34-36 Interview Dr. Amer Awadh Al Rawas.pdf - Teletimes

“Convergence Should really comefrom the services point of view”Q & A session withDr. Amer Awadh Al-RawasCEO - OmantelQ - Omantel attaches great Ans - The country as a whole; do. We think that we can still example, we were the firstimportance to traditional the vision of the Sultan is to make the same money, company in the whole Middlevalues as well as future presume modernity while provide the same services East to come up with mobiletechnologies, could you preserving identity, so while preserving our identity gaming products and bothexplain the reasons lying basically we have tried to and we have been trying to our 3 mobile gaming productsbehind this vision? reflect that in everything we introduce cultural values. For are related to the culture; one34www.teletimesinternational.com

of them was mostly related market has different segwithtreasure hunt, money ments, mostly Oman has theand old castles, the other one price sensitive segment.was about the habits of Oman is characterized by veryhaving coffee and the third young population, so they areone was about harvesting price sensitive. Also Omancrops, particularly date crops. has a quite significantSo those are games that we number of low income people;have been using the best and they are also price sensitive,latest technologies but so for the majority it is a pricebasically reflecting our sensitive market. Nevertheculture.less there are service qualityQ - Where does Omantelsensitive kinds of segments;stand in meeting expectawetry to provide for those.tions about new technologiesThe low income peoplein Oman, as of competition doexpect a lower price, continu-you believe that a healthyous balancing of prices,competition is established Incontinuous promotions,Oman?value added services, the highspeed mobile Internet and soAns - As you know any on. As far as the competition,Dr. Amer Awadh Al Rawas holds a Ph.D inComputer Science and Artificial Intelligencefrom the Sussex University UK. In the academicfield, prior to his joining the Telecom Sector, Dr.Rawas served in various academic and leadershippositions at the Sultan Qaboos University.His last assignment was the Dean of EducationalServices.Dr. Rawas is still affiliated with various educationaland technological policy forums in theSultanate and other states. including Member ofthe Higher Education Council, the NationalAccreditation Council, the Board of Governorsfor the Higher Technology Colleges, and Memberof the Board and Treasurer of the Sultan QaboosCultural Center in Washington DC, United States.Dr. Rawas won the re-diffusion Simulation LtdPrize for the best Software Engineering GraduationProject in the UK in 1990 and won the NTIBizPro Business Leader of the Year Award in2008. He was invited as a Visiting Scholar at theSoftware Research Lab at NASA (USA) in 1995-1997 and as an honorary guest to the 3rdmeeting of the Nobel Laureate of EconomicSciences in Germany, August 2008. He is also amember of the International Institute of StrategicStudies.Dr. Rawas is the Chief Executive Officer of OmanTelecommunications Company (Omantel) now.Omantel CEO, Dr. Amer Awadh Al Rawasbelieves that the risks of convergence are thepossibility to spend too much on technology andtoo little on service provisioning thus in the endnot to get the results back. Stating that as acompany they think that they can still make thesame money, provide the same services whilepreserving their identity and they have beentrying to introduce cultural values.Emphasizing that seamless service to theindividuals cannot be offered without reallycaring what kind of technologies they use in suchan environment that mobile, fixed and Internetare converged, Al Rawas says: “l believe theregion needs to reassess the value of convergencewhich is a very good statement actually;we need to reassess what value we are gettingfrom the convergence and then weight or givethe same kind of investment.”www.teletimesinternational.com 35

I think we do lead a healthycompetition, the accelerationwas too fast for the country'ssize and the number ofaddressable market has alsobeen too aggressive from theliberalization point of view.Yet, there is also a positiveside, we have been able toreach around 130% penetrationthanks to competition.Q - Could you inform us aboutcontributions of the ElGProject which you are a partof, to your country andcompany?Ans - We have a strategy toallow Oman to be almost likea hub. As part of that strategywe are trying to partner withany consortium that comesout with a project that has agood business case and landsin the right destinations as faras completing our network.EIG lands in the rightdestination for us and theyalso have the right consortium,the project is going well.I understand they have somechallenges here and there butthose are normal in a projectthat covers a number ofcountri es. The general contacts on EIG to make sure carrier,' within the liberaliza- region needs to reassess themanager leading this project that we pursue the project on tion process, there will be value of convergence, whichcame to Istanbul for some time. This project gives us one many carriers in the market, is a very good statmentissues but he also made some of our strategies to be a we want to be the carrier of actually; we need to reassessall carriers; without interna- the value we are getting fromtional capacity we can't play the convergence and thenWe have a strategy to allowOman to be almost like a hub. Aspart of that strategy we are tryingto partner with any consortiumthat comes out with a projectthat has a good business caseand lands in the right destinationsas far as completing ournetwork.that role.weight or give the same kindQ - What do you think are theof investment. I believe therisks and opportunities ofrisks are the possibility toconvergence, what are yourspend too much on technol-protections about the futureogy and too little on serviceof convergence? What kind ofprovisioning thus in the endeffects will convergencewe will not get the resultsmake on regulation policies?back. I believe the regulatoron your second questionAns – l am an engineer, a should basically try to protecttechnical man but I think the existing investments ofconvergence should really the incumbents who have thecome from the services point bared networks to allow themof view; how can we give to invest more on converseamlessservice to the gence applications withoutindividual without really the risk of losing the return oncaring what kind of technolo- the infrastructure they builtgies he uses. I believe the in advance.36www.teletimesinternational.com