘Smart Handheld Summit 2011’ on the 

5th and 6th of December ’11 in Dubai. 

Teletimes is also a media partner to 

the summit and a pre-event report is 

being published in this edition for your 

readership. One of the most important 

ICT events of the Middle East took place 

during the 9th to 13th October in Dubai, 

i.e GITEX Technology Week. Teletimes 

participated in the event as a media 

partner. A report regarding the activities 

of major companies participating in 

GITEX is being included in this edition. 

During GITEX Symposium which took 

place during the same week, the CEO of 

STC’s International Operations, Ghassan 

Hasbani was interviewed by Gulraiz 

Khalid of Teletimes, the transcript of 

which is available for our readers later in 

this edition. 

ICT Summit Eurasia took place in 

Istanbul in October, a post-event report 

is included in this edition. Apart from 

Booz & Co.’s report ‘Telecom firms: 

forcing multiple changes’, reports 

about O3b Networks, PCCW, Ericsson, 

Etisalat, Huawei, Omantel, Nawras, 

Narus, Microsoft and PTCL are also 

included in this editon. Other than that 

one important article "The Inevitability 

of Infrastructure Sharing" from Izhar 

Ahmad is also included in this edition. 

Looking forward to your suggestions and 

opinions. 

Please enjoy this edition of Teletimes. 


07

Steve Jobs: 

A majestic American innovator 

‘Ideas man’ and founder of Apple who profoundly changed the face of the modern world, 

revolutionized at least six different industries 

Towards Jobs! 

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs 

born on February 24, 1955 in 

San Francisco was an American 

inventor and entrepreneur. He 

was co-founder, Chairman, and 

Chief Executive Officer of Apple 

Inc. Jobs also was co-founder 

and previously served as Chief 

Executive of Pixar Animation 

Studios; he became a member 

of the board of directors of the 

Walt Disney Company in 2006, 

following the acquisition of 

Pixar by Disney. 

In the late 1970s, Jobs—along 

with Apple co-founder Steve 

Wozniak, Mike Markkula and 

others—designed, developed, 

There’s a popular saying about three 

apples that have changed the world: 

Adam’s apple, Isaac Newton’s apple and 

Steve Job's “Apple”. As successful as the 

founder and former Chief Executive of Apple 

Steve Jobs passed away in California at the 

age of 56 after a long battle with cancer 

without ever having met his real father, 

despite their living in the same country. 

Steve Jobs died last week and along with 

him may have passed some of America's 

hopes, dreams and potential for future 

jobs. But this need not be the case, if we 

can teach the key lessons that Mr. Jobs, this 

quintessential American, provided through 

his life, leadership and continuous and 

incredible ability to reinvent himself and his 

businesses. 

A person who was amongst the top 

influencers of our age is no more with 

us. The world is sad today; tech giants, 

celebrities, political tops are paying tribute 

to the person who changed the lives of 

billions. 

and marketed one of the first 

commercially successful lines 

of personal computers, the 

Apple II series. In the 

early 1980s, Jobs was 

among the first to 

see the commercial 

potential of Xerox 

PARC's mouse-driven 

graphical user interface, 

which led to the 

creation of the Macintosh. 

After losing 

a power struggle with 

the board of directors in 

1985, Jobs left Apple and 

founded NeXT, a computer 

platform development company 

specializing in the 

higher-education 

and business 

markets. 

“Charismatic, 

visionary, ruthless, 

perfectionist, dictator - 

these are some of the words 

that people use to describe 

the larger-than-life figure of 

Jobs, who may be the biggest 

dreamer the technology world 

has ever known, but also a 

hard-edged businessman 

and negotiator through 

and through.” 

Inventions: 

Apple computer 

In 1976, Jobs, Steve Wozniak 

and Ronald Wayne founded 

Apple, with later funding from a 

then-semi-retired Intel productmarketing 

manager and engineer 

A.C. "Mike" Markkula Jr. Prior 

to co-founding Apple, Wozniak 

was an electronics hacker. 

Jobs and Wozniak met in 1971, 

when their mutual friend, Bill 

Fernandez, introduced 21-yearold 

Wozniak to 16-year-old Jobs. 

Friends for several years, Jobs 

managed to interest Wozniak 

in assembling a computer and 

selling it. As Apple continued 

to expand, the company began 

looking for an experienced 

executive to help manage its 

expansion. 

NeXT computer 

After leaving Apple, Jobs 

founded NeXT Computer in 

1985, with $7 million. A year 

later, Jobs was running out of 

money, and with no product 

on the horizon, he appealed 

for venture capital. Eventually, 

he attracted the attention 

of billionaire Ross Perot 

who invested heavily 

in the company. NeXT 

workstations were first 

released in 1990, priced at 

$9,999. Like the Apple Lisa, 

the NeXT workstation was 

technologically advanced, 

but was largely dismissed 

as cost-prohibitive by 

the educational sector 

for which it was 

designed. 

Pixar and Disney 

In 1986, Jobs bought 

The Graphics Group (later 


09

World mourns Apple visionary Steve 

Barack Obama 

President of United States 

reacted by calling Steve 

“among the greatest of 

American innovators.” 

White House Blog reads: 

“Michelle and I are saddened 

to learn of the passing 

of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the 

greatest of American innovators – brave 

enough to think differently, bold enough 

to believe he could change the world, and 

talented enough to do it. By building one 

of the planet’s most successful companies 

from his garage, he exemplified the spirit 

of American ingenuity. By making computers 

personal and putting the internet 

in our pockets, he made the information 

revolution not only accessible, but intuitive 

and fun. The world has lost a visionary. 

And there may be no greater tribute 

to Steve’s success than the fact that much 

of the world learned of his passing on a 

device he invented. Michelle and I send 

our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife 

Laurene, his family, and all those who 

loved him.” 

Bill Gates 

CEO and Chairman, 

Microsoft “I will miss 

steve immensely. On 

his website Mr. Gates 

writes: “I’m truly saddened 

to learn of Steve 

Jobs’ death. Melinda and 

I extend our sincere condolences to his 

family and friends, and to everyone Steve 

has touched through his work. Steve and 

I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have 

been colleagues, competitors and friends 

over the course of more than half our lives. 

Sergey Brin 

Chairman and co-founder 

Google: “From the 

earliest days of Google, 

whenever Larry and I 

sought inspiration for 

vision and leadership, we 

needed to look no farther than Cupertino. 

Steve, your passion for excellence is 

renamed Pixar) from Lucas 

film's computer graphics division 

for the price of $10 million, $5 

million of which was given to 

the company as capital. The new 

company, which was originally 

based at Lucas film's Kerner 

Studios in San Rafael, California, 

but has since relocated to Emeryville, 

California, was initially 

intended to be a high-end graphics 

hardware developer. After 

felt by anyone who has ever touched an 

Apple product (including the macbook I 

am writing this on right now). And I have 

witnessed it in person the few times we 

have met. On behalf of all of us at Google 

and more broadly in technology, you will 

be missed very much. My condolences to 

family, friends, and colleagues at Apple.” 

Mark Zuckerberg 

Facebook Founder and 

CEO: “Steve, thank you 

for being a mentor and a 

friend. Thanks for showing 

that what you build 

can change the world. I 

will miss you.” 

Jeff Bezos 

Amazon CEO: “Steve 

was a teacher to anyone 

paying attention, and 

today is a very sad day 

for everyone who cares 

about innovation and 

high standards.” 

Dick Costolo 

CEO of Twitter: “Once in 

a rare while, somebody 

comes along who doesn’t 

just raise the bar, they 

create an entirely new 

standard of measurement.” 

Randal Stephenson 

Chairman and CEO AT&T: 

“Steve was an iconic 

inventor, visionary, and 

entrepreneur, and we had 

the privilege to know him 

as partner and friend.” 

Paul Otellini 

CEO Intel: “True genius is 

measured by the ability 

to touch every person 

on the planet. Steve did 

that, not just once, but 

many, many times over 

his amazing life.” 

years of unprofitability selling 

the Pixar Image Computer, it 

contracted with Disney to produce 

a number of computer-animated 

feature films that Disney 

would co-finance and distribute. 

Honors and public recognition 

After Apple's founding, Jobs 

became a symbol of his company 

and industry. When Time named 

the computer as the 1982 "Machine 

of the Year", the magazine 

published a long profile of Steve 

as "the most famous maestro of 

the micro". 

Jobs was awarded the National 

Medal of Technology by President 

Ronald Reagan in 1984, with 

Steve Wozniak (among the first 

people to ever receive the honor), 

and a Jefferson Award for Public 

Service in the category "Greatest 

Public Service by an Individual 

35 Years or Under" (also 

known as the Samuel S. Beard 

Award) in 1987. On November 27, 

2007, Jobs was named the most 

powerful person in business by 

Fortune Magazine. On December 

5, 2007, California Governor 

Arnold Schwarzenegger and First 

Lady Maria Shriver inducted Jobs 

into the California Hall of Fame, 

located at The California Museum 

for History, Women and the Arts. 

In August 2009, Jobs was selected 

as the most admired entrepreneur 

among teenagers in a survey 

by Junior Achievement, having 

previously been named Entrepreneur 

of the Decade 20 years 

earlier in 1989, by Inc. magazine. 

On November 5, 2009, Jobs was 

named the CEO of the decade by 

Fortune Magazine. In September 

2011, Jobs was ranked No.17 on 

Forbes: The World's Most Powerful 

People. In December 2010, 

the Financial Times named Jobs 

its person of the year for 2010, 

ending its essay by stating, "In 

his autobiography, John Sculley, 

the former PepsiCo executive 

who once ran Apple, said this of 

the ambitions of the man he had 

pushed out: 'Apple was supposed 

to become a wonderful consumer 

products company. This was a lunatic 

plan. High-tech could not be 

designed and sold as a consumer 

product.' How wrong can you be." 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011


"Teletimes' Man of the year" 

Award 

The First Teletimes 

International Industry 

Excellence Awards were officially 

announced last year 

during a seminar organized 

by Teletimes International, 

whereas the idea was put to 

action by start of this year 

where Teletimes brought 

together some really senior 

personalities from the ICT 

sector along with experts 

from Consultancy and Analyst 

firms to form an awards 

committee that focused on 

the performances of many 

individuals and companies 

for a period after which 

they concluded the award 

winners. 

The Teletimes International 

Industry Excellence Awards 

took place in July this year 

with the vision of appreciating 

those deserve it and rewarding 

hard workers with 

recognition and respect. 

Awards were announced 

in a total of 16 categories 

and one, precisely the most 

prestigious award; The 

"Teletimes Man of the Year" 

remained until yet to be 

awarded after the committee 

had completely analyzed 

the candidates’ respective 

performances thoroughly. 

Last month, the Awards 

Committee had shortlisted 

and announced three 

personalities, namely Ross 

Cormack of Nawras, Osman 

Sultan from Du and Saud 

Al Daweesh from STC, who 

have made a significant differences 

to their respective 

ICT sectors leading their 

organizations in an extraordinary 

manner. After a 

lot of reviews and analyses, 

the awards committee has 

finally made its decision. 

The winner of this award is 

a man who took lead and 

led his company beyond 

borders and boundaries. 

One of the most dynamic 

and vigilant personalities 

of the ICT sector today who 

has turned out to be a complete 

game changer when 

it comes to competition, a 

motivational hard-worker 

when it comes to profession 

and a visionary when 

it comes to leadership. The 

Teletimes Man of the Year 

2011 is Eng. Saud Bin Majid 

Al Daweesh, the Group CEO 

of Saudi Telecom Company 

(STC). Teletimes International 

congratulates him 

on this achievement and 

considers it an honor for 

Teletimes as well. On this 

occasion we have incorporated 

a special interview of 

Mr. Saud Al Daweesh in this 

edition for our readers. 

(Editor) 


11

Interview: Khalid Athar 

The ICT industry 

is the cornerstone of modern economy 

Eng. Saud Al Daweesh 

STC Group CEO 

shares his insights on 4G 

and future business growth 

with Teletimes 

Teletimes - 

Please tell 

us about the 

achievements of 

the STC group 

during 2011 on national and 

international basis 

Saud Al Daweesh - STC 

group has grown from a local 

leading company to one of the 

biggest telecommunications 

companies in the region. 

This transformation took 

STC, as the biggest integrated telecommunication group in 

the Middle East, is heading towards further development and 

advancement, to expand in its local and 

global markets. 

place in a record 

time, through a series of 

significant investments that 

led to the success of purchasing 

operations, agreements and 

partnerships. Some of the most 

significant 

operations and investments are 

the following: 

•• Winning the Kuwait and 

Bahrain licenses, launching 

them commercially and their 

success to 

obtain large 

market shares 

in short times. 

••Acquiring a 

market share in (Maxis) 

that operates in both 

Malaysia and India 

Acquiring a market share in 

•• 

(OTL) group that operates in 

Turkey and South Africa. 

Locally, the company pursued 

its strategy that aims to 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

develop the telecommunication 

industry in the kingdom. The 

company headed towards 

transformation into digital era 

of Saudi economy and society, 

through radical development, 

in form and content of the 

telecommunication and 

information sector, by strategic 

investment in the wire 

and wireless infrastructure 

of the next generation of 

telecommunications' network, 

including Fiber Optics network 

for plants and homes and 4G 

LTE for mobiles. 

This strategic investment in 

technology led to a significant 

growth in local revenues from 

broadband services (fixed 

and mobile), fixed broadband 

customer base increased by 

27% and interactive TV (inVision) 

and converged services 

customer bases grew by 946%, 

112% respectively. 

Aljawal customers have increased 

by 3%, during 3rd quarter, 

as a result of the company's 

excellence in introducing new 

innovative offers on postpaid 

and prepaid jawal, quick net 

and smart device services. 

In order to present the latest 

technologies to its customers, 

the company continued its 

uniqueness in the field of smart 

and tablet devices which sales 

have increased by 300%. 

TT - Our readers would be 

interested in reading about your 

thinking behind the re-structuring 

of STC. What type of 

improvements are you expecting 

from this development in 

the near future 

SD - STC, as the biggest integrated 

telecommunication group 

in the Middle East, is heading 

towards further development 

and advancement, to expand 

in its local and global markets. 

A new organizational structure 

has been adopted to go in line 

with this new direction. 

Organizational structure consists 

of five key components: 

1. Strategic Operations which 

is responsible of strategic 

plans, human capital and 

regulatory affairs of the 

group. 

2. Saudi Telecommunication 

Company (STC) which 

provide fixed and mobile 

telecommunication services, 

broadband and enterprise 

sector services, in addition 

to financial activities in KSA. 

3. Technical Operations which 

is in charge of the network, 

IT and wholesales services. 

4. International Operations. 

5. Financial Operations. 

The implementation of the new 

organizational structure comes 

as an output of the LEAD strategy 

which focuses on maintaining 

the leading position of the 

company in fixed, mobile and 

broadband services as well as 

the enterprise sector services, 

taking into consideration external 

opportunities, where one 

of the important components 

of the new organizational 

structure is the International 

Operations sector, that deals 

with planning and managing 

group's activities internationally 

what reflected in an increase of 

34% in revenues from external 

operations, while maintaining 

its position in Saudi market. 

The LEAD Strategy is based on 

6 elements: 

Load in Next-Gen Broadband 

Differentiated Customer Experience. 

Consolidate International Leadership. 

Invest in People Capital 

Drive financial performance and 

agility. 

Promote leading brand and 

reputation. 

TT - STC has been the first to 

introduce 4G in the Middle 

East, how do you see this 

achievement as one of the many 

milestones STC has reached over 

time 

SD - The launch of 4G LTE 

services by STC as the first 

operator in MENA, is an important 

step from the company's 

keenness to adopt and launch 

the latest technologies in digital 

telecommunication world. The 

company adopted this technology 

in the beginning of 2010 

after successful rehearsals indicating 

that it is the next choice 

of a new era of mobile telecommunications. 

Furthermore, the company has 

the largest and the strongest 

infrastructure in the region, as 

well as it is one of the leading 

companies in the field of Fiber 

Optics and submarine cables 

and a key partner in all submarine 

cables that link South 

East Asia to Western Europe 

and North America through 

the Middle East. In addition 

to an infrastructure of wireless 

networks such as the 3G and 

WiMax and 4G LTE networks. 

The GSMA – ranked STC as the 


13

first company to launch the 4G 

LTE service on the region where 

it stated in its website that STC 

was the first company to launch 

in the region at the 12th of 

September 2011. 

TT - Could you please give us a 

current overview of the international 

operations of STC 

SD - As I have said, in the answer 

of the first question, STC 

managed to develop itself from 

a leading local company to one 

of the largest companies in the 

region. In Bahrain, STC group 

continued its growth, achieving 

an excellent performance 

that exceeded its entire targets, 

where customers' number 

increased by 28% during the 

9 months, exceeding target 

by 15% which led to revenues 

growth of 167% compared to 

the same period last year. 

In Kuwait, despite fierce competition 

in the market, VIVA 

continues exceeding its target in 

Q3 revenues. 

In its East Asian markets, 

Maxis in Malaysia continues its 

leadership to Malaysian telecommunication 

market, with a 

customers' base of 13 Millions. 

In Indonesia Axis acquired 

new customers in the 1st three 

quarters that reached 15 Million 

customer, and Axis revenues 

grew up to 268% for the last 9 

months. 

TT - How do you see the competition 

STC is facing on international 

level Do you foresee 

any tough competition for STC 

inside Saudi Arabia 

SD - STC group, with its internal 

experience in a market deemed 

one of the largest telecommunication 

markets in the region, 

and through its expansion with 

partners in external markets, 

is highly qualified to lead the 

industry in the region, and 

introduce the best services to 

its customers who exceeded 150 

million. 

TT - Would you like to tell us 

The launch of 4G LTE services by STC as the first operator 

in MENA, is an important step from the company's keenness 

to adopt and launch the latest technologies in digital 

telecommunication world. 

about some 

of the new 

innovative services, STC 

has launched recently 

SD - STC has signed several 

strategic partnerships with 

the best global companies, to 

deliver the best smart technological 

solutions, such as Blackberry 

and Samsung devices. 

The partnership with Facebook 

resulted in enabling STC 

customers to exclusively stay 

connected to the new Facebook 

java system mobile application 

in a new style, while the Twitter 

messages service kept customers 

in constant contact with the 

renowned Twitter website. The 

company also allowed customers 

to send SMSs through 

Gmail to any STC mobile for 

free. STC customers also enjoy 

the service of Nokia Store which 

is linked to the STC client billing 

system, i.e. the purchase value 

goes into customer's Jawal bill 

or deduct from the prepaid 

credit (SAWA or LANA) 

The invision service, being the 

first in its kind in the kingdom, 

provides customers with viewing 

TV, calling and browsing 

the internet, in addition to the 

launch of the Cloud Computing 

technology which will make radical 

difference in performance 

improvement for enterprise 

sector customers. 

TT - Please share with our readers, 

your thoughts about the 

latest and upcoming trends for 

telecommunications worldwide. 

SD - The ICT industry is 

the cornerstone of modern 

economy, that is why STC 

has established one of the up 

to date telecommunication 

infrastructures in the world, 

through which we are proud 

of delivering integrated 

telecommunication services, 

high speed broadband services 

for government, commercial, 

individuals and home 

customers, 

as well as we 

are proud of being the 

first in region to launch the 

4G LTE and the Fiber Optics 

services and the only operator 

who presents comprehensive 

packages of voice, internet and 

digital TV. 

TT - You have been declared 

the winner of 'Teletimes Man 

of the Year' Award for 2011 by 

the Awards Committee which 

has long been considering three 

very well-known personalities 

for this award. Please share 

with us your feelings on receiving 

this award. 

SD - “I am pleased to be 

nominated and declared ‘Teletimes 

Man of the Year 2011’, 

and I would like to thank the 

Teletimes team and the committee. 

In return I would like 

to congratulate Teletimes on 

their remarkable work over 

the past six years, indeed they 

have proven worthy to the IT & 

Telecom industry readers.” 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

Izhar Ahmad 

Progressive regulatory bodies 

across the region appear 

to be fully intent on bringing 

the most advanced technology 

to the users and the enterprise 

market. Co-operation enhancement 

across the ICT ecosystem, 

particularly among telecom operators, 

is also seen improving. 

Furthermore, policy-makers are 

observed creating, albeit gradually, 

incentives for operators to 

invest in broadband facilities, 

technologies, and services. The 

same progressive regulatory 

mindset has also been a catalyst 

for developing and launching 

broadband national plans. Such 

plans are being put forward 

for public-private partnered 

execution, and revolve around 

expanding broadband connectivity 

to underserved areas as well 

as inviting greater investments 

in fiber infrastructure. 

Following large-scale infrastructure 

expansions, regulatory 

bodies and the policy-makers 

have become attuned to the 

practice of infrastructure sharing. 

In this context, and in the 

views of both policy-makers and 

regulators, the rise in shared 

infrastructure investments has 

resulted in the formulation 

of better price structures for 

mobile, fixed-line, and broadband 

services. Furthermore, the 

resulting choice for the customers 

to migrate from one operator 

to another has simply become 

a function of great customer 

experience, no matter which 

The Inevitability 

of Infrastructure Sharing 

operator provides it. 

In the views of telecom operators, 

the willingness to share 

infrastructure amounts to 

achieving business openness, 

which, in turn, translates to cost 

advantages. However, operators 

need to strategize on infrastructure 

sharing by keeping in view 

several dimensions to 

sharing: Objectives and 

incentives; commercial 

versus environmental 

drivers; implications of 

extending availability of 

the network to competitors; 

and the extent 

of network sharing to 

efficiently achieve operational 

and cost benefits, 

while retaining independence 

in decision-making as 

regards capacity and service 

differentiation. 

Clearly, times have passed when 

commercial differentiation was 

measured by the expansiveness 

of the network. In the current 

times, differentiation depends 

on service platforms, service 

quality, data rates, and overall 

customer experience. Thus operators 

with existing large networks 

have the option and the 

incentives to be open toward 

infrastructure-sharing. 

One of the most prominent 

examples of infrastructure sharing 

has been that of UK-based 

Telefonica and Vodfaone. What 

both operators have done is, 

achieve passive infrastructuresharing. 

As a result, both companies 

are efficiently managing 

operational costs, but still make 

independent decisions on their 

bandwidth provisioning, site 

capacity, and service offerings. 

Notably, passive infrastructure 

sharing is also emerging in 

several markets of the SAMENA 

region and the globe, driven by 

both cost and environmental 

pressures. 

The more challenging aspect of 

infrastructure sharing, however, 

is active sharing, as it concerns, 

among other things, operators’ 

management of their sensitive 

site data and may require extensive 

investment on site and data 

management systems. Nonetheless, 

as operators launch 3G and 

4G networks, the speculation 

that operators would require 

sustainable economical ways to 

deliver advanced data services— 

and thus would need all the cost 

advantages that they can get— 

gains credence. Network rollouts 

that are realized through 

collaboration, that is sharing, 

have a potential to allow operators 

to meet high bandwidth 

demand more effectively and 

reduce risks that are associated 

with any network expansion 

project. 

While, historically, it has not 

been crucial for operators to 

engage in infrastructure sharing 

in order to succeed at business, 

the change in trend is inevitable. 

Next-generation 

networks will put 

greater pressures 

on operators to collaborate 

with other 

market players, as 

well as create and 

manage their unique 

service-based value 

propositions for their 

specific customer 

bases. 

Additionally, as policy-makers 

are witness to the fact that 

telecom operators make tangible 

contributions toward achieving 

and sustaining plausible GDP 

growth, they too need to act in 

sustaining investment incentives 

for operators, so that the latter 

can continually invest in and 

improve service portfolios for 

the end-users. 

The writer is government and 

external relations director with 

SAMENA Council and is active 

in policy and position issues 

as well as ICT regional market 

research. He is also an associate 

editor of Teletimes International. 

He holds an engineering 

degree from the Thomas J. 

Watson School of Engineering & 

Applied Science. 


15

Free For Operators 

Register & Pay Online 

Arab Advisors Group 

Smart Handheld Summit 

“Smart-phones and Handheld Devices 

Ecosystem in the Arab World” 

December 5 th & 6 th 2011 

Crowne Plaza Hotel 

Dubai, UAE 

Strategic Summit Partner: 

Sponsored by: 

In Association with: 

Media Partners: 

Conference Highlights 

Addressed by over 25 visionary 

executives and industry leaders 

Over 300 telecoms and media 

industry delegates expected 

Receive Arab Advisors reports 

of your choice when you register 

For Registration Please Contact Us: 

Tel. +962 6 5828849 

Fax +962 6 5828809 

muna@arabadvisors.com 

http://www.arabadvisors.com/SmartHandheld/schedule.htm 

To register online please visit: http://www.arabadvisors.com/SmartHandheld/registeronline.htm

Rola Osseiran 

Leading MENA telecommunications experts to 

discuss the importance of collaboration 

at SAMENA’s ‘Convergence to Doha 2011’ 

Two-day annual event to be held against the backdrop of the rapidly growing 

need to forge partnerships and integrate technologies to create 

a knowledge-based industry capable of offering innovative solutions 

Eng. Saud Al Daweesh 

Chairman - SAMENA 

Dr. Nasser Marafih, CEO - Qtel Group - Keynote address 

Bocar A'Ba 

President - SAMENA 

Thomas Wilson 

Founder & CEO - SAMENA 

Eminent telecommunications 

experts and market leaders 

from across the South Asia, 

Middle East and North Africa 

region will convene in Doha 

– Qatar to discuss key technology 

areas and their impacts on 

technological progression and 

revenue generation at “Convergence 

to Doha 2011”, the annual 

flagship event of SAMENA 

Telecommunications Council. 

The two-day event will be held 

on November 1st and 2nd at 

Sharq Village & SPA by Ritz 

Carlton Hotel and will vindicate 

the tri-regional telecommunications 

consortium’s sensitivity 

towards the importance of collaboration 

within the industry, 

to offer innovative products 

and services that cater to the 

technology-savvy consumers’ 

escalating demands. 

Mr. Bocar A. Ba, President 

of SAMENA Telecommunications 

Council said, “Amidst 

the growing concerns of the 

fragility of the global economy 

and the looming debt crisis, 

the telecommunications sector 

is increasingly being looked 

at as the silver lining and as 

a windfall for various govern- 

Contd. on page 20 


17


Smart Handheld Summit 2011 

convenes in Dubai on 5-6 Dec in a time of enhanced adoption 

of smartphones across the Arab region 

Smartphone adoption in 

the Arab World is booming. 

According to new insightful 

surveys from the Arab 

Advisors Group, smartphones 

constituted around 42% and 

44% of total cellular handsets 

in Jordan and UAE respectively. 

The expanding smartphone 

base in the Arab World 

presents great opportunities 

for players in smartphones 

and smart handheld devices 

ecosystem. Challenges include 

enticing smartphone owners to 

make more use of the functionality 

and applications on 

their smartphones. The Smart 

Handheld Summit will avail a 

platform for all industry stakeholders 

to discuss and debate 

this industry’s key issues. 

The Arab Advisors Group 

concluded a ground breaking 

survey of cellular users in the 

UAE probing smartphones 

adoption and usage. The survey 

revealed that Blackberry 

leads with 51% share of smartphones 

operating systems 

(calculated based on handsets’ 

brands). iOS (iPhone) ranked 

second while Symbian came in 

third. Smartphone users prefer 

the English language for their 

applications. As for the survey 

of cellular users in Jordan, it 

revealed that Symbian leads 

with 62% share of smartphones 

operating systems. iOS 

and Blackberry share the second 

place while Android came 

Ghassan Hasbani 

CEO - International STC 

Fadi Ghandour 

Founder & CEO - Aramex 

in third. Smartphone users also 

prefer the English language for 

their applications. 

Arab Advisors Group’s Smart 

Handheld Summit 2011 set to 

take place in Dubai on December 

5 & 6 2011 at the Crowne 

Plaza Hotel, comes at a time 

where the new and evolving 

landscape of broadband enabled 

devices is of paramount 

importance to operators, 

content owners, broadcasters 

and publishers, according to 

Nayla Khawam 

CEO - Jordan Telecom Group 

Jawad Abbassi 

Founder & GM - AAG 

regional research house and 

summit organizer Arab Advisors 

Group, a member of the 

Arab Jordan Investment Bank 

Group. 

Over the summit’s two days, 

delegates will interact with an 

impressive array of speakers 

that include Ms. Nayla 

Khawam (CEO, Jordan Telecom 

Group), Mr. Osman Sultan 

(CEO, DU), Mr. Ghassan 

Hasbani (CEO International, 

STC, Dr. Abdul Malek Al 

Osman Sultan 

CEO - du 

Hosam El Sokkari 

Head of Audience - Yahoo 

Jaber (Founder and Chairman, 

MENA Apps), Mr. Rashid Al 

Ballaa (CEO, N2V), Mr. Tom 

Erskine (Director of Smart 

Devices, Nokia), Mr. Gustavo 

Fuchs (Director, Mobility, Microsoft 

Middle East & Africa), 

Mr. Fadi Ghandour (CEO, 

Aramex), Mr. Nick Dimarzo 

(CEO, SaleCo), Mr. David 

Ashford (General Manager, 

AppsArabia), Mr. Mohamad 

Mourad (Regional Manager 

Gulf, Google), Mr. Hosam El 


19

Sokkari (Head of Audience, 

Yahoo), Mr. Mohammed 

Al-Mefleh (Director, Product 

Management Middle East, 

Research In Motion), Mr. 

Basel Tutunji (Chief Operating 

Officer, nPARIO), Dr. Ammar 

Bakkar (Director of New 

Media, MBC), Mr. Fawzi Rahhal 

(Regional Digital Director, 

Grey) and Mr. Jawad Abbassi 

(Founder and General Manager, 

Arab Advisors Group). 

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) 

is the Strategic Summit Partner 

of Arab Advisors Smart 

Handheld Summit 2011 set to 

take place in Dubai on the 5th 

and 6th of December 2011. 

STC clarified that its sponsorship 

to this conference 

comes as an affirmation of its 

eminent role in the region and 

its leadership in the field of 

communications and internet, 

and as strategic objective 

through which the company 

Contd. from page 17 Convergance to Doha 2011 

seeks to effectively exist in 

regional and international 

technological events, where 

the latest smart innovations, 

products, devices, solutions, 

applications and programs are 

demonstrated, especially that 

the company is undertaking 

the mission of exclusively providing 

Saudi market with the 

latest smart devices, tablets 

and laptops. 

Through this participation, the 

company added, it is seeking 

to meet and communicate with 

largest gathering of the elite 

from specialists, experts, technicians 

and representatives 

of international manufacturers 

and providers of wireless 

services, applications and solutions, 

and mobile information 

and smart devices, which will 

definitely leave its impact on 

STC customers, in the provision 

of the latest smart technologies 

such as personal digital 

assistants, smart devices, 

wireless networks' equipments 

and applications and solutions 

for remote transfer and 

exchange of information. 

The Smart Handheld Summit 

will be tackling key defining 

topics through panels, 

presentations, and one-on-one 

encounters. These Sessions 

will discuss the ecosystem 

of Smart Phones in the Arab 

World and its state. Telecom 

Operators, International 

Vendors, Media Companies, 

Content Owners and Technology 

companies will have the 

chance to discuss their roles in 

driving the economy forward, 

the opportunities for application 

developers for the Arab 

World and from the Arab 

World, the evolving business 

models and revenue streams 

and lastly the role of clusters 

and business hubs in developing 

the content Your browser 

may not support display of this 

image. and models for smart 

handhelds in the Arab World. 

Presentations and Panels 

will follow through the 2-day 

summit including presentations 

from keynote speakers 

representing the summit’s 

strategic partner and sponsor: 

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) 

and Qualcomm. The Summit 

also includes a large exhibition 

hall where participants, which 

include Microsoft, nPario and 

AppsArbia, will provide informative 

materials to highlight 

their companies’ competitive 

aspects. Covering the conference 

before, during and after 

the media; printed, online or 

broadcasted, will continue to 

have a strong presence. The 

Smart Handheld Summit Media 

Partners include; Teletimes 

International, DVV Media, ITP 

CommsMEA, MediaMe and 

Telecom Watch. 

ments that are striving to 

stimulate economic growth. 

Promoting and bringing to 

fruition convergence within the 

telecommunications industry, 

in order to create a knowledgebased 

sector that can develop 

and implement an informed 

and innovative roadmap for 

progression, has never been 

more important. SAMENA’s 

‘Convergence to Doha 2011’ 

will provide regional telecommunications 

professionals with 

the opportunity to identify 

collaborative approaches and 

growth prospects to not only 

meet consumer demand but 

also increase revenues.” 

“This year’s event is very important 

not only from an industry 

perspective due to the unique 

challenges that the regional 

telecommunications industry is 

facing and the opportunity that 

it offers, but also for the Council 

itself for a number of reasons. 

Not only will a new Board 

of Directors be appointed for 

SAMENA, a new Sub-Sea Committee 

will also be announced. 

In addition, owing to the tremendous 

success and response 

that we have received to the 

‘Annual SAMENA Awards’, we 

have added an extra category 

this year for Satellite Providers”, 

added Ba. 

This high-profile annual gathering 

will feature a key note 

address by Dr. Nasser Marafih- 

CEO of the Qtel Group, and a 

CEO Live Session on the “Role 

of ICT in the economic growth”, 

moderated by Karim Sabbagh 

– Booz & Co and high profile 

speakers and CEOs including 

Mr. Saud Al Daweesh- CEO of 

the STC Group, Jamal Jarwan 

- CEO Etisalat International 

Investments, Mr. Karim Daoud- 

CEO of Intigral, Mrs. Nayla 

Khawam- CEO of Orange Jordan, 

Mr. Osman Sultan – CEO 

du, Mr. Andrew Hanna – Viva 

Bahrain, Mr. Hakam Kanafani 

- Turk Telekom, Mr. Wilson 

Varghese – Kalimat and Mr. 

Mohamad Al Mandjra – Meditel. 

Mr. Thomas Wilson – CEO 

SAMENA will give a closing key 

note address. 

The ‘4th Annual SAMENA 

Awards’ will be held in conjunction 

with the gala dinner on 

November 1st to recognize 

leadership and excellence in the 

telecommunications industry in 

the SAMENA region. The five 

categories of the awards that 

will be bestowed upon the most 

deserving telecommunications 

organizations and professionals, 

assessed after a meticulous 

performance-based evaluation 

are: Telecom Operator Awards 

(8 awards), Regulator Awards 

(3 awards), Vendor Awards (2 

awards), Individual Awards (4 

awards) and the newly added - 

Satellite Awards (2 awards). 

Other key Sessions of the 

‘Convergence to Doha 2011’ will 

be, “Building a More Transparent 

ICT Policy Platform 

for All Stakeholders in the 

Region”, “Building a Sustainable 

Internet Business Model”, 

“Infrastructure Sharing - Capex 

Optimization”, “Broadband 

Infrastructure Policy - Path to 

the Future” and “LTE Developmental 

Spectrum Policy and 

Related Issues Harmonization 

and Efficiencies”. 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

iPad and beyond: 

The media tablet in business 

Media tablets present 

a variety of new 

opportunities for business, while 

supplementing traditional uses 

of notebooks and smartphones. 

Tablets present a new design 

point for applications, and 

require a new set of policies, 

technologies and skills. 

ANALYSIS 

This special report highlights 

Gartner's research and advice 

to customers on best practices 

for business uses of the media 

tablet. Running throughout 

2011 with periodic updates, it 

describes why media tablets 

matter to business and 

government, how to deploy 

them, and how to deliver 

applications to them. The 

phenomenon will change the 

future of computing in business. 

Read ahead to get up to speed 

on what is happening in a very 

fast-moving area, and to get 

insight on what your next move 

should be. 

Media tablets seem to be 

everywhere. The iPad brought to 

life a new model of computing 

centered around Web browsing, 

applications and media 

consumption, which is a smash 

success. 

It makes computing practical 

in many new locations where 

a laptop or a smartphone just 

wouldn't cut it. The convenientto-use, 

instant-on, responsive 

media tablet is not the tablet 

PC experience we first saw: It is 

not merely a touchscreen or pen 

interface bolted onto the PC. 

It has spawned a huge variety 

of applications designed for 

the unique environment. The 

media tablet is proving to be 

something new, but the device 

itself is only part of the story. 

The packaging of hardware and 

software that Apple created 

with the iPad, along with the 

ecosystem of applications and 

media that surrounded it, has 

made the real difference. 

The iPad, and an anticipated 

larger wave of media tablets, 

has captured the imagination 

of business leaders. Some 

companies have issued them 

to business and IT leaders 

in the spirit of exploration. 

Others see areas in which they 

can use media tablets to bring 

computing into settings that 

were not practical or were too 

cumbersome to use traditional 

approaches. For the consumer, 

the iPad brought a casual but 

rich experience onto the living 

room couch, or the train, or 

while waiting in line at the 

bank. In turn, IT organizations 

are finding new places where 

tablets can deliver information 

and media in ways that were 

not practical, too cumbersome 

or just too unwieldy. Tablets 

remove the burden of computing 

and let the user merely act — 

and get useful work done. 

The devices may be beautiful 

to hold and use, but there 

are critical aspects of Apple's 

approach that are more 

important than the device 

itself, such as the supporting 

ecosystem of applications 

and media content, and the 

developer ecosystem behind 

it, and the consistent design 

principles that create a 

compelling experience for the 

user. 

Although they have suddenly 

appeared in many visible 

locations, the absolute numbers 

of media tablets are relatively 

David A. Willis 

low. Media tablet shipments are 

expected to be approximately 

69 million in 2011, which is 

only a small fraction of the 

total number of applicationcapable 

mobile devices, such as 

smartphones. Yet the impact in 

the minds of the public is much 

greater than the numbers alone 

describe, and the design impacts 

on other forms of computing will 

be great. IT leaders themselves 

are among the most visible 

users of media tablets. In large 

sessions at Gartner conferences 

in 2010, we estimate that more 

than one-quarter of attendees 

were carrying iPads. CIOs are 

determined not to make the 

same mistakes they made 

with smartphones, which 

were often written off early as 

expensive and frivolous toys, 

or executive status symbols — 

which then left room for more 

inventive leaders who saw the 

competitive advantage that 

mobile applications would bring. 

They are also more willing to 

see that they don't need to 

supply and manage every device 

that employees use at work: 

Consumerization is here to stay, 

and moving very fast. If you 

can think of an application for 

tablets, your competition may 

well be thinking in the same 

way — and acting on it. As we 

noted in "CEO Advisory: Seize 

the iPad Opportunity Now," it is 

time to explore the use of media 

tablets in business. 

Infrastructure support teams, 

which have always been the 

most resistant to new devices, 

are also embracing the trend 

faster than any other major 

computing shift we have seen. 

They anticipate broad adoption 


21

in their companies. At Gartner's 

December 2010 Infrastructure 

and Operations Conference, 

85% of the audience stated 

they expect to support media 

tablets, and 48% were already 

supporting them within six 

months of the iPad's launch (see 

"Managing the Next 

Generation of Client 

Computing"). 

Companies that had already 

recognized the flood of 

consumer devices coming into 

business, and had figured out 

a way to leverage it rather 

than fight it, have been more 

prepared to embrace media 

tablets. Those who embraced 

managed diversity (see "Use 

Managed Diversity to Support 

Endpoint Devices," and figured 

out how to manage and secure 

iPhones, were developing 

strategies to manage and keep 

iPads secure — not after months 

of study, but within weeks of 

the iPad's launch. 

Media tablets are not better 

laptops 

As originally noted in "iPads: 

Not Notebook Replacements, 

but Still Useful for Business," 

media tablets provide a different 

user experience than laptops. 

Rather than a full replacement 

for conventional PCs, they are 

a convenient supplement. By 

activating instantly, they allow 

a user to get right to what he or 

she needs immediately, without 

long and frustrating startup 

times. With few mechanical 

parts, media tablets have 

exceptional battery life. The best 

are responsive, tactile and 

inviting. In a common mobileworker 

scenario, employees 

may travel with a media tablet 

during the day, but then return 

to their laptops in the after 

hours for heads-down data entry 

or content creation. 

The design principles used in 

media tablets have already 

impacted mobile design in a big 

way, and over the next couple of 

years, the design of notebooks 

and desktops will change at the 

device level, with technologies 

such as multitouch and motion 

sensing, and at the application 

distribution level, with users 

subscribing to applications 

within an ecosystem via a 

portal. 

This working model has 

distinct advantages. In midconversation 

with a client, a 

sales agent can open up a media 

tablet as naturally as opening 

up a book, and then casually 

walk through documents 

and videos — avoiding the 

awkward, finger-drumming 

delays of booting a laptop and 

launching applications. Many 

sales leaders are clamoring to 

adopt them in their workforce. 

And it won't stop there: Next 

will come customer relationship 

management systems, order 

entry and sales configuration 

applications. For sales managers, 

media tablets will be a natural 

platform for business analytics 

and performance dashboards. 

In other settings, the intimacy 

of using a media tablet supports 

more personal interactions. 

Doctors, nurses and medical 

technicians find they 

can sit down with a patient 

and help a patient understand 

a diagnoses, walk through a 

medical procedure and describe 

a therapy with them. 

Retail clerks can use tablets 

to display customized clothing 

for a customer. Conference 

attendees can take surveys with 

no training required (for one 

such example, see "Medtronic: 

Making better decisions 

faster"). 

Business processes where people 

need information while they 

are walking or sitting down 

are good candidates for media 

tablet applications. Modest 

form-based data entry systems 

are easy to create. Extensive 

data entry is not advised, at 

least not without external 

keyboards, at which point 

the dividing line between the 

smallest notebook computer 

and the media tablet becomes 

very fine — a subject which we 

will attack in an update to this 

special report later in 2011. 

Media tablets are not better 

smartphones 

Just as media tablets don't 

replace PCs, they also will 

not replace mobile phones 

as voice devices, even in the 

smaller form factors, such as 

those with 7-inch displays. As 

noted in "Media Tablets as 

Communicators Are Not Quite 

a Category Killer," there will 

be opportunities to use media 

tablets for communication and 

collaboration applications in a 

shared office setting, such as a 

conference room or a fixed desk 

location (especially for video). 

Here they do not compete 

in the same space as the 

general-purpose media tablet, 

such as the iPad (although a 

future general- purpose device 

could make these devices 

unnecessary). They may play 

a part in a broader integrated 

unified communications (UC) 

strategy. We've looked at 

two early versions, from Cisco 

and Avaya (see "Cisco's Cius 

Is Targeted at Moving Users 

Beyond Voice to Video and 

Collaboration" and "Avaya: A 

New User Experience, and an 

Android Conferencing Device to 

Run It"). We believe these are 

early examples of purpose-built 

tablets targeted at special uses 

for business. 

But although media tablets are 

not generally replacements for 

notebooks or for smartphones, 

they still have enormous 

potential in the workplace. They 

can be a convenient replacement 

for tasks where a notebook 

seemed to be the only option 

(e.g., reading and otherwise 

consuming data). They can also 

serve as data entry devices for 

short tasks where a smartphone 

is too small, such as for simple 

forms entry. Another interesting 

set of uses centers around 

tablets permanently mounted 

in a physical location, such as a 

kiosk, vehicle or elevator. 

Beyond the iPad 

Apple may have redefined 

what a computing tablet is, but 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

others are also joining in. For 

Apple's often well-capitalized 

competitors, this will be a 

high-stakes battle. Not only will 

Google compete via Android 

(working with many hardware 

manufacturers), but so will 

Research In Motion (RIM) with 

QNX, and HP with WebOS. 

While Microsoft and Nokia have 

each been holding their cards 

close to their chests as of this 

writing, they will surely enter 

the game during 2011. And all 

the while, Apple is not standing 

still (see "RIM Adopts QNX 

Platform Strategy, Announces 

Tablet," "A Perspective on 

Android 2.2 for the Enterprise" 

and "iPad 2 Will Stay on Top of 

the Tablet Market by Delivering 

a Richer Experience"). 

Fundamentally, the market 

battle will not hinge on features 

and specifications, on the fit 

and finish of a given 

device, or even on 

a device at all: The 

platform that will 

prevail will have a strong 

supporting ecosystem of 

developers producing a wide 

range of applications. And in 

this area, 

Apple is far ahead of any 

competition. Not only does it 

have a first-mover advantage 

in the device itself, but it has 

built a curated application 

distribution mechanism in the 

App Store that is notable both 

for how users hold it in high 

regard and how detractors see it 

as a limitation. In the end, 

Apple's lead will be very difficult 

to beat. 

Managing and securing media 

tablets 

Done properly, and with a 

new strategy, managing media 

tablets need not create a huge 

burden or put the organization 

at risk. 

For now, Apple is at the center 

of the media tablet discussion. 

The fact that it is already in 

demand by end users, has a 

curated application experience 

that mitigates business risk 

and shares an approach with 

other iOS devices, especially 

the iPhone, makes it a good and 

safe choice for businesses. 

The conventional wisdom 

about Apple's position in the 

enterprise isn't always true: 

You can manage iPads and 

iPhones securely to a level that 

is sufficient for most companies. 

A business can deliver its own 

applications and avoid most of 

the tight restrictions of Apple's 

consumer App Store. And at this 

point, Apple devices are priced 

competitively. Apple merely has 

a strategy for enterprise support 

that is a different approach from 

what the traditional IT suppliers 

offer. For device 

management 

and security, Apple provides 

capabilities for third parties 

to provide full mobile device 

management and security, as 

explained in "Apple Delivers 

Major Upgrade to 

Enterprise Capabilities in iOS 4." 

For a more general view of 

security, see "Four Architectural 

Approaches to Limit Business 

Risk on Consumer Smartphones 

and Tablets" and "How to 

Support Corporate E-Mail and 

Other Applications on Personal 

Devices," as well as "How to 

Secure the Corporate Data on 

Your iPad or iPhone." 

Application licensing is another 

consideration that organizations 

must understand. Devices like 

iPads owned by users and 

used off-premises are licensed 

differently, and may be less 

expensive to license than iPads 

owned by the organization 

(see "Ensure Apple iPads Are 

Licensed Correctly to Use 

Microsoft Products to Avoid 

Problems"). 

Longer term, a general device 

management strategy that 

combines both traditional 

and mobile computing may 

prevail (see "Managing Client 

Computing Through 2015" and 

"Managing the Next 

Generation of Client 

Computing"). 

Mobile policy implications 

The unstoppable 

trend of 

consumerization is 

forcing leaders to rethink their 

mobile policies and provide more 

choices for users, even going as 

far as opening up to any device 

the user may want to choose. 

The tradeoffs between a tightly 

controlled and more-open 

approach are examined in "New 

Approaches to Managing Mobile 

Users and Smartphones." 

The variety of platforms is 

creating a very active market 

for mobile device management, 

as noted in "Mobile Device 

Management 2010: A Crowd 

of Vendors Pursue Consumer 

Devices in the Enterprise." 

Application delivery 

Organizations that actively 

embrace mobile applications 

will have some tough choices 

to make. Is it better to build 

a highly functional thickclient 

application for a single 

platform, or is it better to 

use Web technologies, or is it 

better to use cross-compilation 

technologies and tools that 

support more vendors, even with 

fewer features We examine 

these tradeoffs and rank the 

vendors in "Magic Quadrant for 

Mobile Enterprise Application 

Platforms." 

The new style of application 

delivery found in Apple's App 

Store, which now spans not only 

mobile devices, but conventional 

desktops and notebooks, will 

also change application delivery, 

software distribution and 

employee portals. 

Developing applications 

To gain the most competitive 

advantage, many organizations 

will find that merely using 

off-the-shelf applications will 

not be enough, and will 

decide to pursue custom 

applications. But the 

world of media tablet and 

smartphone development is 

very different from the world of 

conventional static applications, 

so new tools and disciplines are 

in order. 

For application developers, 

media tablets present a new 

design point, which sits between 

a pocketable smartphone with 

a small screen and limited 

input options versus a luggable 

notebook PC with a large screen 

and traditional mouse/keyboard 

input. More importantly, it is 

one that emphasizes softer 

aspects that technologists tend 

to ignore: empathy, feel and 

even emotion. 

New design factors are discussed 

in "From iPads to Portals: A 

World of Doors and Windows." 

A broader analysis of the Apple 

approach to design that can 

be applied to many aspects of 

architecture and development 

is described in our work on 

design thinking and empathetic 



23

Telecom firms: 

'facing multiple challenges' 

Telecom operators worldwide 

face numerous obstacles to 

continued success including stagnating 

growth, heightened competition 

and growing consumer 

sophistication, according to 

research by Booz & Company. As 

these trends are still nascent in 

the region, GCC telecom operators 

have thus far implemented 

tactical, short-term initiatives to 

overcome these obstacles. 

But opportunity abounds for 

GCC operators to prepare for 

future challenges by adopting a 

comprehensive cost management 

plan, addressing incremental efficiencies, 

process re-engineering 

and value chain restructuring. 

Operators who do not implement 

wide-ranging plans to manage 

their costs run the risk of steep 

declines in profitability. These 

new trends, hindering the telecom 

operators, are starting to 

emerge in the GCC region, with 

revenue growth in the telecom 

sector slowing, competition rising, 

and consumers increasingly 

demanding more services and 

better performance at reduced 

prices. 'The global operators 

hit hardest by these trends 

have undertaken substantive 

measures to adapt structurally 

to face these challenges,' said 

Booz & Company principal Chady 

Smayra. 'GCC operators also are 

starting to respond to the trends 

now emerging in the region 

through tactical and short-term 

cost reductions. These moves 

will prove to be insufficient to 

mitigate the full impact of the 

trends affecting the sector.' By 

rigorously identifying and applying 

relevant cost measures, 

telecom operators can position 

themselves to weather the ongoing 

industry challenges and 

extract benefits from leaner 

operations, the report argues. 

There are three waves of cost 

optimisation that operators 

need to consider: These are 

incremental efficiency, process 

re-engineering, and value chain 

restructuring. 

'Deploying the right mix of these 

initiatives will enable operators 

to create or sustain value, 

outperform their competitors, 

and secure their sustainability in 

chosen markets,' said Smayra. 

'Although revenue growth is still 

positive in the GCC region, it 

has begun to slow recently,' said 

Booz & Company partner Hilal 

Halaoui. 'Average returns on 

assets have dropped by nearly 

half over the past five years to 

approximately eight per cent per 

year, and appear headed toward 

5 per cent, level commonly seen 

in saturated markets.' 

'The GCC region recently has 

seen increases in competition 

and market fragmentation, as 

well as a slowdown in growth. 

Based on the experiences in 

the other more mature markets, 

it, too, will soon face added 

pressure from consumers. 'In 

response, operators will need to 

prepare for constrained growth 

and compensate by creating 

leaner organisations. Essentially, 

regional incumbents will have 

to increase their marketing 

expenditures, and in turn, try 

to reduce many other costs,' the 

expert added. 

Contd. from page 23 

design (see "Gain a Foundation 

in Design Thinking to Apply 

Gartner's Hybrid Thinking 

Research"). 

Because of the complexities 

and hazards of developing 

applications for specific 

platforms, widespread 

availability of mobile broadband 

and gradual improvements in 

HTML5, we anticipate many 

organizations will elect to create 

more thin-client applications 

as their principal strategy (see 

"Mobile Architectures, 2009 

iPad and beyond 

Through 2012: A Trend Toward 

Thin"). HTML5 will not be 

the answer to all problems, 

as noted in "HTML5 and 

the Future of Adobe Flash." 

When it is necessary to deliver 

applications to two or more 

target platforms, especially 

when advanced device features 

and offline capabilities are 

needed, cross-platform tools 

will play a more important 

role, as described in "Cross- 

Platform Mobile Application 

Development Tools: Interest 

and Capability Expected to 

Grow." An overview of the 

available tools for smartphones 

(and, by extension, some 

media tablets) is available in 

"Choosing Development Tools 

for Smartphone App Store 

Applications." You'll find more 

on developing applications 

for the mobile environment, 

especially for smartphones, 

in "ATV: Guide for Mobile 

Application Development, 

Sourcing and Support." 

By getting computing out of the 

way of what the user wants to 

do, media tablets prove that 

automation doesn't have to be a 

tortuous and difficult experience 

for the user, requiring extensive 

training for poorly designed 

and nonintuitive environments. 

It doesn't have to be complex. 

In future updates during 2011, 

we will go even deeper into the 

areas of business applications 

for media tablets, as well as 

device management, application 

delivery strategies and 

application development. T 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

O3b Networks Empowers 

O3b Networks has what it 

takes to unleash the full 

power of the Internet, even in 

the most remote regions of the 

Middle East and Africa. The 

first-of-its-kind satellite operator 

has more than enough bandwidth 

to open doors to new 

opportunities and economic development 

in places lagging far 

behind the broadband boom. 

The next generation platform 

combines the reach of satellite 

with the speed of fiber at a 

price point capable of making 

the Internet a truly global 

experience. 

“O3b delivers more bandwidth 

at lower latencies and costs 

than ever before,” explained 

Steve Collar, CEO of O3b 

Networks, the largest Ka-band 

operator in the world. “That’s 

a winning formula for telecom 

service providers determined 

to meet the growing demand 

for broadband in the countries, 

regions and communities they 

serve.” 

O3b was developed to deliver 

Unique satellite fleet to deliver affordable 

Steve Collar, CEO-O3b Networks 

high speed connectivity to the 

hard-to-reach and underserved 

markets around the world. 

And already one-third of O3b’s 

capacity is sold, ahead of the 

launch of its initial fleet of 

eight Medium Earth Orbit 

(MEO) satellites in early 2013. 

A Bigger Pipe 

At least 20% of the IP Trunking 

traffic across the Middle East 

and Africa is delivered today 

over standard geostationary 

satellites at price points significantly 

higher than the cost of 

O3b’s new IP Trunking solution. 

Just launched this month, 

O3b Trunk is a tiered, bundled 

offering designed to deliver 

affordable, fiber-like capacity 

anywhere within 45 degrees of 

the equator. 

“Telecommunications carriers 

and Internet service providers 

simply select the speed of the 

connection they want and we 

provide them the fully-managed 

O3b Trunk solution,” noted 

John Finney, Chief Commercial 

Officer for O3b. The new O3b 

Trunk service offers up a wide 

range of broadband capacity 

options, from 100Mbps to 

1.2Gbps. 

“O3b Trunk delivers unparalleled 

bandwidth flexibility, 

which enables a wide range of 

providers to grow their services 

in direct correlation to market 

demand,” Finney said. “Our offering 

of more bandwidth, lower 

latency and affordable pricing is 

eliminating the primary barriers 

to connectivity and growth in 

the emerging markets,” added 

Teletimes Special Report 

Finney. 

“As the pipe is opened up, 

more bandwidth drives new 

broadband applications, such as 

voice, mobile data and fixedline 

Internet access, that simply 

weren’t available before,” Collar 

added. “We’re set to deliver 

large amounts of bandwidth 

wherever our customers need 

it, at a cost that makes sense in 

today’s emerging markets,” said 

Collar. 

A World of Opportunities 

The Middle East is a land of 

opportunities as diverse as the 

countries that make up this vast 

region. In Iraq, for example, 

where one of the biggest challenges 

is the absence of reliable 

power, O3b is well positioned 

to deliver on the high demand 

for connectivity. 

“The power infrastructure 

across Iraq is extremely poor 

and unreliable, much like the 

regional fiber networks that are 

heavily dependent on power,” 

Collar noted. “There’s a huge 

need for communications 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

Underserved Markets 

broadband to the Middle East, Africa and beyond 

throughout Iraq, and O3b is in 

a prime position to deliver on 

that demand over the next five 

to ten years.” 

One of the region’s largest ISPs, 

NEDA has signed on with O3b 

to deliver broadband connectivity 

throughout Afghanistan. 

And Soroof has secured 

substantial O3b bandwidth to 

deliver a range of trunking and 

mobile backhaul services into 

Saudi Arabia. 

“We see very strong demand 

for O3b services and solutions 

across the Middle East,” noted 

Finney. And despite the availability 

of multiple fiber networks 

on Africa’s coasts, inland 

regions of Africa are preparing 

to connect with O3b. 

Ethiopia is full of opportunities, 

as the country’s economy 

churns strongly ahead and continues 

to rely on satellite-based 

trunking services to drive much 

of its short-term and long-term 

growth. 

In South Africa, provider Mavoni 

is going to deliver highlyanticipated 

connectivity at 

fiber-like speeds to the South 

African provinces of Limpopo, 

Mpumalanga and the Northern 

Cape. Nearly 2,000 schools will 

be connected in the rural areas 

of Limpopo and the Northern 

Cape alone. 

“Mavoni and O3b will be 

serving schools, colleges and 

government facilities in the 

underserved Northeastern 

region of South Africa, which 

simply doesn’t have the level 

of bandwidth the rest of South 

Africa enjoys,” said Collar. 

“Delivering access to all is at 

the core of what we do at O3b, 

and it’s certainly an achievable 

mission together with customers 

like Mavoni in South Africa 

and NEDA, Soroof and Etisalat 

across the Middle East and 

beyond.” 

Etisalat already serves more 

than 100 million customers 

across the Middle East, Africa 

and Asia and is now in a position 

to meet long-term capacity 

demands after inking a deal 

with O3b to offer region-specific 

solutions. 

Off the coast of Nigeria, Netcom 

Africa will utilize O3b bandwidth 

to better serve oil and 

gas rigs in the Niger Delta. 

O3b’s higher throughput and 

lower prices will enable a 

whole new world of broadband 

services aboard the offshore 

platforms. 

The O3b Difference 

“We’re still discovering new 

customer scenarios and applications 

where we can deploy 

O3b in ways that make a real 

difference,” said Collar. “It’s the 

un-served and underserved. It’s 

the communities, businesses, 

regions and governments 

that don’t have access to the 

capabilities our bandwidth can 

provide,” he added, recalling 

a recent trip to the Amazon 

region of Brazil. 

Collar and a team of O3b colleagues 

were in the capital 

city of Manaus for a signing 

ceremony to commemorate 

the capacity deal with service 

provider Ozonio. Several state 

governors and city mayors from 

across the Amazon region and 

the state of Amazonas traveled 

to the event to mark the important 

milestone. 

“All of them spoke passionately 

about how exasperated they 

were when the remote Amazon 

region had been left out of Brazil’s 

national broadband plan,” 

recalled Collar. “It was enormously 

gratifying to hear them 

explain just how important it is 

for O3b and Ozonio to enable 

their communities to participate 

in the broadband movement 

with the rest of Brazil.” 

O3b is really on to something 

new and exciting, the state and 

local leaders proclaimed. “We 

really are providing a solution 

that no one else can deliver,” 

noted Finney. “It’s a unique 

combination of unmatched 

bandwidth and cost effectiveness 

that makes O3b so 

compelling for so many telcos 

and network service providers 

around the globe.” 

Countdown to Launch 

With the unveiling of its core 

IP Trunking product, O3b Trunk 

complete and the launch of its 

initial eight-satellite constellation 

fast approaching, O3b is 

John Finney, CCO-O3b Networks 

installing seven strategic global 

gateways around the world. The 

first two teleports are under 

construction in Greece and 

Hawaii. 

Soon these mission-critical 

sites will be feeding the highcapacity, 

IP bandwidth that 

will ultimately play a key role 

in transforming the emerging 

world. 

“There is a growing sense of excitement 

as we get closer to the 

launch of O3b,” noted Collar, 

referring to a growing customer 

lineup expected to number in 

the dozens by liftoff. And the 

dream of closing the bandwidth 

gap that is on the verge 

of coming true. “Our ability to 

help whole countries, communities 

and companies tap into a 

brighter, connected future is 

the main reason people work 

at O3b.” 

And it’s the biggest reason telecom 

and service providers have 

already staked their claim to 

a block of O3b capacity, ready 

to elevate their businesses and 

their customers in an increasingly 

connected world. 


27

TELSA Exhibition & Conference 

The Only Dedicated B2B Telecommunications Event for Saudi Arabia 

29 – 31 January 2012 

Four Seasons Hotel, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 

5,000+ Participants 4000+ Sqm Exhibition 60+ Exhibitors 300+ Conference delegates 

TELSA is the perfect platform to: 

Showcase your products and services to the largest gathering 

of Telecoms and ICT professionals in Saudi Arabia 

 

they share insights and strategies 

 

companies 

 

 

 

Organised by: 

Industry Media Partner 

For more information contact: 

Ahmed Zakaria 

Exhibition Manager – Telsa 

Tel: +971 (0) 4 4072475 

Fax: +971 (0) 4 3351891 

Email: info@telsaexpo.com 

Scan this code with 

your mobile QR Reader 

to visit our website. 

www.telsaexpo.com

Policy management: 

A new battle ground for vendor 

The exciting move into an all 

– IP environment has been 

creating a lot ripple effect in the 

telecom industry. The consumer 

is so excited that everyone is 

just jumping into the bandwagon 

equipping themselves with smart 

phones that will enable them 

to enjoy the services offered to 

an all IP environment. And as 

the consumer anxiousness and 

anticipation grows, telecom 

operators are scrambling not on 

only to prepare what they can 

offer in terms of services and 

packages but in terms of how it 

can be delivered efficiently into 

the new environment. 

Like a simple home network 

management principle, the new 

environment would entail a lot 

of facets to be able to deliver an 

outstanding quality of service 

to the customer. Managing 

the network is one of the most 

important parts as we move into 

the next phase of the technology. 

Response time, latencies, 

throughput, reliability and quality 

of service will all from part of 

the consideration in the network 

management. 

But as the telecommunication 

industry is undergoing a period 

of unprecedented change. New 

technologies have introduced 

in the market. Thus customers 

are increasingly sophisticated 

and is demanding more from 

their service providers in terms 

of competitive pricing, better 

quality of service, a wider range 

of service and more applications 

that have not been available in 

the past. And as technologies 

continues to advance, network 

standards to evolve, bandwidth 

capabilities expand, and telecom 

software becomes more flexible, 

robust and bandwidth intensive. 

The capabilities of the network 

and the requirement of the 

customers is where innovation in 

terms of service. 

Operators and vendors scramble 

to juggle on all these things that 

need to be considered to the 

next level of technology, more 

and more have been focusing on 

the right mix formula that would 

tailor fit the need of their customer 

and be able to respond to 

the market efficiently. Thus the 

importance of policy management 

came about and is currently 

one of the primary components 

for a telecom operator to efficiently 

provide quality of service. 

Traditionally policy management 

is referred to as the systems and 

processes associated with ensuring 

that various types of network 

traffic receive the availability and 

bandwidth they require. As such, 

the policy management function 

has traditionally been owned by 

the network department within 

most communications service 

providers. Using policy management 

capabilities, network 

managers have been able to 

set static rules that govern the 

priority given to traffic based 

on variables such as time of day. 

Policy management functions 

usually comprises into these 

categories. First is Traffic shaping, 

these are when we use local rules 

on routers to balance network 

load and accommodate service 

level agreements (SLAs). Second 

is the QoS management where in 

we set rules for the allocation of 

bandwidth per service. 

As services and applications become 

increasingly sophisticated, 

they also become more intensive 

in terms of bandwidth. These 

new demands on the network are 

often being generated by a small 

subset of users, and operators 

must either endlessly invest in 

the network to support these 

users’ requirements or find a 

way to manage their network 

usage to avoid abuse of network 

resources. Finally, end users have 

higher expectations for their 

telecommunications services 

than they may have had in the 

past. Assumptions about the reliability 

of wireless and IP services 

have changed over the last few 

years, with consumers of these 

services increasingly expecting 

the same quality of service as 

they have received from the circuit-switched 

wireline network. 

Yankee Group 

At the same time, customers 

are demanding more personalized 

services that address their 

specific needs, particularly as 

end user devices become more 

sophisticated and feature-rich. 

This has driven interest in 

capabilities such as fixed-mobile 

convergence, or availability of 

services regardless of device type. 

The market today 

The wireless network investment 

is driving the policy market 

growth and the worldwide policy 

management revenue reached 

$418.7 million in 2010, a 55% 

increase over 2009, with deployments 

in the wireless space 

rapidly outpacing deployments 

in the largely mature fixed line 

market. Managing bandwidth 

consumption remains one of the 

greatest drivers for policy server 

deployments by mobile operators, 

and as smartphone and PCbased 

data traffic continues to 

overload 3G networks, the trend 

cannot be receding anytime soon. 

But in addition to that, policy 

management is also being used 

to provide value added services. 

Including guaranteed bandwidth 

for certain categories of subscribers 

and/or content, sophisticated 

service control capabilities, and 

the start of more targeted advertising 

campaigns and offers. 

Operators in emerging markets 

such as Africa, Latin America, 

Eastern Europe, and parts of Asia 

are also focusing on using policy 

control capabilities, often in 

conjunction with real-time charging 

systems, to create innovative 

loyalty programs and payment 

options to combat high churn 

rates, particularly in areas where 

the subscriber base is primarily 

prepaid. 

In addition, other factors that 


29

have contributed to the unprecedented 

growth on policy 

management are; 

•• Regulatory factors - such as 

the data roaming regulations 

implemented in the EU that 

are likely to be replicated in 

North America, which require 

wireless operators to implement 

real-time subscriber 

spend notifications and a 

cut-off mechanism once the 

subscriber’s bill reaches a 

certain limit; in the US, mobile 

operators are breathing a 

sigh of relief, as the FCC’s 

net neutrality rules seem to 

exempt them from regulation, 

and ongoing challenges of the 

FCC’s fixed line restrictions 

may result in those rules ultimately 

being overturned 

•• Rapid growth of IP-based 

traffic, and the need to move 

beyond best-effort management 

for IP services such as 

VoIP 

•• Growth in peer-to-peer traffic, 

of which affects bandwidth 

control 

•• Service innovation, such as 

triple play services, off-peak 

bandwidth boosting, and 

value-added services such 

as parental control and 

enterprise management of 

employee cell phones 

•• Plans and pricing, including 

tiered service plans based on 

speed of connection, bandwidth 

consumed, or both, 

with subscribers who consume 

more than their allotted 

bandwidth often charged an 

extra fee as an incentive to 

move up to the next tier. 

The race to lead 

Competition in the policy market 

is heatin up, with the top suppliers 

holding extremely close market 

share. Openet has pulled into 

the leading position in the overall 

policy management market with 

9% of market share, followed 

by Bridgewater Systems and 

Tekelec. Openet as well leads the 

wireless market with 11% of revenue, 

followed by Bridgewater, 

Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, 

and Tekelec. The wireless policy 

market also includes a large number 

of smaller suppliers that have 

focused their attention on the 

increasing wireless opportunity, 

often combining policy management 

solutions with adjacent 

solutions like charging, as well as 

larger IT and billing vendors that 

have branched into the policy 

market wireless opportunity. 

The quest goes on 

The challenges for operators to 

be able to juggle deliver service 

efficiently to the customers in 

relation to what their networks 

are capable of will continues. 

And to strike an even balance on 

such, policy management is playing 

a crucial role. As operators 

move away from their traditional 

all-you-can-eat billing strategies 

and begin introducing tiered 

pricing, they will need policy 

control capabilities to manage 

subscribers’ bandwidth caps, 

particularly if those bandwidth 

quotas are distributed across 

multiple device or network types. 

When integrated with charging, 

policy control also enables operators 

to go beyond tiers and offer 

more real-time, flexible pricing 

models, such as variable pricing 

based on time of day or the subscriber’s 

location, or charging for 

a bandwidth boost during peak 

usage hours for certain services. 

So the challenge will not sole be 

based on what customers wants 

but what operators can offer, and 

this should be wielded along with 

vendors and how they weave 

their magic and create different 

offering in policy management. T 

VIVA Bahrain launches BlackBerry Torch 9810 

VIVA Bahrain is delighted to 

introduce the new Black- 

Berry Torch 9810 smartphone, 

featuring the next generation 

BlackBerry 7 operating system. 

Building on the popular design 

of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 

smartphone, the BlackBerry 

Torch 9810 is faster and more 

fluid with new, high performance 

hardware features and 

the BlackBerry 7 OS delivering 

an enhanced multimedia experience. 

With its large 3.2”, high 

resolution touch display and a 

distinctive BlackBerry keyboard 

that easily slides out to allow 

faster typing, the BlackBerry 

Torch 9810 truly delivers the 

best of both worlds. 

VIVA offers the BlackBerry Torch 

9810 smartphone with the new 

VIVA social bundle plans and 

access to the BlackBerry App 

World application store. Customers 

who use their smartphones 

primarily for social networking 

can benefit from the new 

VIVA social package, 

which provides access to 

BlackBerry Messenger 

(BBM) alongside other 

networking applications 

such as Twitter, 

Facebook and MySpace, 

as well as 

instant messaging 

tools MSN Messenger, 

Google 

Talk, Yahoo! 

Messenger and 

AOL Instant 

Messenger. 

The package 

is available 

for only BD1 

per week for prepaid and BD3 

per month for postpaid. VIVA 

customers can dial *105*2# to 

activate the postpaid service and 

*105*5# for the prepaid service. 

For a limited promotional 

period, customers who sign up 

for this service can also enjoy 

data usage of 

up to 200MB, 

ensuring the full 

BlackBerry internet 

experience. 

VIVA customers 

have free access to 

its exclusive application 

store for Blackberry. 

The first-of-itskind 

store in Bahrain 

offers both free and 

paid applications in 13 

different categories such 

as productivity, games, 

finance and fitness. To 

guarantee convenient usage, 

customers will not need 

to create an app store account 

or a credit card for payments. 

Instead, the amount will be 

charged to their bills. To access 

the app store, customers can 

send an SMS to 88228 in order 

to receive URL link to download 

the app store application. 

“Our continued partnership with 

Research In Motion ensures that 

we are introducing the latest 

BlackBerry smartphones to our 

customers,” Andrew Hanna, 

VIVA CCO, said. “It is part of our 

commitment to offer Bahrain the 

absolute best.” The BlackBerry 

Torch 9810 features the next 

generation BlackBerry Browser, 

which combines the dramatically 

improved performance of 

the advanced WebKit browser 

engine together with the powerful 

hardware enhancements to 

deliver browsing results that are 

up to 40% faster than Black- 

Berry 6 based smartphones and 

up to twice as fast as models 

running BlackBerry 5. Additional 

enhancements to the browser 

have also optimized HTML5 performance 

for incredible gaming 

and video experiences. T 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011


ICT firms see 

50pc hike in business at Gitex 2011 

Major ICT companies 

recorded up to 50 

per cent increase in quality 

business at the recently 

concluded Gitex Technology 

Week 2011 in Dubai, as against 

the event of 2010, said the 

organisers. 

Gitex 2011 ran from October 

9 to 13 at Dubai international 

Exhibition and Convention 

"The ICT industry in the 

Middle East is one of the 

fastest growing in the 

world and Gitex provides 

global exhibitors and 

visitors with direct 

access to an unrivalled 

number of decision 

makers, facilitating an 

exceptional volume 

of business as seen in 

2011,” said Helal Saeed 

Almarri, CEO, Dubai 

World Trade Centre. 

Centre. 

Many of the participants, 

which included the world’s 

most illustrious technology 

companies, recorded some of 

their best Returns on Investment 

(ROI) at Gitex with a 

substantial increase in footfall 

from C-level visitors and decision 

makers. 

"The ICT industry 

in the Middle 

East is one of the 

fastest growing 

in the world and 

Gitex provides 

global exhibitors 

and visitors 

with direct 

access to an 

unrivalled 

number of 

decision 

makers, facilitating an 

exceptional volume of 

business as seen in 2011,” 

said Helal Saeed Almarri, 

CEO, Dubai World Trade 

Centre, organiser of the 

event. 

The event featured new 

launches, partnerships and 

deals with many companies 

reporting their most successful 

participation at Gitex yet. 

For Kodak, Gitex 2011 

presented the best exhibition 

return on investment of the 

year and strengthened Dubai’s 

position as one of the world’s 

leading business destinations. 

“In one day at Gitex, we 

had more visitor traffic at 

the Kodak stand than in one 

week during CeBIT and DMS 

EXPO,” said Jork Beuck, IBML 

manager of Product Marketing, 

EMEA, Kodak. 

For NEC Solutions, 2011 has 

also been an exceptional Gitex. 

Frits Neyndorf, VP NEC Middle 

East and Africa described the 

event as “excellent”. He added: 

This is the best show in years. 

We met with high quality new 

visitors and potential customers, 

leading to confirmed new 

orders.” 

Symantec chose the expo for 

the regional launch of its new 

endpoint protection 12 software 

for cloud security."Gitex 

consistently delivers the 


31


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

highest standards provides us 

with an immense return on 

investment year-on-year,” said 

Johnny Karam, Mena managing 

director of Symantec. 

Anthony Peter, director, Direct 

Communication and Customer 

Care Group, Panasonic Middle 

East said: “I would say that 

business conducted has been 

up by around 50 per cent this 

year and by the end of the 

second day, we recorded an 

increase in footfall of around 

130 per cent on last year.” 

Etisalat also took full advantage 

of Gitex’s unique position 

in the region. “By the end 

of Gitex Technology week, 

Etisalat will have signed more 

than 15 strategic agreements 

with large corporations, ranging 

from banks to governmental 

institutions in both the ICT 

field and beyond,” said Jaber 

Al Janahi, vice president – Corporate 

Communications. 

Promate Technologies had their 

largest Gitex presence ever this 

year and during the last four 

days of the event took a record 

amount of orders from existing 

customers and signed contracts 

with new clients across the 

region. 

"Our sales have surpassed all 

our expectations for Gitex 

2011. We had already broken 

even by the end of day one, 

something which never occurred 

even in the boom times 

pre global recession,” said 

Fadi Khalil, director of Sales, 

Promate Technologies Middle 

East. 

“The traffic that came to our 

stand consisted of key decision 

makers with actual spending 

power and the authority to 

commit to substantial on-thespot 

orders. Gitex 2011 has 

been a great success and a 

real reminder that the region 

is still strong, committed and 

resilient.” 

Featuring more than 3,500 

companies from 57 countries, 

Gitex set the scene for product 

launches from many of the 

event’s prominent exhibitors’ 

including du, Dubai Police, Etisalat, 

Huawei, Microsoft Gulf, 

Ministry of Finance, Nokia, 

Oracle, RIM (BlackBerry)and 

many others. 

Following Sharp’s revealing of 

its latest regional strategy for 

the company’s LCD technology, 

the electronics giant, also 

the largest exhibitor at the 

co-located event InfoComm, 

announced a 50 per cent 

increase in the number of business 

leads at Gitex compared 

to last year. 

Many first time exhibitors to 

Gitex Technology Week have 

also recorded an excellent ROI 

and many more will benefit 

for the future. Citrix is one of 

the companies who made their 

debut this year. “We had huge 

expectations, all of which have 

been surpassed in terms of the 

quality of decision makers and 

the return on investment,” said 

Alex Filocca is Middle East Director 

of Marketing for Citrix. 

“And equally valuable is the 

business that comes from the 

clients we met by participating 

at Gitex." 

Adding to this year’s event, 

Gitex introduced brand new 

initiatives to its line-up 

including Cyber Security @ 

Gitex, Digital Marketing, Card 

Technology and a dedicated 

Telecoms Symposium, as part 

of a conference programme 

featuring world class industry 

leaders. Gitex returns to Dubai 

World Trade Centre in October 

2012. 


33

Ghassan Hasbani, CEO - STC International 

speaks to Teletimes @ GITEX Sympoxium 

Gulraiz Khalid - Please talk about your 

experience at GITEX. 

Ghassan Hasbani - Well, my general experience 

is that the industry seems to be shifting 

the level of interest from infrastructure 

development to platforms and applications. 

I think that the attention span of people 

on major issues is shifting a little bit when 

it is most needed. But generally, I feel that 

the attendance is good. There’s an increased 

interest in cloud computing and applications 

development. 

GK - How do you see the evolution of latest 

trends in the Middle East 

GH - I see more penetration of smart devices, 

cloud computing, applications, mobile 

health, electronic health, mobile banking. All 

of these things are driving more and more 

demand for bandwidth. The biggest trend 

is the consumerism around social networks 

in the region which is constantly increasing. 

And I think that will drive a lot of future 

traffic on our network so that is a main 

trend we need to keep an eye on. 

GK - In your presentation earlier, you talked 

about how charging users on some online 

content e.g youtube will make the unlimited 

experience actually better. But wouldn’t 

that actually go against the whole concept 

and freeware and unlimited internet Could 

you please explain this point of view for our 

readers 

GH - Basically, it’s not 

about charging for site 

access. It’s about charging 

for a better experience. 

Today, everybody 

is getting the same kind 

of online experience, 

whether you use heavy 

content or you don’t. 

What I’m saying is you 

need to maintain a good experience for the 

normal users, but enhance this experience 

for heavy users. And in order to enhance this 

experience, we simply need to charge more 

for a better experience. It’s just like you go 

"The biggest trend is the consumerism 

around social networks in the 

region which is constantly increasing 

and I think that will drive a lot 

of future traffic." 

buy a normal tv set for low price, but then 

you pay higher if you want a better High 

Definition TV set. Why would you pay more 

for a higher definition TV set Why do you 

pay more for travelling in business class 

That’s exactly my point. It’s just the same 

concept. It’s not about paying for YouTube; 

it’s about paying for a better experience, for 

better interaction with the content. Everybody 

should be able to have access, to be 

able to download whatever they want, but 

this is only to provide a better experience 

that can enjoyed more by the heavy content 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

"A lot of innovation comes out of 

necessity rather than luxury" 

users. It is the same principal that has been 

used in communication and business for 

centuries. 

GK - In one of your recent interviews, you 

talked about how companies are reducing 

their expenditure on R&D. What do you 

believe is the best place for investment by 

telcos 

"Investing in platforms and 

in the business models that 

encourage applications 

development is the best way 

to go forward." 

GH - Infrastructure. We are in a business of 

building bigger and better reach of higher 

speeds for people. We can also invest in 

application development. By investing in 

open platforms, we encourage open applications 

development. But we shouldn’t try to 

develop our own applications because this 

is not a part which is very profitable for us 

and nevertheless, the more open we are, 

the better. Investing in platforms and in the 

business models that encourage applications 

development is the best way to go forward. 

We have to enhance the experience for customers 

that are using our infrastructure. 

GK - From an emerging markets point of 

view, there is not a very high investment in 

the applications development as yet, and 

the usage of mobile broadband is very limited. 

The lowest call rates in addition to that 

are providing very low ARPUs. Do you have 

any suggestions in mind regarding this issue 

GH - We should think more about how we 

can address the very needs of the consumers 

in the emerging markets and not copy the 

models from the developed markets. That 

is very important. I think a lot innovation 

comes out of necessity rather than luxury. 

So there’s a lot necessity related to education, 

healthcare, and women in business, 

women empowerment, and basic financial 

transactions etc., all of these are opportunities 

in emerging markets. If we think out of 

the box, we shouldn’t be limiting ourselves 

to tapping into only voice call telecommunications 

revenue which is affected by 

low ARPUs today. But there’s a lot of other 

spending. People spend on 

healthcare, they spend on 

education and many other 

things that improve their lifestyle 

and their independence; 

those are the areas that need 

to be served. By doing that, 

we will increase the share of 

wallet that exists beyond the 

portion only related to telecommunication 

and get into 

other areas that serve societies and enhance 

the lifestyle of people in emerging markets. 

And at the same time tap into new revenue 

streams for telecom that support sustainability 

in the long term. 


35

Etisalat enables e-Hospitality Services 

for Grand Millennium Al Wahda 

At GITEX Technology Week 

exhibition, took place at 

the Dubai International Convention 

and Exhibition Centre 

(DICEC) from October 9th-13th 

2011, Etisalat announced that it 

has signed an agreement to provide 

e-Hospitality Services for 

the Grand Millennium Al Wahda 

Hotel, Abu Dhabi. 

As part of this agreement, 

Etisalat is delivering a full triple 

play package, incorporating Primary 

Rate Interface (PRI) voice 

serving more than 2,000 Direct 

Inward Dialers (DIDs), dedicated 

internet bandwidth of 24 

mbps, as well as a wide range of 

TV content for all of the Hotel’s 

rooms, suites and public areas. 

The Grand Millennium Al 

Wahda is first hotel in the UAE 

to be enabled with Etisalat’s 

e-Hospitality services, a solution 

which enables hotels to 

deliver an unmatched multimedia 

experience to their guests. 

It is implemented by aligning 

three significant customer touch 

points – landline, internet and 

television services. A contemporary 

bundle, the solution is 

available in three distinct packages: 

Silver, Gold and Platinum 

- offering voice channels, up to 

1GB of dedicated Internet access 

and a selection of more than 

300 TV channels - for hotels to 

choose from, depending on their 

unique business requirements. 

The e-Hospitality solution is 

made available through Etisalat’s 

IP network, providing greater 

reliability, higher speed and 

unmatched convenience through 

a single vendor touch-point. 

Commenting on this occasion, 

Abdulla Ibrahim Al Ahmed, 

Senior Vice President, Business 

Solutions at Etisalat, said: “At 

Etisalat, we have strategically 

aligned our ICT service propositions 

for vertical industry 

segments to offer the most 

advanced and relevant ICT 

Solutions to businesses. The 

e-Hospitality solution is yet 

another pioneering initiative 

from Etisalat that provides a 

strong value proposition for 

our customers in the hospitality 

segment. Service experience is 

a core and arguably the most 

critical aspect for the hospitality 

sector.” 

“Through this agreement, the 

Grand Millennium Al Wahda 

will be able to deliver a truly 

unique and communications and 

entertainment experience to 

their guests by aligning voice, 

data and Etisalat TV services, 

through a single touch point. 

Moreover, with this unique 

combination of customer-centric 

services, the solution will not 

only streamline service delivery 

mechanism for the Hotel, but 

will also provide higher operational 

efficiencies and significant 

cost savings to them,” Al 

Ahmed concluded. 

Etisalat partners with Zservices ME to offer Managed Security 

Services on Cloud Computing platform 

Reinforcing its leadership 

in the Cloud Computing 

domain, Etisalat announced 

its collaboration with Zservices 

- Zscaler Middle East 

Cloud - to bring Managed 

Security Services to the Cloud 

Computing Platform. The soonto-be-launched 

service that is 

currently being showcased in 

GITEX, will provide an ultralow 

latency, Software as a Service 

(SaaS) managed security 

solution to businesses without 

an investment in hardware 

nor software infrastructure— 

thereby offering a cost-effective 

solution towards secured business 

transactions. 

The latest Managed Security 

solution, in partnership with 

Zservices, will offer anti-virus, 

anti-spyware, anti-spam, URL 

filtering, Web 2.0 control, bandwidth 

control, mail flow control, 

and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) 

services to businesses. It will be 

powered by Zscaler’s multi-tenant, 

policy-based cloud security 

architecture – leveraging advanced 

NanoLog, PageRisk 

& ByteScan technologies for 

advanced threat protection 

and real-time reporting. The 

service will be delivered from 

the Etisalat Cloud assuring 

high performance, reduced risk, 

lower cost, higher resource 

utilization and simplified IT 

administration. 

Commenting on the partnership, 

Abdulla Ebrahim Al 

Ahmed, Senior Vice President, 

Business Solutions at Etisalat 

said: “The Cloud Computing 

platform is a transformational 

phenomenon that is changing 

the way ICT services are 

provisioned and consumed by 

businesses. Security, being an 

intrinsic component for business, 

needs the same flexibility, 

scalability, cost-effectiveness 

and technology refresh, as offered 

through the cloud, to ease 

the level of threats faced by 

businesses. 

By providing next-generation 

security solutions on the cloud, 

through our partner Zservices, 

Etisalat will enable businesses 

to access a diverse array of 

security specific solutions and 

extend their IT infrastructure 

capabilities with minimal 

cost, significant flexibility and 

speed.” 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

Thuraya’s industry leading 

Satcom Solutions showcased at GITEX 

Thuraya, the leading international 

mobile satellite 

services operator, showcased 

its ground-breaking portfolio 

of space-based products during 

GITEX, the Middle East’s largest 

ICT event. The Company exhibited 

its full suite of data, maritime 

and voice solutions that 

continue to lead the market with 

unique features and functionality 

designed to flexibly meet the 

changing telecom needs of government, 

enterprise and private 

consumers. 

Thuraya, which has a track 

record of leading the MSS 

industry, was the first to launch 

the world’s largest commercial 

communications satellite. Additionally, 

Thuraya pioneered 

the world’s smallest, smartest 

and most rugged handhelds. 

Supporting its voice services, the 

leading MSS operator provides 

the only handheld to feature 

full walk-and-talk capabilities 

and data speeds of up to 

Ebrahim K. Ebrahim 

60Kbps and also led the market 

in featuring GPS navigation 

and Bluetooth before any other 

provider. 

“GITEX is a key ICT event for us. 

Thuraya continues to raise the 

bar in mobile satellite communications 

and this year we have 

showcaed our most successful 

solutions, many of which now 

form an integral part of the 

communication infrastructure 

for governments, corporates and 

organisations in Europe, Africa, 

Middle East, Asia and Australia. 

Our focus, as always, is about 

providing reliable, quality and 

affordable communications, designed 

with the end-consumer in 

mind. Thuraya solutions are always 

easy-to-use, intuitive and, 

most importantly, they work 

when you need them to, which 

is why we are rapidly becoming 

the operator of choice in mobile 

satellite communications,” said 

Thuraya’s Vice President, Corporate 

and Marketing Communications, 

Mr. Ebrahim K. Ebrahim. 

As an industry leader which has 

pioneered the most compact, 

powerful and affordable solutions, 

Thuraya demonstrated 

live the world’s smallest satellite 

broadband solution to support 

384 Kbps streaming, Thuraya 

IP. The lightweight, A5 sized 

terminal is the only one to offer 

a symmetric streaming, (a 

feature which allows consumers 

to select upload and download 

Reham Barakat 

speeds for significant cost 

savings), will be on show for 

visitors to experience first-hand. 

A firm favourite with the broadcast 

media and recommended 

by both the British and French 

Ministries of Defence; Thuraya 

IP continues to attract a growing, 

diverse consumer base due 

to its versatility, reliability and 

affordability 

With 65% market share in 

satellite handhelds within its 

coverage area, Thuraya also 

displayed Thuraya XT, the most 

reliable satellite phone to offer 

full walk and talk capabilities, 

GPs waypoint navigation and 

the fastest data service on any 

satellite handheld. 

Also on show was the soonto-be-launched 

MarineNet Pro 

solution, a specialised maritime 

broadband solution developed in 

partnership with Comtech. The 

solution offers data speeds of up 

to 444 Kbps as well as 384 Kbps 

video streaming at sea. 

Thuraya appoints Patrick Chenel as CFO 

Thuraya Telecommunications 

Company, the leading 

international mobile satellite 

services (MSS) operator has 

announced the appointment of 

Patrick Chenel as Chief Financial 

Officer. 

In addition to leading Thuraya’s 

financial management, planning 

and reporting functions, 

he will also be responsible for 

maintaining and developing 

the Company’s relationships 

with the relevant financial 

institutions and strategic suppliers 

across the globe. 

Prior to joining Thuraya, 

Patrick Chenel 

Patrick was the Chief Financial 

Officer for the real estate arm 

of the Qatar Investment Authority, 

Qatari Diar. He began 

his career with Alcatel in 1989, 

holding a number of various 

senior positions in the finance 

area. Patrick has extensive 

experience overseeing business 

performance and strategic 

growth initiatives through his 

various international assignments 

in the UAE, Qatar, 

Canada, China, and France. 

Thuraya’s CEO, Mr. Samer 

Halawi, says,”Patrick combines 

an excellent and reputable 

background as a CFO with 

international experience, and a 

broad background in the telecom 

industry. This remarkable 

combination makes him a valuable 

addition to our team”. 

Mr. Halawi added that the new 

CFO will play a leading role 

in the current strategic and 

business initiatives, while also 

ensuring that we will continue 

to build on our solid relationships 

with investors and the 

financial community, confirming 

our position as a leading 

international MSS operator. 

Patrick’s appointment comes 

following the departure of Mr. 

Mohammed Sharaf, a longtime 

Thuraya CFO, earlier this 

year. 


37

Dubai Police partners du to utilise 

mobile data network for information transfer 

In a step to support government 

efforts in reducing 

rates of traffic accidents and in 

support of the vision of UAE 

leadership, Dubai Police signed a 

partnership agreement with du 

during GITEX Technology Week 

2011, giving the organisation 

access to utilise the telecommunications 

company’s mobile data 

network to transfer information 

captured by radar, quickly and 

directly to the traffic police control 

room. This is the first collaboration 

of its kind, globally. 

Leading the signing ceremony, 

held at the Dubai Police stand 

at GITEX, and signing the 

Memorandum of Understanding 

(MoU) were Lt. General Dahi 

Khalfan Tamim, Commander- 

In-Chief of Dubai Police and 

Osman Sultan, CEO, du. Also 

present at the ceremony were 

Major General Eng. Mohammed 

Saif Al Zafeen, Director of Dubai 

Traffic Department and Waleed 

Almanaei, Deputy Director 

of Dubai Traffic Department. 

And from du Farid Faraidooni, 

Chief Commercial Officer, du; 

Fahad Al Hassawi, Chief Human 

Resources and Shared Services 

Officer, du , Ahmad Aburahima, 

Vice President, Government Relations, 

du and other members 

of du’s executive management 

team. 

“This agreement is a manifestation 

the UAE leadership’s vision 

of public private partnership 

model. Dubai Police is constantly 

looking for ways in which we 

can partner UAE national companies, 

to continually develop 

the services that we are able to 

offer to the public,” commented 

Lt. General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, 

Commander-In-Chief of Dubai 

Police. “du’s collaboration with 

Dubai Police will help to save 

lives; our partnership aims to 

limit road traffic accidents on 

UAE highways to the best international 

standards.” 

Osman Sultan, CEO, du, commented; 

“We are proud to 

have signed this partnership 

agreement with Dubai Police, 

and look forward to further 

cooperation with them in the 

future. As an Emirati company, 

we are committed to supporting 

the government’s efforts in serving 

the community, and we are 

delighted that the investment 

and effort that has gone into our 

network will contribute to the 

safety of the people, by reducing 

the amount of traffic accidents.” 

As part of the agreement, du 

will also cooperate with Dubai 

Police to launch an awareness 

campaign that will use police 

radars as a tool to spread 

awareness and remind people of 

necessary road safety measures. 

Further details will be shared in 

the near future. 

“This partnership has many 

benefits especially saving time 

and effort; it will also support 

our strategy of adopting the latest 

technology to revolutionise 

our traffic systems in Dubai and 

improving the operational efficiency,” 

said Major General Eng. 

Mohammed Saif Al Zafeen. 

du showcases cutting-edge guest services 

application for hospitality sector at Gitex 

Opening up new possibilities 

for the growing hospitality 

sector in the UAE, du successfully 

demonstrated iRiS personal 

valet, an innovative in-room 

application that promises a superior 

guest experience, reduce 

costs and maximize revenues at 

its stand at GITEX. 

Elaborating on the uniqueness of 

this application, Farid Faraidooni, 

Chief Commercial Officer, du, 

said: “More and more people are 

travelling for both business and 

pleasure – and as experienced 

travellers they are becoming 

more and more demanding. It is 

eventually the guest interaction 

experience that would eventually 

matter and ensure higher 

levels of guest satisfaction. 

As a leading telecom service 

provider, we are at the forefront 

of technology and are uniquely 

placed to make a difference in 

the hospitality solutions sector. 

The iRiS personal valet is a 

state-of-the-art application that 

we believe takes the in-room 

guest experience to a whole new 

level. At the same time, it offers 

the hotels an opportunity to 

create new revenue streams and 

reduce costs.” 

The core of the system delivers 

the application content to each 

in-room Apple iRiS iPad and 

allows the guest to access all the 

hotel’s facilities, offerings and 

information, as well as live news, 

detailed information, including 

maps of local attractions – e.g. 

restaurants. This gives the guest 

a greatly enhanced experience, 

whilst ensuring their stay at the 

hotel is more enjoyable; all this, 

is literally, at their fingertips. 

In the back of house, the touch 

screen panels are located in key 

areas which will display guest 

requests, orders and information 

relevant to their stay. The staff 

can see, access and act upon 

this information – whilst also 

having the facility to interact 

with the guest room to send key 

messages, such as “Your taxi has 

arrived”. 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

Ericsson launches own in-app payment service 

Ericsson has launched an 

in-application payment 

service targeted at operators 

that want to allow consumers 

to complete purchases without 

having to leave a game or application. 

Consumers will be 

able to buy goods and services 

with just one click, whilst remaining 

in the app. 

The service is based on Ericsson’s 

IPX service platform 

which is integrated by over 120 

operators. It requires no credit 

card, allowing users to charge 

purchases straight to their 

bill, with the company saying 

that simplifying the payment 

service to the consumer should 

result in increasing numbers 

opting to purchase goods or 

services from their phones. 

Research firm Ovum projects 

that revenues from paid mobile 

apps will top $3.7bn in 2011 

and expects this to increase to 

$7.7bn in 2016. 

“People are spending increasing 

amounts of time and 

money on applications,” said 

Adam Kerr, head of Ericsson’s 

M Commerce business. “But in 

order to reach these kinds of 

numbers it has to be 

easy for the consumer.” 

The in-app payment 

service allows retailers 

to flexibly offer a range 

of payment models, 

such as allowing consumers 

to try before 

they buy as well as 

rental and subscription 

models. 

The model can be applied 

to game levels, 

maps, and digital content 

such as music, books and 

other in-application assets, 

said Ericsson. 

Jean-Noel Georges, global program 

director for ICT – smart 

cards group at consultancy 

Frost & Sullivan, explained that 

Ericsson’s launch is not the first 

time that an in-application 

payment service has been released. 

Google revealed similar 

solutions for the game and 

entertainment market in January 

2011 and in-app purchases 

have been available via Apple’s 

App Store since October 2009, 

and since September 2010 

from the BlackBerry Application 

World. 

“But for the first time, and 

based on a strategic platform 

approach, Ericsson is providing 

a range of payment solutions 

for better end-user consumer 

experience across several countries,” 

said Georges. 

“According to the company, 

rental subscription, try-beforeyou-buy, 

embedded 

application, in-game 

economies and other 

business models are 

supported. The limit 

between virtual and 

physical world is much 

more complex. This is 

why physical shops are 

also promoting physical 

goods across the digital 

world. And as a reverse 

process, virtual goods 

as weapon for game 

or access to the next game 

level could be purchased by 

using “real” money across this 

platform.” 

“And to be able to capture 

all kind of possible revenues, 

virtual money is also available 

for really small amounts such 

as cents transaction.” 

Simon Johnson 

UPDATE 4-Ericsson's networks unit spearheads strong Q3 

Forecast-topping results from 

Ericsson on Thursday showed 

the world's top mobile network 

gear maker can still outmuscle 

rivals even if global growth 

slows. Smartphones and tablet 

computers have fuelled demand 

for faster, more efficient networks, 

driving sales for Ericsson 

in recent quarters. 

Rivals, including Juniper Networks 

Inc , have warned that 

the gloomier global economic 

outlook would likely make telecom 

operators thriftier ahead 

and Ericsson was not immune to 

such concerns. 

"If the uncertainty continues, 

of course there can be operators 

being more cautious, but it is 

too early to say," chief executive 

Hans Vestberg said. 

Nokia Siemens Networks , which 

also reported on Thursday, said 

it had already been affected. 

"NSN net sales were impacted 

in Q3 due to the current macro 

uncertainty as some operator 

customers placed a greater focus 

on how they are spending," 

Nokia CFO Timo Ihamuotila told 

conference call. 

Ericsson's cautious outlook 

and a gross margin well below 

forecasts failed to chill investors, 

who focused on strong sales 

growth and Ericsson's conviction 

it is taking market share from 

rivals. Shares in Ericsson, which 

dropped sharply on Wednesday 

after Juniper's comments, 

were up 5 percent at 1403 GMT 

against a 1.3 percent rise in 

the S&P European technology 

index . 

"The result was better than 

consensus ... and sales were better," 

said Mats Nystrom, analyst 

at SEB Enskilda. "In that sense, 

there it a degree of relief that is 

driving the share." 

Other analysts saw the falling 

margin as a sign Ericsson is 

aggressively targeting market 

share, giving it a better chance 

at longer-term growth at a time 

it is facing sharp competition 

from rivals like China's Huawei. 

"For Ericsson, it is a short-term 

loss of margins against a longterm 

bigger share of the operators 

in Europe," said Morten 

Imsgaard, analyst at Sydbank. 

"In the long run, that could be 

the right strategy for them, but, 

of course, margins will be under 

pressure in the fourth quarter 

and going into 2012." 

An acceleration of network modernisation 

projects in Europe, 

network rollouts and a higher 

share of services revenue cut the 

gross margin to 35 percent from 

an expected 37 percent. 

Network modernisation -- - 

swapping out old base-stations 

for new ones that handle 2G, 3G 

and 4G services -- is likely to 

make up a bigger slice of business 

in the fourth quarter. 

These projects are low margin 

but give Ericsson a platform to 

sell more lucrative products at a 

later date. 


39

Microsoft hopes to storm 

market with Mango launch 

Dubai Microsoft pins high 

hopes on the Windows 

Phone 7.5 to regain lost ground 

as the operating system 

competition enters a new phase. 

“With Windows Phone, 

Microsoft has looked at the 

consumer experience as centric 

and in an absolutely fresh way. 

The system is stylish, innovative 

and one that seamlessly 

integrates the most soughtafter 

user experiences such as 

search, gaming, e-mail and social 

networks across Bing, Office, 

Internet Explorer 9, Xbox Live, 

Office 365, Facebook, Twitter 

and much more including cloud 

service,” Gustavo Fuchs, director 

of mobility for Middle East and 

Africa, Microsoft, told Gulf 

News in an exclusive interview. 

Microsoft, which has entered an 

agreement with Nokia to launch 

Windows Phone 7.5, also known 

as Mango, said the conventional 

application icons have been 

replaced by Live Tiles on the 

start screen which comes to life 

with real-time updates from the 

web such as news, appointments 

or the status of friends. 

Windows launched the first 

Windows Phone 7 in last 

November. 

He said Acer will be the first 

vendor to launch the new 

operating system in this region 

on the Allegro handset before 

the end of the year ahead of 

Nokia. 

The main screen of the phone is 

divided into six main hubs. The 

key features are threads, which 

enable users to switch between 

texts, Facebook chat and 

Windows Live messenger linked 

inbox where consumers can see 

multiple e-mail accounts in one 

inbox. Built-in voice-to-text and 

text-to-voice support system 

also enable hands-free texting 

and chatting. 

He said HTC, Samsung, LG, Acer 

and Nokia are the main vendors 

launching the new operating 

system. 

“Windows Phone will benefit 

from the partnership between 

Nokia and Microsoft to 

successfully enter lower tiers 

of the market, also leveraging 

Nokia’s ability to maintain its 

position in markets where it is 

traditionally strong,” said Luis 

Portela, analyst-at-large at 

Pyramid research. 

He said Mango will become the 

dominant platform by 2015, 

followed closely by Android 

and Apple. The competition 

will consolidate the operating 

ecosystem among the four 

big platforms — Android, 

Windows Phone, Apple iOS and 

BlackBerry OS. 

Traditionally strong 

In the Middle East and Africa, 

Portela said that Symbian will 

be the leader for the next couple 

of years, as customers in the 

region are loyal to Nokia and will 

take time for Microsoft to gain 

market share. The competition 

will be between Android, RIM 

and Apple. 

According to Annette 

Zimmermann, Principal 

Analyst, Consumer Markets 

and Technology at Gartner Inc, 

Symbian’s market share in MEA 

is eroding and in the second 

quarter of this year it had a 

market share of 41.3 per cent 

compared to 87.1 per cent in the 

second quarter of last year. 

RIM had a market share of 31.4 

per cent compared to 4.6 per 

cent in the second quarter of 

last year while Android had 14 

per cent compared to two per 

cent in the second quarter of 

last year and iOS had 11.1 per 

cent compared to 2.5 per cent 

Naushad K. Cherrayil 

during the same period last year. 

She said globally, Nokia’s 

market share fell from 41 per 

cent to 22.1 per cent in the 

second quarter of this year 

while Android’s market share 

rose from 17.2 per cent to more 

than 43 per cent in the second 

quarter of this year. 

Microsoft’s market share fell 

from 4.9 per cent to 1.6 per cent 

in the second quarter of this 

year and in the region, Microsoft 

had less than one per cent in the 

second quarter of this year. 

According to Alex Bibi, Mobile 

Solutions Manager for Middle 

East and North Africa, “The apps 

market is crucial for the growth 

of Windows Phone. We have 

around 36,000 applications 

and more than 25 Arabic apps 

in a short period of time and 

by the way we have overtaken 

BlackBerry in terms of apps.” 

Accelerator 

According to Chad Brown, 

co-founder and partner of 

identitymine, a US-based 

firm developing apps for top 

operating systems, the Windows 

phone offers a great opportunity 

for developers and the interface 

is easier and friendlier than 

Android and offers great user 

experience for end-users. 

Fuchs said the apps are fully 

tested for viruses and go 

to the marketplace only if 

certified by Microsoft. He said 

the developers have already 

developed apps for Dewa, 

mParking and Gulf News, to 

name a few, through YallaApps 

on the new platform. 

YallaApps, a regional Windows 

Phone 7 developer portal, is 

developed by Microsoft in 

association with Prototype 

Interactive. 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

TelecomsWorld Middle East Awards 

PCCW Global wins coveted 

"Best International Wholesale Carrier Award" 

PCCW Global, a subsidiary 

of Hong Kong's premier 

telecommunications provider, 

PCCW Limited, has received 

high-profile industry recognition 

by winning the Best 

International Wholesale Carrier 

title at the TelecomsWorld 

Awards Middle East 2011. 

TelecomsWorld Awards 

Middle East is organized by 

the Terrapinn Business Media 

Company to identify and 

reward key industry leaders 

that set unparalleled standards 

of excellence. PCCW Global 

competed with a number of 

the world’s major carriers for 

this coveted title and has been 

selected by a panel of independent 

judges from the Middle 

Eastern telecommunications 

industry as the Best International 

Wholesale Carrier. 

PCCW Global’s success in 

the Middle East is due to its 

expertise and capabilities to 

provide distinguished service 

and quality solutions to more 

than 1,500 cities and 110 

countries in the world. Over 

the years, PCCW Global has 

aggressively expanded its 

international network coverage 

by interconnecting with over 

80 key carrier leaders in many 

parts of the world. With local 

experts on the ground to cover 

the Middle East-Africa region, 

dedicated 24/7 Network Operation 

Centers to proactively 

monitor its network, and experience 

in disaster recovery, 

Nokia Siemens Networks named “Best Vendor” 

PCCW Global guarantees the 

highest service availability, 

reliability and standard of 

customer support to its clients 

worldwide. 

Mr. Amr Eid, PCCW Global's 

Vice President of Middle East 

& North Africa, said, "We are 

honored to be recognized as 

the Best International Wholesale 

Carrier. We work with a 

vision of service excellence 

and we believe in actively 

extending our geographic reach 

to enhance our infrastructure 

and improve the quality of 

our service solutions. Through 

working with some of the best 

Middle Eastern carriers, we 

have achieved this, and we will 

continue to collaborate with 

them to provide the best level 

of service quality.” 

Acknowledges company’s outstanding telecoms solutions and services in the region 

Nokia Siemens Networks 

was named “Best Vendor” 

at the Telecoms World Middle 

East Awards, which were held 

recently at the Jumeirah Emirates 

Towers in Dubai, UAE. 

The awards are designed to 

identify and reward companies 

that have positively contributed 

to the development of 

telecoms in the Middle East. 

“We are honored to receive 

this award and pleased that 

our efforts have been appreciated 

by the industry,” said 

Igor Leprince, head of the 

Middle East region at Nokia 

Siemens Networks. “The award 

is testament to Nokia Siemens 

Networks’ commitment to the 

Middle East market, with an 

expanding network of customers 

across the region. We 

provide our customers with 

optimum network efficiency 

while helping them create individual 

user experiences that 

lead to stronger, longer lasting 

and more profitable customer 

relationships.” 

Nokia Siemens Networks 

was named the winner by an 

independent jury, with the 

key criterion being that the 

recipient have “an outstanding 

portfolio of innovative 

products, which has positively 

impacted the telecoms market 

Igor Leprince 

in the region.” Other considerations 

included the quality of 

service delivered, strong business 

acumen and future scope 

for development. 

With more than 50 active 

customers in the region, Nokia 

Andrea Dagan 

Wajih Halawa 

Siemens Networks is a leading 

telecoms vendor across the 

Middle East with a particular 

strength in mobile broadband 

and LTE. Eight operators in 

the Middle East use Nokia 

Siemens Networks’ charging 

and prepaid solution based 

on charge@once, serving more 

than 50 million subscribers, 

and seventy-five per cent of 

all mobile operators in the 

region use the company’s 

NetAcct OSS solutions to 

optimize their networks. Nokia 

Siemens Networks is also the 

first vendor to sign a commercial 

LTE deal in the Middle 

East region. 


41

Etisalat’s chairman honoured 

with ‘Stevie’ at International Business Awards 

UAE headquartered telco also scoops Stevie’s for innovation and customer care 

The prestigious International 

Business Awards – more 

widely known as the Stevie’s 

– has honoured Etisalat, the 

UAE headquartered telecommunications 

company, with three 

awards for Most Innovative 

Company, Best Customer Care 

and Best Chairman. 

Mohammed Omran, Chairman, 

Etisalat, who is the architect of 

the group’s expansion to encompass 

operations throughout the 

Middle East, Africa and Asia, received 

the Best Chairman Award. 

Under his leadership, Etisalat’s 

customer base has increased 

from four million in 2004 to 140 

million today across 18 markets. 

Since becoming chairman in 

2005, group revenues have 

enjoyed double-digit compound 

annual growth rate to reach AED 

31.9 billion (USD $8.7 billion) 

with a four-year period where 

CAGR exceeded 25% between 

2005 and 2008. Etisalat’s 

footprint now covers two billion 

people, nearly one third of the 

world’s population. 

Mr. Omran has also guided the 

group through a diversification 

programme that has seen 

Etisalat develop as one of the 

world’s leading telecommunications 

companies with the 

broadest portfolio of products, 

capabilities and talent. In 

addition to providing telecommunications 

services in 18 

markets, the group’s portfolio 

of companies also includes 

submarine cable maintenance 

and repair, the Thuraya satellite 

communications network, and 

a leading manufacturer of SIM 

cards among others. Receiving 

the award Mr. Omran said: 

“Telecommunications transforms 

economies, businesses, communities 

and the way people 

live. Our mission is to bring the 

future of communications to 

the most dynamic regions in the 

world, no matter how challenging 

or demanding the market, 

and that requires innovation. 

“Etisalat’s innovations, such as 

the launch of our cashless payment 

service by mobile phone, 

provide a platform for the future 

of communications, commerce 

and collaboration, and we are 

delighted that the International 

Business Awards has recognised 

this.” He continued: “Etisalat is 

a home for remarkable people. 

Our success is due to the 

talented problem-solvers who 

focus every day on delivering 

next-generation services that 

transform the lives of the people 

who live, work and play on our 

world-class networks. I thank 

them for their dedication and 

ingenuity.” 

In addition to the three top 

awards, the company also 

received medals in four other 

categories: Green Initiative, 

Corporate Social Responsibility, 

Telecom Company and Human 

Resources.The Stevie Awards 

were created to honour the 

achievements and raise the 

profile of exemplary work done 

by organizations from around 

the world. The board of judges 

comprises prominent global 

industrialists and management 

experts including Tom Peters 

and Gary Hamel. 

Etisalat announces the creation of a CSR Fund: “Ayaadi” 

Confirming its leading role in 

supporting community initiatives, 

Etisalat on Wednesday 

announced at a press conference 

in its Dubai Offices, 

the creation of the Etisalat 

Corporate Social Responsibility 

(CSR) Fund called “Ayaadi”. 

The Fund’s prime objective is to 

support the UAE community. 

The launch of “Ayaadi” demonstrates 

Etisalat’s ability to excel 

not only in the telecommunications 

sector, but also in its social 

initiatives, which has been 

a key focus for the Corporation 

since it was established. The 

Fund is an offering to the sons 

and daughters of the UAE, as 

the celebration of the UAE’s 

40th National Day approaches. 

During the press conference 

Omar bin Huraiz, Chairman 

of the Board of Trustees of 

“Ayaadi”, said: “The UAE – in 

terms of its people and the 

government – upholds a strong 

heritage of social and cultural 

values and Etisalat has embodied 

this through its strive in 

supporting hundreds of social 

campaigns and community 

projects that positively impact 

society.” 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

Etisalat Academy introduces 

Huawei's certified LTE programs to the ME 

Etisalat Academy, has introduced 

the first certified LTE 

program in the ME region, in 

partnership with Huawei. 

The aim is for Etisalat Academy 

to develop a community of highly 

skilled and certified professionals 

who have a comprehensive understanding 

of LTE pertaining to 

'Commercialisation', 'Operation' 

and 'Maintenance', 'Planning' 

and 'Optimization'. 

It provides Etisalat, Etisalat 

Group and other operators in the 

region with the business, strategic 

and technical understanding 

of the challenges faced in the 

technical and product areas of 

LTE. The LTE Certification program 

helps translate to a faster 

learning curve for staff, and a 

quicker deployment and launch 

of LTE networks. 

The program is based on the 

Huawei, a leading global 

information and communications 

technology (ICT) solutions 

provider, has announced 

that it is collaborating with 

Wataniya Telecom, a leading 

telecommunications service 

provider in Kuwait, to deploy 

an IP-based microwave network 

with Huawei’s OptiX RTN 

980. The microwave network 

will serve as the foundation for 

an All-IP backhaul network for 

LTE mobile broadband networking. 

As the industry’s first nodal IP 

microwave product, Huawei’s 

OptiX RTN 980 enables the 

smooth evolution from TDM 

to All-IP by supporting highthroughput 

IP convergence 

with 14 directions and TDM 

and packet data universal 

Huawei Ltd. platform and the 

practical aspects will include 

hands-on training of Huawei 

equipment. For those who will 

be exposed to other vendors' 

platforms the program will cover 

the key technological aspects 

and provide a solid grounding on 

the subject. The information will 

be presented in a way that can 

quickly be translated to Operational 

and Maintenance activities 

across diverse platforms. 

David Brennan, General Manager, 

Etisalat Academy, said: "Globally, 

Etisalat is an early adopter 

of technology and is one of a 

handful of operators internationally 

to deploy LTE. Following this, 

Etisalat Academy has agreed to 

partner with Huawei, to develop 

a leading-edge LTE certification 

program. This will ensure industry 

professionals have access to 

the right knowledge and skills 

to embrace and leverage the LTE 

technology." 

Fu Shiguang, Huawei Learning 

Services President from Huawei 

Headquarters in Shenzhen 

China said: "We are glad to have 

Etisalat Academy as our chosen 

partner to impart LTE Certification 

trainings to the Middle East 

region. Our elearning platform 

and online lab access for relevant 

modules is one of the highlights 

of this training." 

Wataniya Telecom and Huawei Deploy Industry’s 

First Nodal IP Microwave Network in Kuwait 

cross-connections. At only 5U 

(or 22 cm) in height, the compact 

OptiX RTN 980 has a 22- 

Gb/s packet cross-connection 

capacity that is able to support 

high-density microwave deployments. 

"Wataniya Telecom is committed 

to providing our customers 

with reliable services through 

implementing the latest technology. 

The strategic decision 

for an IP-based network reform 

is important to our company as 

we prepare our mobile backhaul 

network for future evolution," 

said Hisham Siblini, CTO of 

Wataniya Telecom. “We believe 

that Huawei’s IP microwave 

solution will enable a successful 

transition to a network 

that supports All-IP broadband 

services, and will have a significant 

impact on enhancing the 

mobile broadband experience 

of Wataniya’s subscribers.” 

Wataniya Telecom saw a need 

to revamp its TDM mobile backhaul 

carrier network to support 

the deployment of the latest 

mobile broadband technologies 

and IP-based networks so as to 

realize the potential of LTE. The 

company spent a year assessing 

and testing products from 

a number of major IP microwave 

solution providers before 

selecting Huawei's OptiX RTN 

series for its uniform TDM/ 

Hybrid/Packet platform and 

the company’s dedication and 

expertise in assisting operators 

to evolve their networks. 

PAN Yong, CTO of Huawei 

Kuwait, said: “We are excited 

to be extending our successful 

partnership with Wataniya 

Telecom with the deployment 

of our cutting-edge IP-based 

microwave network technology. 

Huawei’s extensive range of All- 

IP mobile backhaul solutions is 

built on our understanding of 

operators’ needs and experience 

in delivering innovative 

products that enable customers 

to realize high growth potential 

and returns in investment.” 

Huawei is committed to providing 

advanced WDM/OTN, 

MSTP/Hybrid MSTP and microwave 

products, and end-to-end 

transport network solutions to 

operators worldwide. According 

to Skylight Consulting Inc, Huawei 

ranked first in the packet 

radio market and second in the 

global radio market, as of the 

first quarter of 2011. 


43

Keeping the telecomms service 

provider relevant 

Telecomms operators must leverage their customer relationships 

and billing systems to tap emerging opportunities 

It is easy to understand why 

telcos sometimes feel like 

they have been squeezed out 

of the picture, particularly during 

events where devices and 

applications are very much in 

the limelight. And even when 

attention is not on the actual 

devices, it often turns to the 

applications that run on them, 

and the application stores that 

channel those apps to market. 

Again, the operators may 

appear to be missing from the 

picture. 

When it comes to the lucrative 

world of apps, operators are 

generally perceived to have left 

it too late to really take a slice 

of the pie. Apple dominates, 

and Google’s Android Market is 

growing rapidly. 

While operators often discuss 

strategies to create new revenue 

streams to avoid becoming a 

‘bit pipe’, specific details about 

how they will achieve this are 

usually lacking. But as is apparent 

from developments over 

recent months, there are plenty 

of ways operators can become 

involved with parts of the wider 

telecomms sector that they are 

generally perceived to have 

already missed out on. 

Gaming is just one example. 

While it would be easy to assume 

that most revenues from 

mobile games go to the games 

developers and the stores they 

are downloaded from, many 

industry insiders are convinced 

telecom operators have a role to 

play via their billing platforms. 

Indeed, some operators have 

started to generate revenue 

through mobile payments attached 

to online games, while 

online gaming companies are 

incorporating various payment 

methods into their games. 

Many people prefer to pay for 

items such as game downloads 

on their telephone bill rather 

than a credit card, as the customer 

already has an established 

relationship with the 

operator, which generates trust. 

But there is also much potential 

for operators to leverage 

their existing billing systems 

and platforms, and customer 

relationships, in a much broader 

way, and an initiative spearheaded 

by the GSM Association 

(GSMA) recently could put 

operators on the right path to 

achieve this. 

Many of the world’s leading 

operators, including Qtel Group, 

Orange, Bharti Aitel, América 

Móvil, China Unicom, and 

Vodafone, have voiced their 

commitment to implementing 

Near Field Communications 

(NFC) technology, and intend to 

launch commercial NFC services 

in select markets by 2012. 

Franco Bernabè, chairman, 

GSMA and CEO, Telecom Italia, 

said that NFC is perhaps best 

known for its role in enabling 

mobile payments, but its applications 

also go far beyond that. 

“NFC represents an important 

innovation opportunity, and 

will facilitate a wide range of 

interesting services and applications 

for consumers, such 

as mobile ticketing, mobile 

Many of the world’s leading operators, 

including Qtel Group, Orange, 

Bharti Aitel, América Móvil, China 

Unicom, and Vodafone, have voiced 

their commitment to implementing 

Near Field Communications (NFC) 

technology, and intend to launch 

commercial NFC services in select 

markets by 2012. 

Franco Bernabè 

couponing, the exchange of information 

and content, control 

access to cars, homes, hotels, offices 

car parks and much more.” 

Indeed, the market potential 

for NFC is significant. According 

to Frost & Sullivan, the total 

payment value for NFC globally 

will reach more than EUR110 

billion ($151bn) in 2015, and 

momentum behind the technology 

is growing rapidly. 

To address this opportunity 

and to provide valuable 

new services to mobile users 

worldwide, the operator community 

is focused on driving 

the standardised deployment of 

mobile NFC, using the SIM as 

the secure element to provide 

authentication, security and 

portability. 

To achieve this, the GSMA will 

develop the necessary certification 

and testing standards to 

ensure global interoperability of 

NFC services. This interoperability 

is critical to the widespread 

adoption of NFC, enabling users 

to benefit from NFC services 

around the world, regardless 

of operator network or device 

type. “As we have seen, the 

adoption of different approaches 

to NFC will only serve to 

fragment the market,” Bernabè 

said. “By uniting around a 

single standardised approach to 

mobile NFC and by collaborating 

across the entire ecosystem, 

our industry will continue to 

develop the compelling services 

that customers demand.” 

One of the reasons that Apple 

and Google have managed to 

prosper in the applications 

arena is that operators failed to 

create a single standard system, 

leaving other players in the 

broader telecoms ecosystem to 

dominate. 

Operators should embrace NFC 

and throw their weight behind 

the GSMA’s initiative, as the 

potential opportunity is too 

great to miss. 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

IP based messaging: 

Creating new revenue opportunities 

The tide is slowly turning. 

This is how we can simply 

describe the transition that 

is happening now on how we 

communicate and stay in touch. 

If we can recall having the 

same feeling and anticipation 

the first time we sent our first 

text message some twenty 

years ago. We knew then that 

it would change the landscape 

on how we stay connected 

with our colleagues, friends 

and most of all our loved ones. 

We knew that it would cross 

geographical boundaries and 

our message would be delivered 

in an instant. 

Almost twenty years later and 

about 7 trillion text messages 

(2011) sent annually, 

the culture and phenomenon 

of messaging is slowly turning 

a new leaf and it is growing 

along with the advancement of 

time and technology. Although 

recent development shows that 

SMS is flattening out or even 

declining in terms of operator 

revenues, messages will not 

simply be gone instantaneously. 

In fact according to Acision, the 

messaging giant who supplied 

90% of operators and vendors 

the solution for their messaging 

capabilities, SMS will not be 

lost and we will not see it 

steeply declining in the next 

3 years. This was supported 

by the recent report that was 

released by KPN Netherlands; 

their 1Q report showed that 

compared to the previous year 

there was a gradual decline in 

terms of the messaging traffic. 

1Q11 SMS traffic was in the 

area of 1.55 billion SMSs, about 

1.3% decline from 1.57 billion 

the same period last year. 

Like KPN, operators believe the 

receding SMS revenue comes 

into the wake when consumer 

sales for smartphone devices 

are on the rise. According to 

research firm IDC, the global 

mobile phone market ballooned 

in the first quarter of this year, 

growing 19.8% year-over-year, 

and the growth was attributed 

to the smartphone shipments, 

especially in emerging markets. 

It says that vendors shipped 

371.8 million units in Q1 2011 

compared to 310.5 million units 

in the first quarter of 2010 

in terms of overall handsets. 

The move to have smartphone 

devices enables the next IP 

environment, next generation 

technology, including IP based 

messaging. 

In fact, when Steve Jobs announced 

the iPhone in 2007 

and called it a revolutionary 

product, the statement didn’t 

have much of an impact. But 

four years later it is the leading 

smartphone device shipped 

across the globe and most 

device manufacturers have followed 

suit. But as the market 

is being equipped with the new 

devices, for operators it will be 

a different case. The declining 

usage of SMS prompts operators 

to search for alternate 

revenue streams. SMS has 

contributed to the operators’ 

books for the past few years, 

giving them income with every 

message being sent. But in the 

coming years it will not be the 

same. 

The Move to be Free 

Nowadays, it is a common 


45

consumer notion that once we 

move to IP we can freely send 

and receive messages without 

being charged per message 

sent through mobile operators, 

thereby sending messages 

through IMS or IP means such 

as Yahoo Messenger and Facebook 

is very attractive to the 

market. The concept “free” has 

been creating riptides for consumers 

to jump on the bandwagon. 

But just like all business 

models, nothing comes 

free in this world. And just 

like what Einstein said about 

energy, it can only transform 

from one form to another. This 

holds true when talking about 

operator revenues. 

And as we move to IMS or IP 

based messaging services, new 

challenges arise for operators 

because they need to adapt 

to new models that will not 

be based on per message but 

perhaps come up with a more 

holistic one. New messaging 

applications for smartphones 

are currently moving into the 

market, thus it is proof that 

messaging will still be a key 

revenue generator for mobile 

operators. But for operators to 

remain competitive, messaging 

services must evolve and will 

be packaged and leveraged as 

a unique messaging service 

with different characteristics, 

and perhaps closely personalizing 

them as consumers’ 

choose. And as we move into 

IP based architecture, the benefits 

of it should be enhanced 

and adopted to the next generation 

network technologies. 

According to Acision, for mass 

communication services like 

SMS or IP Messaging service, 

there are three fundamentals 

for revenue growth: 

1. Connectivity – Most messaging 

services rely on location, 

device/app, provider, 

access network or online 

status. To make sure that 

everyone will be connected 

or can connect will assure 

the operator’s unique 

added value in messaging. 

By making them connected 

it empowers them to have 

choice on how and where 

they will be able to communicate. 

2. Context – These is where 

the personalization of messages 

comes into play. The 

real value is achieved if the 

actual services that rely on 

messaging are tailored to 

the individual needs of the 

different user segments in 

the operator customer base. 

It will give the user a sense 

that his/her desired means 

to transmit message can 

easily be accessed, secured 

and will keep him/her up 

to date. 

3. Collaboration - Operators 

have a long list of assets 

that offer a unique position 

in the mobile domain. To 

illustrate this with a few 

examples: they have a billing 

relationship with every 

customer segment, they 

have full control over the 

access network and they 

offer professional customer 

care services. Many of 

these assets are currently 

not accessible to service 

providers and developers 

outside the operator 

domain. Offering controlled 

access to some of these 

assets could offer a huge 

opportunity for operators. 

The next wave 

While more and more operators 

focus on network migrations, 

regulations and cross 

network interoperability, the 

Ping application providers are 

currently focusing on having 

the best user experience, thus 

ensuring reach and reliability. 

Operators must be concerned 

and give more focus on running 

a cost effective messaging 

operation developing 

advanced messaging services, 

and in turn will provide the 

edge over device app based 

messaging offerings (Ping 

applications) that will remain 

reliant on an access network 

they do not control. In order 

to realize this scenario, mobile 

operators should build on their 

strengths and provide superior 

messaging services by seizing 

these IP Messaging opportunities: 

1. SMS and MMS must also 

be made available in LTE 

and WiMAX networks, providing 

evolved, cost effective 

SMS and MMS services 

over an IP network. SMS 

services were originally designed 

for the mobile network 

architecture and rely 

on specific transport technology, 

which is not available 

in 4G networks based 

on LTE or WiMAX. The 

operator must evolve text 

messaging based on circuit 

switched network technology 

towards text messaging 

based on IP. By not doing 

so this will eventually 

threatens the continuity of 

SMS revenues. SMS should 

be enabled as well in IP. 

2. Offering new messaging 

services using IMS, leveraging 

operator assets by 

delivering integrated voice 

and messaging communication 

services through the 

unique IMS architecture. 

New network technologies 

also enable the introduction 

of new messaging 

services. There is clear 

consensus about the longterm 

direction of communication 

services on mobile 

broadband networks. Ultimately 

mobile voice over IP 

(mVoIP) will be delivered 

on the next generation 

network, supported by a 

SIP based signaling system 

referred to as IP Multimedia 

Subsystem, or in short, 

IMS. The IMS standards 

also cater for new types of 

messaging capabilities. 

3. Introducing IP Messaging 

services without IMS, and 

collaborating in the cloud 

by providing access to 

unique network assets that 

enable a superior quality of 

experience. 

Finally, IP Messaging is still on 

its infancy stages and across 

the globe majority of the 

population are still within the 

2.5 – 3.5G of communication. 

But, like always, telecommunication 

operators has continued 

to step up the tempo of improving 

our daily lives through 

different means of communication. 

There will come a time 

when this technology will be a 

part of our daily lives just like 

SMS, however, by that time 

we will have better choices 

on what modes to choose 

and how we communicate. 

Because IP Messaging just like 

the internet will provide us 

with more ways to explore, to 

be in touch and at the same 

time provide opportunities to 

operators to be more creative 

in enhancing user experience, 

thereby creating a ripple effect 

in operator’s revenue streams. 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

Omantel EGM approves merger 

of Oman Mobile with Omantel 

Oman Telecommunications 

Company (Omantel) Extra 

Ordinary General Meeting held 

to approved the planned merger 

of Oman Mobile with Omantel. 

The meeting was chaired by Abdul 

Qader Asqlan Vice Chairman 

of Omantel Board of Directors. 

The shareholders meeting of 

Oman Mobile approved the 

merger proposal of Oman Mobile 

with Omantel How will it 

reinforce Which will reinforce 

the company's leadership of the 

telecom market in the Sultanate 

as the biggest integrated telecom 

services provider. 

Dr. Amer bin Awadh Al-Rawas, 

Chief Executive Officer of Omantel 

said, "The approval of the 

General Meeting of the Company 

for the planned merger proposal 

between Oman Mobile & Omantel 

is a legal requirement according 

to the commercial companies 

law and forms the last step in 

the merger initiative that was 

launched three years back when 

Omantel showcases 

its corporate services at Oman Investment Forum 

Omantel, the leading integrated 

telecom services 

provider in the Sultanate, participated 

in the Oman Investment 

Forum 2011 at Al Bustan 

Palace Hotel. 

The 3-day Forum, under the 

auspices of Darwish bin Ismaeel 

al Balushi, Minister Responsible 

for Financial Affairs, is organised 

by MEED and attended 

by senior government officials 

from the Sultanate and other 

countries as well as major corporates 

from different important 

sectors. 

Huda Abdullah al Habsi, the 

Huda Abdullah al Habsi 

acting GM of Marketing at 

Omantel's Corporate Business 

Unit said, "Having a presence in 

such an important international 

Forum held in the Sultanate is 

Dr. Amer Rawas, CEO Omantel 

the operations of both companies 

were integrated into one 

unified operating model". 

He added, "Enhancing the internal 

efficiency was one of the 

main objectives of the integration 

of the operational activities 

and we are glad that we have 

successfully implemented this 

through the synergy that was 

created between both company's 

operations in functions 

like finance, human resources, 

procurements and network. 

This has helped us in creating 

added value for our shareholders 

despite the stiff competition in 

the local market which is ranked 

as the fourth most competitive 

telecom market in the region". 

Dr. Amer further explained, 

"Our customers were able to 

see the fruits of the integration 

of operational activities which 

were clearly reflected in the 

improved quality of service and 

the focus on customers as we 

had a customer-centric operating 

model that was designed 

to ensure that we satisfy the 

growing needs of our different 

customers. In the new integrated 

operating model we established 

three business units for Consumer, 

Corporate and Wholesale 

customers offering mobile, 

fixed and internet services. This 

has meant to our shareholders 

that the company is not only 

maintaining and growing its 

existing business customer base 

but also exploring new revenue 

streams through the resale of 

our network services benefitting 

from owning the largest telecom 

network with the widest coverage 

in the Sultanate. 

"The launch of the integrated 

operational model played an important 

role in introducing many 

new innovative products and 

services for the first time in the 

Sultanate which were highly received 

by our customers such as 

Mada Infinity and Mada Liberty, 

Hayyak Liberty and Unlimited 

Home Broadband packages, Dr. 

Amer added. 

"The merger reaffirms our 

commitment to enhancing our 

customers' experience which 

we will continue on through the 

introduction of more innovative 

products and expanding our 

network reach to cover different 

areas of the Sultanate. The 

merger to be fully completed 

in the next few months within 

the statuary period set by the 

concerned regulatory bodies, Al 

Rawas concluded. 

very important for us as it constitutes 

a perfect platform for 

our Company to interact with 

existing and potential corporate 

customers". 

She added, "Omantel is the 

leading telecommunication 

company in Oman and owns the 

largest network for fixed and 

mobile services with the widest 

range of services for corporate 

segment. Our participation in 

this event gives us the opportunity 

to show the widest range 

of state-of-the-art mobile, fixed 

and Internet services and the 

end-to-end solutions to our existing 

and potential customers. 

It will also allow us to establish 

partnerships with companies 

planning to invest in the Sultanate 

building on the economic 

growth of the Sultanate." 

Omantel is the leading telecommunication 

company in 

the Sultanate and has been 

bringing individuals, families 

and business together and has 

successfully connected different 

parts of the Omani community 

to each other and with the rest 

of the world through a modern 

network of mobile, fixed telecom 

and Internet services. 


47

Narus unveils a new generation 

of cyber protection solution 

Narus, Inc. has introduced 

its next generation of the 

cyber protection application. 

This robust application is built 

on the powerful NarusInsight 

Traffic Intelligence system and 

is designed to provide network 

operators with an early-warning 

system for cyber attacks such 

as advanced persistent threats. 

This highly anticipated release 

provides unprecedented visibility 

into the network, real-time 

traffic baselining, pinpoint 

alerting and continuous monitoring 

using patented adaptive 

anomaly detection engines. 

NarusInsight CyberProtection 

provides network operators 

with enhanced network infrastructure 

protection by finding 

and protecting against the 

most nefarious and persistent 

threats. 

Narus, Inc., has introduced 

its latest application to 

deeply analyze IP traffic in 

real time. The cyber analytics 

application is built upon Narus’ 

flagship product, NarusInsight 

Traffic Intelligence system, and 

provides security analysts with 

unparalleled insight into suspicious, 

malicious and anomalous 

network traffic to accelerate 

investigations. Security analysts 

now have the tool needed to 

examine enormous amounts of 

network traffic data quickly, 

reducing the time needed to 

discover, investigate and understand 

traffic of interest. With 

NarusInsight CyberAnalytics, 

security analysts have the visibility 

into the traffic required to 

Forrester Research guidance on 

network visibility tells enterprise 

owners that they should 

know what the traffic is doing 

on all of their networks all the 

time, not just at the perimeter. 

Network analysis tools should 

work by passively sniffing all 

traffic traversing the network. 

Enterprise and government 

communications is so critical 

to our economy and safety 

that Forrester anticipates that 

federal government guidelines 

on “continuous monitoring” 

will trickle down to enterprise 

network policies1. 

NarusInsight addresses these 

challenges. The solution gives 

network operators unprecedented 

visibility into the network 

traffic. It detects anomalous 

and malicious traffic and alerts 

network operators of the 

changes in behavior that signify 

an attack or network-impacting 

activity. The patented adaptive 

anomaly detection engines continuously 

monitor the network’s 

behavior, detecting anomalous 

behavior such as protocol and 

application tunneling while 

simultaneously analyzing network 

traffic in real time. Using 

these analytical engines, cyber 

threats are identified early so 

that network operators can take 

corrective action quickly. 

The solution is also highly 

customizable, and easily integrates 

into a customer’s existing 

security infrastructure, including 

industry-leading Security 

Event Information Management 

(SEIM) solutions. It can be set 

up to comply with network and 

security monitoring requirements 

mandated by industry 

Narus introduces 

New Application for Cyber Analysis 

improve the overall health and 

security of critical networks. 

Research firm Forrester Research 

underscores the importance of 

detailed visibility into a network 

in a recent report. “Forrester 

recommends deploying network 

analysis and visibility (NAV) 

tools in conjunction with your 

traditional security information 

management (SIM) system. 

These NAV tools include network 

discovery tools, tools that 

analyze flow data, tools that dissect 

packet captures, tools that 

look at network metadata, and 

tools used for network forensic 

examination%%1415%%.” 

NarusInsight fulfills these 

requirements with a multitude 

of unique features and functionalities. 

Overall, it improves 

security analysts’ ability to make 

decisions by proactively looking 

for “things” that shouldn’t be on 

their network. Using powerful 

on-demand analytics for stored 

“traffic at rest” and live analytics 

for streaming “traffic in motion,” 

the solution can examine 

enormous amounts of network 

traffic data quickly. This reduces 

the time needed to uncover 

potential issues that often escape 

detection using traditional 

solutions. 

The solution also has the ability 

to visualize “big data” over a 

longer period of time. Security 

analysts can see more relevant 

network traffic with a longer 

search window up to days, 

Lucia Micasa 

and government. 

“NarusInsight CyberProtection 

is an example of a new 

generation of adaptive technology 

used to defend against the 

fast-changing nature of cyber 

attacks, such as exfiltration 

of data and bot activity in an 

advanced persistent threat environment,” 

said Neil Harrington, 

director, product management, 

Narus. “Network operators now 

have a powerful network infrastructure 

protection tool that 

provides unprecedented visibility 

into their entire network. 

NarusInsight CyberProtection 

sees what perimeter defenses 

miss and it detects anomalous 

behavior early. We help network 

operators understand normal 

versus nefarious behavior 

and provide an early-warning 

system against attacks.” 

weeks or even months. Thanks 

to Narus’ experience in metadata, 

the solution recognizes what 

data to collect, how to collect 

it and how to analyze it. “Most 

solutions today detect what 

security analysts already know 

to look for, as is the case with 

signature-based attacks,” said 

David Cavuto, director, product 

engineering, Narus. “NarusInsight 

CyberAnalytics is all about 

looking for what we don’t know, 

which involves digging deep into 

the details of network traffic. 

This type of network insight is 

the cornerstone to establishing 

a healthy, secure network and 

improving the efficiency and 

productivity of the operations 

center.” 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

Nawras introduces another first with 

convenient prepaid solution for postpaid customers 

Nawras accepts BankMuscat debit card for convenient bill 

payment and recharge through MyNawras 

Nawras, Oman’s customer 

friendly communications 

provider has announced that in 

addition to using a credit card, 

customers can now conveniently 

use a debit card from BankMuscat 

through MyNawras to pay 

their bills or recharge online. This 

is the latest free service introduced 

to make it even easier to 

pay bills or recharge online. 

With a BankMuscat debit 

card, payments via MyNawras 

are made online instantly. As 

with locally issued credit cards, 

Nawras Ajel customers can 

choose to pay any amount up 

to 150 Omani Rials weekly and 

Nawras Mousbak customers can 

credit their account for up to 10 

Omani Rials daily. 

MyNawras is a free self-care 

Nawras, Oman’s customer 

friendly communications 

provider is introducing another 

first for customers by making it 

even easier to pay bills. Nawras 

Ajel postpaid customers can 

now choose to conveniently use 

a prepaid recharge card or electronic 

recharge option to settle 

their account. 

This new method of payment is 

designed to further improve the 

customer experience, particularly 

for all those living outside 

major cities and towns. Nawras 

Ajel customers can now benefit 

from the company’s extensive 

distribution network of approximately 

15,000 points of 

sale for Nawras mobile recharge 

credit. 

Settling a postpaid account 

simply involves entering and dialling 

*141# on a mobile phone 

or handset to display the menu. 

After selecting the bill payment 

option, the recharge code from 

the card or e-recharge slip can 

service showing bill details and 

account balances in a confidential 

and secure way. A simple 

online registration is the only 

requirement to begin using the 

service. Each subsequent access 

to MyNawras simply requires the 

input of the password and login 

name that were created on the 

first visit. 

MyNawras is accessible online. 

There is no charge for using this 

secure service through any access 

point. 

Ammar Al-Lawati, Nawras Product 

Manager, said, “We are constantly 

making it easier for our 

valued customers to pay their 

bills and buy credit. BankMuscat 

customers can now use their 

debit card to pay for Nawras services 

through the secure channel 

of MyNawras. This is the latest 

addition to the myriad of payment 

choices we offer customers 

and follows the recent introduction 

of credit card payment at 

our self service machines.” 

In addition to accepting credit 

cards and BankMuscat debit 

cards via MyNawras and through 

self-service machines, Nawras 

offers a variety of additional 

payment methods and recharge 

options to make it easy for customers 

to choose the option that 

best suits their requirements 

Customers can also use the 

free Nawras iPhone and iPad 

MyNawras App to view their 

bills and prepaid balance as 

well as check their usage history 

for calls, SMS and value 

added services, all with complete 

Julie Amann 

be entered. A minimal service 

charge of 5% will be applied 

based on the value of the 

recharge. 

Commenting on this latest payment 

option, Nashat Ahmed 

Al-Riyami, Marketing Product 

Manager – Postpaid Services, 

said, “Through living the customer 

experience, we are able 

to be innovative and introduce 

new products and services that 

make communication more 

versatile and rewarding for our 

valued customers. Many will 

find it extremely convenient 

to be able to pay their bill with 

a recharge card which can be 

purchased so easily from points 

of sale all over the country.” 

A member of the Qtel Group, 

Nawras promised from the 

outset to make it easier for customers 

to buy, get help and pay. 

This latest payment method is 

one of many pleasingly different 

choices provided for customers’ 

convenience. 

confidence and security. The 

MyNawras App also enables customers 

to report a lost SIM-card 

in a quick and easy way. 

Nawras people are living the 

customer experience every day 

in order to deliver an award-winning 

level of pleasingly different 

service to delight customers with 

every aspect of their communications 

experience. 


49

Soh Yeng Chai 

Fifteen years ago is when 

I had my first experience 

with the cloud. That was when 

internet cafes in Manila are 

sprouting and attendant will 

need to help you in setting up 

your hotmail account and that 

is by giving you a user id and 

a password. And every time I 

tried to send an email, somehow 

because of the dial up it wont 

send and the message will 

simply be saved either on an 

undelivered outbox or on a draft 

folder on my account. 

I just accepted the evolving 

technology then, but never did 

I questioned so as to how it 

happened that a letter of mine 

can be saved and be retrievable 

anytime and anywhere. Little 

did I know that what is shaping 

then is a new technology that 

would soon evolve globally and 

personal data can be retrieved 

anywhere. Although the email 

was my personal cloud, the 

concept of using it has evolved 

and has been a normal way 

of living in many parts of 

the world, and that is cloud 

computing. 

Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook, 

Multiply, Box.com and many 

more has provided us with 

virtual storage boxes where we 

can keep our personal files and 

can be accessed every time. In 

the United States the technology 

is moving full steam ahead 

that their top priority on their 

agenda is making data available 

while on the go. In fact the US 

Federal Government has allotted 

budget of more than $70 billion 

dollars a year for their IT budget 

and amongst the top agenda 

is cloud computing. Thee same 

hold true for Europe, wherein 

the European Commission have 

highlighted the importance of a 

unified cloud. Although a year 

ago, according to reports by 

451 Group, that showed cloud 

computing adoption trails in 

Europe and Asia. About 57% 

operation spending is in the 

United States with 31% in 

Europe and 12% in Asia. 

However this year 

more and more 

government 

is pushing 

forward 

towards 

the 

adoption 

of the cloud 

to become an 

integral part our 

daily operations. By 

the end of last year a group 

called Asia Cloud Computing 

Association (Asia Cloud) was 

formed. 

The main purpose of the 

association is to gather the 

major cloud stakeholders in 

Asia and accelerate the creation 

of the market by collectively 

addressing key issues and 

obstacles – to resolve challenges 

that individual companies 

are unlikely or not at all able 

to achieve on their own. And 

according to Asia Cloud the 

interest in moving to cloud is 

very high but Asia is probably 

about three years behind North 

America and 18 months behind 

Europe in adopting cloud 

methodologies. In fact they’ve 

added that the global market 

for cloud computing is growing 

at a compounded annual rate 

of 28 percent, from $47 billion 

U.S. dollars to the anticipated 

$126 billion U.S. dollars by 2012. 

The research firm IDC estimates 

cloud computing in Asia, outside 

of Japan, will expand 40 percent 

every year until 2014, from $1.3 

billion U.S. 

dollars in 2010. Japan, currently 

the 2nd largest IT market 

globally, is expected to grow to 

$29.2 billion in 2015 according 

to Japan’s Internal Affairs and 

Communications Ministry. In 

addition to these Telegeography 

Research estimates that global 

broadband Internet subscribers 

will climb to more than 700 

million by 2013, with more than 

300 million from Asia, compared 

to about 100 million in North 

America, and nearly 200 million 

in Europe. Broadband is one of 

the medium where individual 

can accessed their data to the 

cloud. 

Although the forecasted number 

exciting in terms of the market 

potential, the ground work 

on each and every in terms of 

infrastructure, government 

budget or laws are still being 

laid out to create an smooth 

transition going to the cloud. 

In Singapore, last year telecom 

giant SingTel announced that it 

aims to grow the revenue from 

its cloud computing services 

by 50% for each of the next 

three years, in line with its 

wider plans to boost revenue 

from its non-core services. 

They’ve unveiled a new 

business model their 

cloud computing 

services. SingTel 

claims it is the 

first in the world to 

introduce a complete 

package of services-ondemand, 

which will cover 

infrastructure to software 

requirements. Customers can 

scale up or down requirements 

at any time, and will only need 

to pay for what's used. They 

also plan to eventually roll 

out some of the cloud-based 

services in overseas markets 

where its associates are based. 

They are currently working with 

some 300 developers to launch 

new software services on their 

platform. 

In addition to that The 

Singapore Nanyang 

Technological University (NTU) 

and IBM have embarked on a 

project to host the university’s 

High Performance Computing 

(HPC) environment on a cloud. 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

Musalli Almuammar 

STC delegation visits ITU headquarters 

Held a series of meetings with secretary general of ITU 

Dr. Saad Alqahtani 

delegation from STC group 

A visited the headquarters 

of International Telecommunication 

Union (ITU) in Geneva 

September 30th 2011 where 

the delegation held meetings 

with the secretary general of 

the Union, sectors' managers 

and high executives in the 

Union. 

STC delegation was headed by 

Dr. Saad Bin Dhafer Alqahtani, 

group's CEO of strategic operations 

and included Dr. Mahmoud 

Bin Abdul Alkarim Alkhateeb 

VP for regulatory affairs, 

Dr. Abdullah Bin Mohammed 

Alhomeadan VP for human 

capital, Mr. Ali Bin Abdullah 

Alomari international affairs 

supervisor and Mr. Naser Bin 

Mohammed Algarni director of 

coordination and communication 

with the International 

Union. 

The delegation held a series of 

"ITU has a close relationship with the kingdom 

of Saudi Arabia represented in the ministry of 

communication and information technology and the 

CITC, and the kingdom is considered a prominent 

member in the Union which drives the development 

of relations between the Union and STC in the 

course of realizing common objectives, especially 

under the ongoing international expansion of STC 

group in Asia, Europe and Africa." 

"STC delegation was headed by Dr. Saad Bin Dhafer 

Alqahtani, group's CEO of strategic operations 

and included Dr. Mahmoud Bin Abdul Alkarim 

Alkhateeb VP for regulatory affairs, Dr. Abdullah 

Bin Mohammed Alhomeadan VP for human capital, 

Mr. Ali Bin Abdullah Alomari international affairs 

supervisor and Mr. Naser Bin Mohammed Algarni 

director of coordination and communication with 

the international union." 

meetings with the secretary 

general of the Union, sectors' 

managers and high executives 

in the union, during which 

means of enhancing future cooperation 

between STC and the 

Union has been discussed. 

The most significant outputs of 

these meetings were the invitation 

from the Union to STC to 

join the Broadband Commission 

(an international and UN 

subsidiary which membership is 

excluded in limited number of 

active persons who represents 

key telecommunications companies 

in the world) and the 

invitation to STC to preview its 

experience in delivering broadband 

services in the (Connect 

Arab States Summit) organized 

by ITU in March 2012. 

It is worth mentioning that ITU 

has a close relationship with 

the kingdom of Saudi Arabia 

represented in the ministry of 

communication and information 

technology and the CITC, 

and the kingdom is considered 

a prominent member in 

the Union which drives the 

development of relations 

between the Union and STC in 

the course of realizing common 

objectives, especially under the 

ongoing international expansion 

of STC group in Asia, 

Europe and Africa. 


51

Caroline Gabriel 

Small cells will drive LTE-Advanced 

investment within two years 

LTE may be commercially 

deployed on every 

continent now, but it remains 

in its early stages, with most 

roll-outs confined to a few 

metro areas and HSPA(+) 

providing the workhorse 

technology. Nonetheless, 

industry talk and optimism 

has already shifted to 

the next generation, LTE- 

Advanced, with Ericsson 

talking up the 1 Gbps speeds 

seen in its new testbed and 

carriers starting to plan for 

the future. There are echoes 

of 3G here; for many, “true 

3G” did not appear until HSPA 

or even HSPA+ was available, 

and some operators 

even had the luxury 

of skipping the first 

iteration altogether. 

The same will be 

true in LTE, where 

many HSPA (and 

WiMAX) cellcos 

plan to push 

that standard to 

its limits before 

making any serious 

investment in the 

newer platform, 

which may enable 

them to go straight 

to the greater 

efficiencies of 

Advanced. Even 

some new entrants are mulling 

that approach, notably Dish 

Network in the U.S. 

Carriers are not just interested 

in LTE-Advanced because it 

may finally enable “true 4G” 

data rates, with peaks of 1 

Gbps while stationary, as 

defined by the ITU. As a new 

study by Rethink Technology 

Research indicates, their focus 

is more on how Advanced 

bakes the new way of building 

mobile data networks—small 

cells, HetNets, carrier 

aggregation and so on—more 

deeply into the standard than 

current 3GPP specs. They are 

hoping that techniques they 

have started to use in HSPA 

and LTE to improve their cost 

efficiencies and capacity will 

be simpler and cheaper to 

achieve in Advanced. 

In its survey of almost 300 

mobile operators worldwide 

(full results to be published 

next month), Rethink found 

that the carriers’ top three 

objectives for deploying LTE- 

Advanced by the end of 2015 

are: to reduce cost of delivery 

by 35 percent; to reduce 

power consumption by 85 

percent; and to boost average 

data rates by 200 percent or 

more. 

These targets are seen as 

essential to retaining any kind 

of profit model from mobile 

data by mid-decade. Four key 

aspects of the LTE-A specs 

emerged as most critical to 

achieving the goals, according 

to the operators surveyed, 

and will be the main drivers 

for their planned investments. 

The biggest contributor 

to the business impact of 

LTE-A, by a runaway margin, 

will be small cells/HetNet. 

While this approach is being 

taken in 3G and LTE, carriers 

believe the new platform will 

make them simpler and more 

standardized, and a huge 

35 percent selected this as 

the most important aspect 

of LTE-A for the commercial 

model. It was followed by 

carrier aggregation (whether 

interband or intraband), 

selected by 21 percent 

because of its potential to 

make efficient use of diverse 

frequencies and scraps of 

spectrum. Next in order of 

importance came new SON 

techniques for all kinds of 

cells (they 

are implicit in 

metrocells); 

MIMO 

advances; 

wireless 

relays back 

to the RAN; 

interference 

management 

advances; and 

CoMP. 

The critical 

importance 

of small cells 

was clear at 

last week’s 

Base Station 

Conference 

in the U.K., where picocells, 

metrocells and offload to 

indoor femtocells were 

constant themes. The 


53

notion has become almost 

undisputed among wouldbe 

4G carriers, but few 

players are giving concrete 

estimates of just how many 

of these shrunken cells will be 

required—a gap that femtocell 

silicon leader Picochip sought 

to fill at the event. 

According to modeling carried 

out by the U.K. firm, worldclass 

LTE coverage of London 

would require 70,000 small 

cells, including about 2,000 

for the Underground subway 

system (which currently has 

no cellular service). CTO 

Doug Pulley presented the 

calculations at the conference, 

bringing together actual traffic 

patterns and demographics as 

well as data on probable new 

services enabled by 4G. 

“While Wi-Fi will offer some 

respite to the network, 

ultimately London's 

population density means 

that small cells, deployed in 

the most congested areas, are 

the only way for the mobile 

networks to cope with the 

traffic,” Pulley said. About 

12,000 of the envisaged total 

would be outdoors, in areas 

where the macro network 

would be congested; 2,000 

would be on the Underground; 

and the remainder would 

increase capacity indoors, via 

publicly accessible femtocells 

or metrocells. 

Rupert Baines, VP of 

marketing at Picochip, said in 

a statement: “While 70,000 

small cells may sound like 

a lot, compared to the cost 

and complications associated 

with improving the network 

using macro base stations, 

small cells offer a much easier, 

quicker and cheaper solution 

for network operators.” 

Silicon suppliers like Picochip 

see great opportunities in the 

carrier enthusiasm for small 

cells and the rapid migration 

to LTE-A this will drive in 

some cases. However, the 

silicon to support a varied 

device ecosystem will be even 

more vital in making LTE-A 

commercially viable, and chip 

vendors on this side of the 

equation are moving equally 

quickly, according to a new 

survey by Heavy Reading. 

Component manufacturers are 

already beginning to sample 

the first devices that support 

LTE-A, says analyst Simon 

Stanley, who points out that 

in deployment terms, LTE is 

the fastest-growing wireless 

technology ever. It has been 

seen first in single-mode 

dongles and, combined with 

3G or CDMA, dual-mode 

handsets. Next will come 

multiband phones supporting 

2G/3G and multiple LTE 

bands. “Meanwhile, the first 

silicon devices with features 

such as carrier aggregation 

and multiuser MIMO to 

support LTE-Advanced are 

already sampling to system 

developers,” Stanley adds. 

The need to create an LTE 

and LTE-A ecosystem rapidly 

has led to acquisitions of 

specialist 4G baseband 

makers, which made their 

name in WiMAX and then 

moved to the similar LTE 

technology. As the handset 

chip majors raced to support 

LTE, Broadcom acquired 

WiMAX baseband startup 

Beceem, Intel bought Comsys 

Mobile and Qualcomm 

snapped up assets of 

Sandbridge (Sequans and 

Altair are the main remaining 

prey). On the base station 

side, too, a similar pattern 

has been seen, notably with 

network processor company 

Cavium purchasing WiMAX 

modem specialist WaveSat. 

That has now borne fruit in 

Cavium’s entry into the market 

for small cell LTE silicon. 

Its Octeon Fusion “baseband 

on a chip” enters the same 

space targeted by launches 

from base station silicon 

giants Freescale and Texas 

Instruments earlier this year. 

The Fusion range is targeting 

picocells and the emerging 

breed of metrocells, which 

apply highly integrated 

techniques from the indoor 

femtocell market to public 

access carrier base stations. 

It will take on the traditional 

baseband suppliers such as 

TI, but also the femtocell 

specialists such as Picochip 

and Broadcom (via its Percello 

acquisition), and another 

would-be metrocell leader, 

Mindspeed. 

Cavium’s offering is scalable 

from 32 to 300 users and the 

first model, the CNF7120, will 

ship next quarter, supporting 

HSPA and 10/20MHz LTE. 

It incorporates two MIPS64 

cores and four baseband 

cores, acquired last year with 

former WiMAX specialist 

Wavesat. Future models will 

scale up to six CPUs and eight 

DSP baseband cores, and 

will support 2x20MHz LTE 

or LTE-Advanced standards 

with carrier aggregation. The 

design needs a separate RF 

device and has so far been 

tested with Analog Devices’ 

LTE radio. 

The new range is unusual for 

using the MIPS processor 

rather than PowerPC (seen 

in Freescale’s new two-core 

products) or ARM (as in Texas 

Instruments’ and Mindspeed’s 

offerings). Cavium also uses 

more DSPs, which use the 

Tensilica technology – TI 

includes up to four DSPs, 

Freescale two and Mindspeed 

just one. 

Cavium says it is working with 

a Tier 1 OEM, as yet unnamed, 

which has helped it develop 

an ASIC to complement the 

Wavesat platform, and a 

complete software suite with 

the chip, spanning layers 

one to three and dubbed 

FusionStack. The chips will 

be demonstrated at this 

month’s 4G World conference 

in an eNodeB base station 

handling eight simultaneous 

connections and streaming 

up to five HD videos, with 

downlink rates up to 72 Mbps. 

Despite all this activity, 

LTE-A standards are not fully 

concrete yet and the carriers 

will need to see a great deal 

of interoperability testing 

and device activity before 

they commit for real. Ericsson 

is helping the process along 

with a testbed in Sweden, 

where it is demonstrating the 

ITU-defined speeds for real 

4G—peak downlink of around 

100 Mbps in the wide area 

and 1 Gbps in fixed situations, 

plus low latency and wide 

bands of up to 100 MHz. 

“We have a testbed working 

in Sweden now where we 

can demonstrate up to 1 

Gbps,” Ericsson’s CMO Arun 

Bhikshesvaran said in an 

interview. With LTE-A already 

proven to work effectively, 

he told Mobile Business 

Briefing that real-world 

implementation would rely 

on operators having sufficient 

spectrum to support the wide 

channels. “We’ve got to nail 

operators down with the 

bands,” he said. 

Most of the LTE-A core specs 

are now frozen, and major 

handset makers such as Nokia, 

Samsung and HTC endorsed 

them earlier this year. As 

usual, Japanese cellco NTT 

DoCoMo is in the vanguard 

in testing—and contributing 

to—a new air interface, having 

begun experimental field trials 

in the spring and achieving 1 

Gbps downlink peaks, with 

200 Mbps uplink. 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

3G EVDO 

Wireless Broadband: 

Gaining rapid popularity 

among subscribers in Pakistan 

Probably the most enthralling 

addition in the world 

telecommunications has been 

the “No wires - No limits“ 

facility brought in by the wireless 

technologies. Reaching 

new heights of speed coupled 

with an added supplement of 

mobility, wireless broadband 

services today are gaining more 

and more popularity among 

subscribers. 

Wireless broadband networks 

bring accumulated advantage 

for service providers in terms of 

offering an excellent alternative 

to outreach the market segments 

not viable for deploying 

expensive fixed infrastructure 

thus allowing CAPEX reduction 

for the operators. Network 

rollout experts rate wireless 

deployment cost between 

one-eighth and one-quarter the 

cost for DSL employment per 

subscriber. Moreover, 

wireless broadband 

networks are more 

easily scalable 

as compared to 

fixed broadband 

network. In 

emerging 

markets 

even as 

we saw in 

developed 

markets, wireless 

broadband technologies such 

as HSPA and EvDO (Evolution- 

Data Optimized) are now in 

direct competition with fixed 

broadband technologies (xDSL, 

HFC). 

Pakistan stands among such 

examples where wireless broadband 

is gaining rapid popularity 

among the subscribers as 

compared to fixed broadband. 

It is predicted that wireless 

broadband technologies will 

surpass the fixed broadband 

technologies in terms of subscription 

very soon. 

Wireless 

broadband 

made its entry in Pakistan 

in December 2007, however 

initially the uptake was slow, 

however with the introduction 

of EVDO in the country by 

WorldCall in December 2008 

followed by PTCL accelerated 

the pace of wireless broadband 

subscribers in the country. PTCL 

– the incumbent operator which 

earlier launched EVDO-Rev A in 

2009. became the first country 

in the world to experience 

EVDO's Rev B 3G technology 

that offers 

maximum 

speeds of 9.3 

Mbit/s. 

In Pakistan 

over the span of 

last three years 

wireless broadband 

services in Pakistan 

have shown impressive 

escalation in 

terms of subscriptions. 

The EVDO subscriber’s 

growth has proven to 

be more popular than any 

other Technology. During the 

first year, EvDO recorded 

48,481subscribers (December 

2009), by the end of second 

year a sum of 210,009 subscribers 

(December 2010) while the 

N. Kiyani 

latest figure of EvDO subscribers 

in Pakistan by May 2011 is 

294,161. 

The sum of 691,316 wireless 

broadband subscribers in the 

country by May 2011 with a 

total broadband subscription 

of 1,396,608. One of the most 

compelling reasons behind this 

growing popularity is the availability 

of smart plug n play USB 

dongles which make it more 

convenient to the user while 

experiencing fast broadband 

service over their laptops machines. 

Importantly, embedded 

3G Devices such as the EVDO- 

Rev A enabled Android Tablet 

launched recently by PTCL at 

a very economical price will 

become more popular in the 

day to come. 

This aspiring popularity of wireless 

broadband technologies in 

Pakistan certainly pose a bright 

aspect for introduction of 3G 

mobile broadband services 

in future where subscribers 

showing a proven mindset of 

consuming high speed Internet 

services in a seamless mode. 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

The ICT Summit Eurasia 2011 

Representatives from 42 Countries attended 

the Summit held in Istanbul 

The ICT Summit Eurasia 

2011 took place in the 

heart of Turkey, Istanbul, 

from 3-5 October where four 

thousand representatives 

from 42 countries all around 

the world attended the 

Summit. The summit focused 

the key notes of ICT in the 

world like Regional Business 

Opportunities, Borderless 

Communication, The ‘e’ Prefix 

of Future Commerce, Social 

Media Breaking Borders, 

Regional Finance Solutions, 

Mobile Business, m-Health, 

ICT for Public Safety, Public 

Administration, ICT jobs and 

education. Mr. Muhammad 

Amir Malik, Director (ICT), 

Pakistan Telecommunication 

Authority represented Pakistan 

at the ICT Summit Eurasia 

2011. 

Prime Minister of Republic 

of Turkey, Mr. Rajab Tayyab 

Erdogan, inaugurated the 

summit on 3rd October, making 

the summit elegant with his 

presence. While addressing 

to the summit, Mr. Erdogan 

articulated that globalization 

obscured all physical and 

mental demarcations with the 

advancement in Technology. 

Re-establishment of balance 

with the changing patterns of 

forming economic and social 

relations, while individuals, 

institutions and societies 

are scrambling to re-align 

themselves with the call of 

the new world and future 

expectations. Furthermore, the 

honorable Prime Minister of 

Republic of Turkey accentuated 

the role of ICT in terms 

of peace and security and 

featured that the dream for a 

safe and peaceful world where 

borders would be obscured and 

source would be fairly shared, 

we might not only develop and 

employ advanced technologies, 

but also get to know different 

social and cultural fabrics, 

establish dialogues and 

institute new collaborations 

across all kinds of mental and 

physical boundaries. 

On the second day, summit 

commenced with Borderless 

Communication Conference 

which postulated the 

cardinality of its role in 

development of business, 

knowledge and networking 

while leaders of the 

Telecom sector highlighted 

the application of new 

technologies in their countries 

and the latest developments. 

It was followed by ‘e’ Prefix of 

Future Commerce conference 

which incepted the idea of 

future dominancy of the 

electronic marketing and 

transactions. In this session 

the main focus was on the 

e-commerce model of today’s 

world and also the broadening 

of the horizons for the future 

e-commerce. The Regional 

Finance Solutions Conference 

elaborated the growing demand 

for new solutions and new 

financial models in finance 

and banking sectors which are 

the main investors in ICT. The 

conference also focused the 

finance and banking systems 

in the region and future 

investments. 

As a pronounced stakeholder 

of ICT in Asia the role of 

Pakistan stands crucial. 

In the Mobile Business 

Conference, on the third day 

of Summit, Mr. Muhammad 

Amir Malik while representing 

Pakistan inculcated the role 

of Mobile banking and its 

mushroomed growth observed 

in the region. Mr. Amir Malik 


enumerated that the market 

potentials and impacts of 

web-based e-commerce 

are still in the ascendant, 

the advances in wireless 

technologies and mobile 

networks have brought about 

a new business opportunity 

and research attention, 

termed as mobile commerce. 

Commonly, mobile commerce 

is considered to be another 

new application of existing 

web-based e-commerce onto 

wireless networks, but as an 

independent business area, 

mobile commerce has its own 

advantages and challenges 

as opposed to traditional 

e-commerce applications. 

With the help of facts and 

figures, Mr. Amir Malik 

briefed the audience that 

m-commerce endorsement has 

been exponentially increased 

in recent years and also 

anticipated the huge growth in 

approaching years. 

ICT for Public Safety and Public 

Administration forum was held 

to discuss the importance of 

the ICT in the Public Safety 

and Administration. Presenting 

on the session, Mr. Amir 

Malik while emphasizing the 

significance of Information 

Security spotlighted that 

the intrusion of Privacy in 

the public networks has 

become a serious cause of 

concern. IP networks have 

open structure and hence are 

vulnerable. Large number of 

incidences of cyber attacks 



57

A Step towards Empowering 

the ICT Industry of Pakistan 

Information and 

Communication Technologies 

are changing the way we 

live & work and is the key 

element for economic uplift 

and shaping up social trends 

globally. Considering the very 

fact ICT Global 2012 is taking 

place from January 7-9, 2012 in 

Lahore, Pakistan that possess 

huge untapped potential, thus 

creating opportunities for 

different strata of business 

society and particularly ICT 

industry. 

ICT Global 2012 merely will 

not be an exhibition but it 

will provide an opportunity 

to network with ICT players, 

opinion-formers, top decision 

makers and stake holders. 

The format is based on nine 

different platforms, plus a 

wide range of services and 

specialized solutions, ensuring 

to reach the target audience 

group effectively and explore 

new sales potential. 

ICT Global 2012 will be 

such as denial of service, 

man in the middle, identity 

theft, spoofing and spam has 

to be effectively handled. 

Progressive transition from 

telecom traditional network 

to IP networks in converged 

era will form backbone 

for critical information 

infrastructure. The protection 

of such infrastructure is crucial 

and a challenge. Therefore, 

necessary policy and regulatory 

framework has to be put 

in place to secure critical 

information infrastructure. The 

principle and the regulatory 

approaches in the prospective 

displaying various product, 

services and ideas for 

District, Provincial & Federal 

Government Institutions, 

Technology Media & 

Telecommunication, Defense 

Organizations, Finance, 

Wholesale & Retail, Utility 

Distribution Companies, 

Medical & Health Care, 

Engineering including 

Automobiles, Textile, Education 

& Academia. 

Besides inviting visitors from 

various organizations, ICT 

Global is targeting group of 

of critical information 

infrastructure protection are of 

vital essence for any country 

from the security point of view. 

The key issues like secrecy, 

authentication, nonrepudiation, 

integrity control 

and child abuse were also 

discussed in the session. Cyber 

intrusions like attacks on 

network, attacks on services, 

malicious codes, viruses, 

malware and phishing were 

also highlighted in the session. 

Furthermore, representatives 

from the various regulating 

authorities of the world 

highlighted the Government 

industry representatives from 

Oil & Gas Sector, Medical 

Professionals, Chartered 

Accountants, Lawyers 

Community, Chemical 

and Fertilizer Sector. 

Additionally, Technology 

Media & Telecommunication 

- TMT South Asian Summit, 

Discussion Forums on focused 

verticals and Technology 

Innovation Platform (TIP) will 

also be held concurrently. 

TIP is an important feature 

of ICT Global 2012 which will 

provide a launching pad for 

Contd. from page 57 The ICT Summit Eurasia 2011 

infrastructure and approaches 

in the cyber information 

infrastructure protection 

issues. In this context, Mr. 

Muhammad Amir Malik took 

the attention of the session 

while briefing them about 

“SIM Verification System- 

668” implemented by Pakistan 

Telecommunication Authority. 

He told the audience about 

the structure and function 

of the system. The system is 

a robust and state of the art 

SIM Verification System which 

enables mobile subscriber 

to query the number of SIM 

cards issued against their 

Syed Faisal Ali 

promising start-ups & ICT 

students to get recognition 

for their brilliant projects and 

compete for an opportunity 

to win prizes and meet 

with ventures’ capitalists. 

Whereas, TMT South Asian 

Summit would be a platform 

where the prominent regional 

speakers from the ICT 

Industry will avail the ample 

opportunities to highlight the 

key issues and suggest their 

solutions. These high profile 

(C-level) personnel’s from 

communication, broadcast 

companies, Govt. dignitaries 

and data operators sectors 

will share their knowledge, 

success stories and exchange 

views about the current & 

future trends. Keeping in view 

the dynamic Information and 

Communications Technology 

sector, this premier event 

will showcase cutting edge 

technology & equipment which 

can enable businesses increase 

their efficiency. 

Computerized National 

Identification Card (CNIC) 

number through Internet and 

SMS. Mr. Amir Malik added 

that the safety of consumer 

is of vital significance and of 

projected priority for Pakistan 

Telecommunication Authority. 

The last session of the summit 

paramount the share of ICT 

for the development of the 

region. The summit confined 

with the emphasized visionary 

ambition that the Eurasian 

regions would of ICT which are 

prominent in shaping the lives 

of the people of this region will 

be the core of this summit. 


15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

PTCL announces a profit of Rs1.4 billion 

and 7% revenue growth for first quarter of FY 2011-12 

Pakistan Telecommunications 

Company Limited 

(PTCL) has announced a net 

profit of Rs.1.4 billion during 

the first quarter of its business 

in the current financial year, 

showing a growth of seven per 

cent over last year. 

“PTCL’s continued profits and 

growth in the first quarter is 

an indicator of our customers’ 

satisfaction and trust,” said 

PTCL CEO and President Walid 

Irshaid, following a meeting of 

the company’s Board of Directors 

held here today, which 

announced the financial results. 

“PTCL remains committed to 

provide friendly, seamless 

and prompt services to all our 

customers.” 

PTCL group revenue during 

the period under review stood 

at Rs. 27.2 billion, showing a 

growth of 7% over last year. 

Of this, PTCL’s revenue was Rs. 

14.5 billion. 

According to the PTCL Board of 

PTCL held its 16th Annual General 

meeting here today, which 

was attended by a large number 

of PTCL shareholders. 

Chairman, PTCL Board of Directors, 

Mr. Saeed Ahmed Khan 

chaired the meeting, which appraised 

the shareholders of the 

company’s ongoing efforts and 

achievements attainted during 

the past financial year. 

“Despite the economic challenges 

faced by Pakistan, PTCL 

has remained strong in emerging 

segments of broadband both 

in wire-line as well as wireless 

Directors’s announcement, the 

company’s revenue during the 

period ending September 30, 

2011 stands at Rs.27.2 billion. 

Of this, PTCL’s revenue stands 

at Rs.14.5 billion. 

In the first quarter of the current 

year, PTCL also launched 

Pakistan’s first ever 3G enabled 

tablet with built-in EVO Wireless 

Broadband. Currently available 

in more than 100 cities, 

“3G EVO Tab” is a 7-inch touch 

screen tablet offering wireless 

broadband Internet on the go. 

Powered by Google Android 

Froyo 2.2 operating system, it 

offers support for both 3G and 

Wi-Fi for uninterrupted and 

on-the-go Internet connectivity. 

“3G EVO Tab is the most recent 

of all our innovations that PTCL 

is producing in line with our 

vision of introducing futurebased 

communications technology,” 

said Mr. Irshaid. 

With a nearly 90 per cent 

Shareholders attend PTCL’s 

16th Annual General Meeting 

and other corporate services,” 

said Mr. Khan in his opening 

remarks. “PTCL continued to 

elevate its growth trend in the 

segment of broadband with 

61% growth in customers and 

77% growth in respective revenue 

segment.” 

The meeting approved the 

reappointment of the company’s 

auditors, as well as the 

disposition of PTCL’s undertaking 

in the Maskatya Communication 

Pvt Ltd (MAXCOM) – a 

wholly owned subsidiary of the 

company – by way of voluntary 

winding up. The meeting 

also approved the interim cash 

dividend of 17.5 per cent (Rs1.75 

per share) already declared and 

paid to the shareholders for the 

year ending June 30, 2011. 

Chairman PTCL BoD assured the 

shareholders that all strategies 

planned and implemented by 

the board will be aimed towards 

utilizing PTCL’s full potential 

and resources to the maximum 

to achieve the corporate objectives 

with competence and 

determination in the times to 

come. An interactive session 

Aqeel Shigri 

Walid Irshaid 

CEO & President - PTCL 

national market share, PTCL’s 

DSL Broadband is the country’s 

largest and fastest growing 

broadband service available 

in more than 1000 cities and 

towns. On wireless broadband 

front the company has introduced 

innovative products that 

are in line with the futuristic 

approach of the company. 

“We are constantly innovating 

and improving our customer 

experience,” said Mr. Irshaid, 

while recounting the successes 

of PTCL’s most recent business 

offerings. “We strongly 

believe that PTCL will remain 

the market leader and a service 

provider of choice throughout 

Pakistan for providing cuttingedge 

integrated telecom solutions 

to our customers.” 

Talking about the company’s 

landline services, Mr. Irshaid 

said that PTCL is promoting 

increase in usage and subscriber 

base. Conscious efforts are 

being made to further facilitate 

landline customers by expanding 

the spectrum of available 

services and packages. The 

geographical reach of popular 

packages is being extended 

to benefit a broader customer 

base. 

“We are providing quality 

services at competitive prices,” 

said Mr. Irshaid. “Through optimal 

use of resource, we want 

to achieve enhanced revenue, 

greater levels of customer satisfaction, 

as well as improve our 

shareholders’ value.” 

was also held with the shareholders, 

in which questions were 

answered by the Chairman and 

senior management officials of 

PTCL. 

“We fully recognize the fact 

that PTCL is a publicly listed 

company”, said President and 

CEO PTCL, Mr. Walid Irshaid. 

“Our shareholders’ sustained 

confidence and trust in PTCL is 

a result of our continued commitment 

to ensuring transparent 

and seamless flow of 

information, as well as friendly 

services.” 


59

Pursuit of Global 3G deployments 

versus Pakistan 

For the past few years cellular 

companies have been 

deploying 3G technology around 

the globe. After removal of the 

initial glitches, roll outs are going 

on like clock-work. According 

to a report more than 190 

3G systems are in operation. 

Although they are in a launching 

stage, another twenty carriers 

have purchased the 3G infrastructure 

and will implement 

them soon. European countries 

are ahead of America in the 

deployment of 3G technology. 

Proponents of 3G argue that 

the expenses incurred will be 

overlooked by the users due to 

demand for mobile multimedia 

services, internet applications 

and improved voice quality. 

Two thirds of the total license 

holders for WCDMA have 

initiated services. There are 

approximately a hundred and 

five WCDMA networks that 

have been established in 47 

countries. WCDMA (Wideband 

Code Division Multiple Access) 

is being accepted as the latest 

3G standard. These have been 

launched by 38 suppliers. 

According to data by the International 

Telecommunication 

Union (ITU), Korea, Italy and 

Japan rank top on the list of 

countries that have successfully 

deployed the 3G technology. 

Countries are readily adapting 

to 3G technologies day by day 

except Pakistan that has been 

left behind in this race. 

The cellular subscribers, vendors 

and authorities in Pakistan are 

enthusiastic about the launch 

of 3G in Pakistan with smooth 

up gradation, yet the incapability 

of the operators is a serious 

blockage in the way for the 

implementation of 3G networks. 

3G having its high license price 


is one of the main reasons. 

Telecommunication companies 

are reluctant to invest such huge 

amounts. 

Other challenges faced by the 

telecommunications companies 

in Pakistan, as per PTA official, 

are low average revenue per 

user, heavy taxation, import 

duties and low tele-density in 

remote areas of the countries. 

IT sector of Pakistan should provide 

methods to educate common 

masses about the benefits 

of data usage and the available 

methods ready to be used in 

rural and urban areas. Even with 

the low literacy rate and low 

progress there is hope from the 

growing middle class. This sector 

comprises approximately 8-10% 

of the population but even that 

is not enough to implement a 

positive change. Demand for 

latest technology can already be 

seen in the working and education 

sector of Pakistan. How 

and when the transition takes 

place is yet to be seen. The basis 

formed for better data usage 

can certainly channelize the 

revenues when 3G is formerly 

deployed in Pakistan. 

Publisher-Editor: Khalid Athar - Printed by: Javed Khursheed at Khursheed 


Printers (Pvt) Ltd. Islamabad. Place of Publication: #6, St-39, G-6/2, Islamabad 15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011 

Vol: 06, Issue: 11

November 2011 

Global Telecom events 2011-12 

SAMENA Convergence to Qatar 2011 

01 - 02 Nov - Doha, Qatar 

GIL 2011: China 

01 Nov - Shanghai 

SCIP 2011: European Summit 

08 - 10 Nov - Austria Centre Vienna 

World Telecom Summit 

09 - 11 Nov - Singapore 

4th Annual Indonesia Telecoms International Summit 

15 Nov - Jakarta, Indonesia 

Customer Contact Indonesia 

16 Nov - Jakarta, Indonesia 

Mobile Aisa Congress 

16 - 17 Nov - Hong Kong 

CIO Strategies Saudi Arabia 

21 - 22 Nov - Riyadh, KSA 

Oracle Day 2011 

21 - Nov - Abu Dhabi - UAE 

CONFERENCE INFOSEK 2011 

23 - 25 Nov - Nova Gorica, Slovenia 

December 2011 

CTIA IT & Entertainment 

01 - 08 Dec, Budapest, Hungary 

CIO Midmarket Summit 

04 - 07 Dec - TBD 

The Smart Handheld Summit 

Arab Advisors Group 

05 - 06 Dec - Dubai, UAE 

Femtocells Americas 

05 - 06 Dec - USA 

Mobile Advertising World 

06 - 08 Dec - London, UK 

LTE - Next Generation Networks Americas 

07 - 08, Dec - USA 

Saudi Infrastructure Forum & Exhibition 

11 - 14 Dec - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 

ITU Kaleidoscope 

12-14, Dec - Cape Town, South Africa 

M2M World 

12-14 Dec -Venue: London - London 

January 2012 

ICT Global 2012 

07 - 09 Jan - Lahore, Paskistan 

Wireless Symposium & WiExpo 2012 

11 - 13 Jan - New Orleans, La. 

Roaming Congress MENA 2012 

15 - 17 Jan - Dubai, UAE 

PTC 2012 

15 - 18 Jan - Honolulu, Hawaii 

ACUTA 2012 Winter Seminar 

22 – 25 Jan - Palm Spring, CA 

Interconnection World Forum 

23 - 26 Jan - Venue TBC(London) 

TELSA 

29 - 31 Jan - Riyadh, KSA 

February 2012 March 2012 

Cloud EXPO Europe 2012 

01 – 02 Feb - Olympia, London, England 

ITEXPO East 2012 

01 - 03, Feb - Miami, FL 

2012 NTCA Annual Meeting & EXPO 

12-15 Feb - Manchester Grand Hyatt (HQ) & Embassy Suites 

Mobile World Congress 2012 

27 Feb - 1 Mar - Barcelona, Spain 

CeBIT 2012 

06 - 10 Mar - Hanover, Germany 

Telecoms Fraud & Revenue Assurance 

19 - 21 Mar, Venue TBC 

5th Mobile Commerce Summit ASIA 2012 

20 - 21 Mar -The Fullerton Hotel Singapore 

Convergence India 

21 - 23 Mar - New Delhi, India 


63

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15 Nov - 14 Dec 2011

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