CEO's interview with Comm. titled "Delivering on the vision".

1. Summer 2012 Issue 34 Price vs. value
Nawras continues to press ahead despite sluggish
share price performance
Towering ambition
Is the independent tower company business in
Africa just a fad?
Maximum data
Umax, Zimbabwe’s latest data network provider
Decisive coverage of telecommunications strategy promises unique offerings
Delivering on
the vision
Q.NBN’s success remains more important than ever in
reaching Qatar ICT Strategy 2015 goals
Mohammed Ali Al Mannai,
CEO of Qatar National
Broadband Network

2. Introducing
the all-in-one
mobile processor.
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©2012 Qualcomm Incorporated. All rights reserved. Qualcomm and Snapdragon are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries.
The Snapdragon logo is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated.

3. Editorial
Active developments underway
C
omm.’s Summer 2012 issue is be a business fad or a sustainable
crammed with developments way of conducting business that
in the Middle East and Africa benefits all parties signing up to it.
telecom landscape that are genuinely We also report on the launch of
market firsts, and which point to a one of Zimbabwe’s newest Internet
rejuvenation of service providers’ efforts application providers, Umax, and
to modify their business models. consider whether what they claim to be
Qatar National Broadband Network a differentiated WiMAX service in the
is an initiative aimed at turbo-charging country delivers on what it promises.
Qatar’s broadband connectivity, and There’s also a view from our
is a brave move on the part of the colleagues at Arab Advisors Group
state to stump up the cash for the on the investment opportunities that
investment in passive infrastructure, exist in sub-Saharan Africa, extracted
which can sometimes be a stumbling from a report recently published by
block to wider broadband advancement. them in associated with Pursuit Mode
Talking of turbo-charging, we also Initiatives, the publisher of Comm.,
talk to Ross Cormack, CEO of Nawras, entitled Untapped potential: Africa’s
about his company’s investment in remaining growth markets in focus.
4G as well as its progress in the offer
of wireline broadband services.
Africa’s independent tower companies
have been hitting the headlines in
recent years and we look a little
closer at whether the model may just Tawanda Chihota, Principal

4. Contents I S S U E 3 4 su m m e r 2 0 1 2
Features
20 24
Price vs. value 20
Despite a stock market share price
that is languishing at more than
30 per cent below the level it listed
on the Oman bourse in November
2010, Nawras continues to be an
energetic operator that is looking to
maximise the opportunities data usage
represents. Through the leveraging
of its various access technologies and
the bundling of products and services,
Nawras continues to expand its base of
operations, believing such a focus will
generate the necessary good results
Towering ambition 24
Africa has been at the centre of a growing
number of tower sale and lease-back
announcements in recent years, with 30
such arrangements typically involving the
sale of the passive elements of network
operators’ infrastructure. Initially it
appeared to be an emerging business
model that benefitted all parties, though
the recent insolvency issues of some
tower operators raises questions whether
the model is as compelling in the long-
term as it was initially made out to be
Maximum data 30
The demand for broadband data across
Africa continues unabated, and in
Zimbabwe one of the first of a dozen
licensed Internet access providers,
Dandemutande Investments’ Umax,
launched service in June promising a
wholly differentiated offering to what
consumers have so far been used to
2 www.comm.ae

5. cover story:
Now or never
Qatar National Broadband Network (Q.NBN) is
a private company owned by the government of
Qatar and charged with the responsibility to roll
out passive fibre infrastructure across the country.
Given the Qatar’s ambitious digital plans, which are
summarised under the Qatar ICT Strategy 2015 and
further articulated through the Qatar National Vision
2030, Q.NBN is playing a critical and pioneering
role with respect to public-private partnership
ICT infrastructure investments in the Gulf.
“Q.NBN is a catalyst for competition,” said
the company’s CEO, Mohammed Al Mannai
in an interview with Comm. “I believe what
we are trying to achieve is a first in the Gulf
region in so far as the costly part of the
deployment of passive fibre infrastructure is
being absorbed by the government,” he added.
Established last year, Q.NBN’s mandate is to
roll out passive fibre infrastructure across Qatar, 16
and in so doing, place the company in a position
to offer wholesale fibre backbone connections
and capacity to licensed operators, hastening the
uptake of broadband services. It is forecast that such Our role at Q.NBN is to wholesale connections
uptake will cascade all the way down to consumers to the service providers, so to offer capacity or
being offered a much improved and powerful fibre
optic broadband service to empower their lives. bandwidth. The wholesale agreement we plan to
Earlier this year the company received a 25 put in place is under review, as is the costing
year licence to provide Qatar with fibre optic calculation, though we are clear that we shall
broadband throughout the country, having been
officially endorsed as the fibre optic broadband
charge licensed operators per connection
infrastructure provider for the country.
regulars Editor’s note 1 Comment 32
Comm.’s Summer 2012 issue is crammed Philippe Vogeleer offers his opinion on
with developments in the MEA telecom the long-term views service providers
landscape that are genuinely market firsts need to adopt to drive success
News 4 Hot Spots 38
Looking back at the most significant telecom Comm.’s guide to the most relevant
developments and updates taking place telecom industry events to attend
in emerging markets around the world during the coming month
Movers & shakers 28 Comm. café 40
32 A roundup of some of the most significant IHS CEO Issam Darwish answers questions
position changes that have taken place about the role his company is playing in the
in the telecom market globally telecom tower market in sub-Sahara Africa
Summer 2012 3

6. Regional news
Bulletin board
Etisalat looks to open
Zain subs grow 5% Y-o-Y in
H112, but revenues and net in-
up equity ownership to
come remain flat
Zain Group reported its con- foreign investors
solidated financial results for
the half-year ended June 30, Foreign investors will be owned by overseas investors. listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock
2012, which reflected revenues able to buy stock in the UAE’s Etisalat operates in 18 coun- Exchange.
of KD663.5 million (US$2.38 Etisalat, according to local tries across Asia, the Middle Of the listed companies
billion), up 0.6 per cent year- media reports. East and Africa. It has a pres- that do permit overseas in-
on-year. Net income for the half Etisalat Group CEO Ahmad ence in markets including vestors, the majority have
was also flat at KD141.9 million, Abdulkarim Julfar is quoted Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghani- limited this to around 25 per
also up just 0.6 per cent year- as saying Emirates Investment stan, Sri Lanka, Niger, Cen- cent, although in some cases
on-year. Council is currently working tral African Republic, Tanza- the stakeholding is permitted
The operator counted 41.4 on amending the law to allow nia and Sudan. to be as high as 49 per cent.
million consolidated active sub- foreign ownership of Etisalat Etisalat is currently 60 per Meanwhile rival UAE tel-
scribers at the end of June, an shares. It remains unclear how cent owned by the govern- ecom operator Du reported
increase of 1.8 million users or much of the telco could be ment, with the remainder Q2 revenues rose by 12.9
five per cent over the 39.6 mil- per cent to AED2.5 billion
lion counted at the same time (US$689 million), while net
last year. By way of compari- profit surged by 51 per cent to
son, Zain added 5.4 million new AED651 million.
active subscribers over the 12 The net profit margin (before
months to end-June 2011. royalty) stood at 26.6 per cent,
up from 19.1 per cent in Q211.
Mobile revenues grew by a
Qtel blames FX fluctuations further 14 per cent year-on-
for 11.8% fall in H112 net profit year, reaching AED 1.9 billion,
Qtel Group announced results with drivers of performance in
for the six-month period to end- this segment continuing to in-
June, reporting its consolidated Etisalat Group CEO Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar is quoted as saying Emirates clude growth in the company’s
Investment Council is currently working on amending the law to allow foreign
customer base stood at 83.7 mil- ownership of Etisalat shares
customer base, strong minutes
lion, up eight per cent year-on- of use, and data usage.
year. Group revenue for the pe-
riod amounted to QAR16.4 billion
(US$4.5 billion), up 6.1 per cent
year-on-year, with EBITDA for
the period amounting to QAR7.8
billion, up 8.2 per cent.
Qtel moves to acquire the remaining 47.5 per
Net profit attributable to Qtel
shareholders was down 11.8 per cent of Wataniya Telecom
cent to QAR1.35 billion, with the
telco attributing this mainly to Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has Qtel is being advised by Wataniya can review the of-
foreign exchange losses in Indo- offered to buy the remaining Barclays Capital and the in- fer and appoint financial ad-
sat and Algeria. 47.5 per cent stake it does vestment banking arm of visors to evaluate it.
For Q2 to end-June, Qtel’s not already own in Kuwaiti National Bank of Kuwait, a Qtel bought the Wataniya
revenue was up 4.6 per cent to unit Wataniya, a Kuwaiti source with direct knowledge stake in 2007 for approxi-
QAR8.356 billion year-on-year, bourse statement said on of the matter told Reuters. mately US$3.7 billion. Ku-
while EBITDA was up 8.5 per June 26. The Qtel offer was sub- wait Investment Authority,
cent to QAR3.964 billion. Net Based on Wataniya’s cur- mitted to Kuwait’s Capital the Gulf state’s sovereign
profit attributable to Qtel share- rent market capitalisation of Markets Authority, which is wealth fund, has a 23.5 per
holders was down 11.3 per cent US$3.97 billion, the stake is reviewing the proposal, the cent stake in Wataniya and
year-on-year to QAR641 million. worth about US$1.9 billion, source said. Based on the au- the remaining shares are
Reuters data estimates. thority’s recommendation, publicly held.
4 www.comm.ae

7. Qualcomm advertorial
Qualcomm charts new
directions for content and
applications market
With smartphones having entered the affordability ranks, the device
game is being spruced up with the drive towards enhancing supporting
applications and content. Set to up the stakes in the mobile content
space, Qualcomm is taking new routes to drive the content ecosystem
A
s an enhancement by giving consumers better Augmented Reality presents
to its traditional applications and content,” he opportunities
partnership approach explains. At the high-end, Qualcomm
with telecom players, Qualcomm is creating a part- has been leading the develop-
Qualcomm is emphasising the nership network that will work ment of augmented reality
key role content will play in towards increasing the availabil- applications by training software
driving the telecom industry by ity of content that is optimised, developers to work with Qual-
sponsoring the Cinemobile Film localised and built using a comm’s Vuforia augmented
Festival in Egypt. network of local developers to reality platform and to develop
“Our association with Arabi- deliver more regionally relevant localised applications that are
acpd - the largest film produc- mobile applications. The com- optimised – but not restricted -
tion and distribution company in pany recently announced a col- to run on Snapdragon-powered
Moheb Ramsis is senior director
Egypt - to organise this festival, laboration with one of Egypt’s phones. of business operations for North
is a major step towards enhanc- largest telecom conglomerates, “Augmented reality is the con- Africa, Qualcomm
ing user created content and Orascom Telecom Ventures (OT cept of superimposing digital
creating high quality videos op- Ventures). graphics on top of a view of the content in other directions,
timised for smartphones,” said A holding company for several real world as seen through you including through its R&D in
Moheb Ramsis, senior director entities such as ARPUPlus, mobile device’s camera. It is a chipset development.
of business operations for North LinkDev, ConnectAds, and very attractive concept in itself “We collaborate with a lot of
Africa, Qualcomm. “It’s a clear others, OT Ventures develops and there are many ways to ap- companies that use our proces-
way for us to show that content and provides different types of ply it in different areas of life. For sors in their devices and we
is a key value driver for the telecom value-added services example, imagine pointing your work with them to port applica-
smartphone industry.” ranging from applications devel- smartphone’s camera at a sign tions and pre-load them on to
This initiative represents a opment to content creation and printed in Arabic and watching it devices sold in the region to give
strong march towards expand- aggregation, online advertising instantly translate to English. Or the devices and mobile services
ing locally relevant content, and more. Qualcomm’s as- imagine pointing it at an in-store a local flavour,” Ramsis says.
complete with a specialised sociation with Orascom will give advertisement and watching Another way to drive collabo-
jury, an online platform for film- both companies the opportunity the images spring to life in 3D. rations is through retail initia-
makers to upload their movies, to dip into the mobile content There are also many other pos- tives and operator partnerships,
and viewers to watch and vote and applications pie across sibilities, such as in education, where content and applications
for their favourite films using segments. entertainment, advertising, are offered for free download
their smartphones or other con- “Our partnership is overarch- and more. The only limit is the when a device is purchased.
nected devices. ing and gives us the leg room to imagination of local developers,” “Content strategy is being
engage with Orascom in differ- Ramsis says. approached in many ways,
From affordability to attrac- ent areas, including jointly help- including using it as a market-
tiveness ing developers with trainings Looking at new ways for ing tool and promoting partner
For Ramsis and his team, to create ground breaking new partnerships solutions. We are already seeing
smartphone affordability is just apps based on Qualcomm’s Besides working with partners significant traction and expect
the starting point. “Now the developer tools, such as our to drive content development, to see many more locally de-
focus is on enhancing the value Vuforia SDK (Software Develop- Qualcomm is also investing its veloped applications,” Ramsis
of premium-priced devices ment Kits). time and efforts to grow mobile emphasises.
summer 2012 5

8. Regional news
Bulletin board
Tunisian government to
auction 25% stake in
LiberCell suspends ops over
unpaid tax bill
Liberia mobile network, LiberCell
was ordered to close its services
by the country’s tax courts for Tunisiana
reportedly failing to pay licence
fees. The Tunisian govern- Slim Besbess said in a press and operator shareholders
The company, which is 30 per ment plans to put its 25 per conference that offers can are forbidden from partici-
cent, owned by Kuwait’s Hits cent stake in number-one only come from financial pating in the auction.
Telecom is said to owe US$1.5 operator Tunisiana up for companies and investment The stake being auctioned
million in licence fees, and will auction, reports Reuters. funds and must be submitted was confiscated from the
remain closed until the debt is Finance ministry official by November 2. Operators Princesse Holding conglom-
settled. erate controlled by the son
Citing local reports, Bloomberg of ousted Tunisian president
News said that court documents Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
have been delivered to the doors Tunisiana won a US$135
of the company’s head office in million licence to launch 3G
Monrovia. and fixed-line networks in
The suspension of licences in the country in May. The re-
sub-Sahara Africa is unfortu- maining 75 per cent stake in
nately relatively common, though the operator is owned by Ku-
most operators fall in line. waiti group Wataniya, which
is majority owned by Qtel.
Tunisiana controls 53 per
Ericsson to deploy RBS 6000 cent of the three-operator
technology in Vodafone Egypt market. It has approximately
Ericsson has entered an agree- seven million mobile con-
ment with Vodafone Egypt to nections, ahead of rivals Tu-
continue to provide a quality Tunisiana controls 53 per cent of the three-operator market. It has approximately nisie Telecom (4.5 million)
seven million mobile connections
network to subscribers through and Orange (1.7 million).
the transformation of Vodafone
Egypt’s radio network.
Ericsson is set to deploy its
latest RBS 6000 technology in
the Vodafone Egypt network,
which will allow the operator to
MTN solid H1 results, with revenues up 17.5%
meet the demands of its growing
subscriber base and continue to South Africa based MTN year to 176 million. The growth in EBITDA was
provide them with quality mobile Group announced first- Market conditions con- mainly due to strong organic
coverage throughout the coun- half revenues rose by 17.5 tinued to be impacted by growth in South Africa and
try. The RBS 6000 is a site so- per cent to ZAR66.5 billion increasing levels of compe- Iran, which grew local cur-
lution that supports GSM/EDGE, (US$8.1 billion), impacted tition, regulatory require- rency EBITDA by 10.5 per
WCDMA/HSPA and LTE in a sin- by solid growth in South Af- ments, political unrest in cent and 36.4 per cent re-
gle package. rica, Iran and Ghana, as well certain countries and the spectively.
Ericsson has enjoyed tremen- as by foreign exchange gains. global economic slowdown. Capex increased 77.7 per
dous success with its RBS 6000 On a constant currency ba- Growth in Nigeria was lower cent to ZAR10.14 billion, due
technology, helping it maintain a sis, group revenue grew 12.5 than anticipated as a result mainly to an aggressive roll-
strong leadership position in the per cent year-on-year. First of intense competition. out programme implement-
next generation infrastructure half operating profit also Group EBITDA increased ed earlier in the year and
market despite the significant rose, to ZAR21.641 billion, 18.2 per cent to ZAR29.8 the ongoing focus on criti-
competition that exists across up 22 per cent year-on-year. billion. On a constant cur- cal capex investment pro-
the globe. MTN’s subscriber base rency basis, EBITDA grew grammes across the group’s
grew by 6.9 per cent year-on- 12 per cent year-on-year. operations.
6 www.comm.ae

9. Regional news
Changes following Friendi Africa Cellular
Towers served with
Group merger start taking liquidation notice
South Africa based mobile
effect at Virgin Mobile SA towers infrastructure opera-
tor, Africa Cellular Towers has
been served with a liquidation
order by the South Gauteng
Virgin Mobile South the aim of the changes is to offering online sales and ser- High Court after failing to
Africa announced the closing deliver an improved and dif- vice through a new improved stave off bankruptcy.
of 30 of its 38 retail stores in ferentiated customer experi- website and is exploring new, The company has struggled
the country as it looks to re- ence by leveraging VMMEA alternative sales channels. against rising debts and fall-
focus its marketing efforts. best practice and investment Vinter had suggested that ing revenues for the past year,
The initiative has already in improved systems and pro- changes would be made in and a few months ago an un-
commenced and is expected cesses. South Africa in order to bring named creditor started pro-
to conclude during the first Virgin Mobile South Af- the company to profitability ceedings against the company.
half of 2013. rica will convert the eight in that market. Speaking to The company, listed on the
The MVNO in South Africa remaining stores from sales Comm. in June, Vinter said: stock exchange, declined to
merged its operations with focused franchise stores into “Yes, there are still losses at name the creditor in June but
Dubai-based Friendi Group, full service stores offering Virgin Mobile South Africa, simply said that a liquidator
which is led by Mikkel Vint- its entire range of products but I think what is required would be appointed shortly.
er. Together the two MVNOs and services including sales, are some structural changes Two directors also resigned
are known as Virgin Mobile renewals, upgrades and cus- and tweaks, which I believe from the company.
Middle East and Africa (VM- tomer service and advice. can turn the operator around Africa Cellular Towers oper-
MEA), and the company said The company will also be quite quickly.” ates three divisions, providing
power lines, cellular towers
and equipment shelters.
The company has been post-
ing losses and was seeking an
outside investor but had not
STC Group together with Maxis and Oger Groups secured the necessary invest-
ment before the winding up
order was served.
engage Ericsson as preferred supplier
The STC Group an- In 2010 the telco groups
nounced that along with jointly launched a series of
its affiliates, the Maxis and global initiatives focused on
Oger Groups, they have se- capturing synergies across
lected Ericsson as one of their nine operating com-
their preferred global ven- panies and on working with
dors for network infrastruc- best-in-class global suppliers
ture, as part of their global to become preferred part-
synergy creation activities. ners based on value creating
The agreement will allow agreements.
Ericsson to offer its portfolio One of the initiatives is
of network infrastructure to focus on technology in-
equipment through a global frastructure synergies, with
price structure based on to- an objective of developing
tal business in Bahrain, In- a global price book and for-
dia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Ma- malising volume discounts Left – Anders Lindblad (Ericsson), right - Ghassan Hasbani (STC International).
laysia, Saudi Arabia, South based on overall groups The agreement between the two companies will allow Ericsson to offer its
portfolio of network infrastructure equipment through a global price structure
Africa and Turkey. scale.
summer 2012 7

10. Alcatel-Lucent advertorial
Managing the
new conversation
experience
As LTE is commercialised in an increasing number of markets across the globe, Laura Merling,
Alcatel-Lucent’s senior VP of Application Development Platform and Strategy, details how
service providers, enterprises and developers can work intelligently to ensure they remain an
integral part of the rapidly evolving wireless data ecosystem
L
aura Merling leads strategy and the need for operators to identify new
execution for Alcatel-Lucent’s revenue streams. There is also a require-
company-wide push to trans- ment for service providers to consider
form the network into a powerful business models beyond access.
platform for service providers, enterprises Merling describes application providers
and developers to reap benefits from as having seized the consumer experi-
through the delivery of high-quality ap- ence; driven by consumer demand,
plications. In July 2012, the GSA (Global with service providers now needing to
mobile Suppliers Association) said 338 redefine and reinvigorate their role in
telecom operators in 101 countries had the value chain. In order to participate in
committed to commercial LTE network the ecosystem, Merling advises carri-
deployments or were engaged in tri- ers shorten time-to-market and lower
als, technology testing or studies. costs for delivering new services.
The report went on to say 280 op- With mobile data users forecast to
erators have made firm commitments consume as much as 100 times more
to deploy commercial LTE networks data by 2016 than they do today, pos-
in 90 countries. A further 58 opera- ing both an opportunity with respect to
tors in 11 more countries are in a pre- the generation of increased revenues,
commitment stage and are engaged in and a challenge with respect to manag-
LTE technology trials, tests or studies. ing the network’s ability to cope with
The GSA stated that 89 LTE operators such a significant increase in data traffic,
Laura Merling is Alcatel-Lucent’s
have now launched commercial services operators need to make savvy choices.
senior VP of Application in 45 countries, with this number forecast An evolution of web and mobile is
Development Platform and Strategy to rise to 150 by the end of 2012. Given underway as Merling describes the
this level of investment in high-speed new conversation experience as com-
mobile broadband networks, much of prising connectivity, cloud, commu-
it driven by demand for video content, nications, data and ecosystems.
Merling suggests carriers should start “Carriers need to think beyond transpor-
regarding themselves as an integral tation,” Merling says. “They need to view
part of the application delivery eco- LTE as a services-enabled environment
system rather than merely as sellers of in which they can charge differently. They
data, or providers of just transport. can do this by partnering with a platform
The telecom environment today is provider such as Microsoft to offer an
characterised by SMS and voice rev- Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast
enues being on the decline, accelerating Service (eMBMS), which is tailored for LTE
8 www.comm.ae

11. Alcatel-Lucent advertorial
and allows multimedia content to be sent applications to bring personal, social monetisation and optimisation software
once and received by many end users.” media, and business contacts, and solution, essential for service providers
Service providers can also form conversations together in one place, to turn their data and telecommunica-
content partnerships and offer the and the development of high quality tion infrastructure into a commercial
option for application updates to be video conferencing applications, unified transaction platform. OAP provides the
pushed during off-peak times for ad- inboxes, and device transfer services. expertise, tools and services for API
ditional credit to the end-user. The management of consumers’ data, management, API design and creation,
Connectivity in the evolving conversa- with respect to their value and identity reporting and analytics for optimisation
tion experience requires service pro- is another required progression in the of API programmes, business model
viders to think beyond transport and evolutionary path of conversations, with design for maximising revenue and ser-
initiate new technologies and business cross-telco Application Programming vice integration for time to market.
models such as eMBMS and Smart- Interfaces (APIs) being developed for opt- Using OAP, service providers are able to
push for the efficient delivery of con- in subscriber data. The benefit of such for create and securely expose new services,
tent; or the auctioning of spare network subscribers includes the ease of log-in, either directly or via composite APIs, so
capacity as a new business model. personal data being stored in a single, they can be made available internally
Merling says service providers also have trusted place, a reduction of forms to be and/or to third parties, allowing for the
to consider bringing the power of the ser- creation and delivery of new offers to
vices of the network to the cloud, ensuring market, faster, at lower cost and at scale.
three fundamental building blocks – trans- The benefits of cross- Alcatel-Lucent also recently intro-
formation, enterprise, and building – are telco APIs to service providers duced its API Lifecycle Methodology,
in place. With respect to transformation, which looks to help carriers create an
service provider infrastructure, operations
include the improvement effective end-to-end API strategy,
and business models need to aligned; of identified visitors and while simultaneously establishing a
while enterprises appear to be ready for personalised services, to be repeatable process that maximises ef-
carrier cloud, which has a far greater rev- able to feed databases with ficiency, cost savings and revenue.
enue potential for service providers (10x) qualified operator data, and to
and is more attractive (4x) to enterprises
than existing public cloud services.
increase the account creation The Alcatel-Lucent API Life-
Carriers should also be busy- success rate – more sales; cycle Methodology has three
ing themselves with the building of more information requests; main areas of specialisation:
an agile service delivery platform more subscriptions
for a new class of cloud services. Definition - Knowing who you would
“There are three main ecosystem want to use your API and what you
categories in the evolving data-centric filled in from a mobile, and an ultimate would want them to do with it will help
conversation experience and these are enhancement to customer experience. you define an initial business goal.
the OS platform providers; the infrastruc- The benefits of cross-telco APIs to Design - Determine which pieces of
ture as a service (IaaS) providers such as service providers include the improve- your existing functionality, services,
cloud providers; and the content players,” ment of identified visitors and per- and data can be tapped with APIs. The
Merling says. “Deployment of metrocells sonalised services, to be able to feed protocols you use, the complexity of the
can optimise any downloading of data, databases with qualified operator data, APIs and their inputs and outputs will
and what LTE offers is the opportunity and to increase the account creation have tremendous bearing on whether and
for service providers to gain a better un- success rate – more sales; more infor- how third-party developers use them.
derstanding of their customers’ contexts mation requests; more subscriptions. Deployment - An API platform does
and to provide services and applications Alcatel-Lucent is heavily involved in not get built once; it is continuously
specifically tailored to those contexts.” helping customers around the world monitored and improved on the basis of
According to Merling, the new conver- to transform their businesses to take developer response, application us-
sation experience is being reinvented in advantage of the changing landscape age, and evolving business strategy.
part by faster, higher capacity networks, where APIs have emerged as the lan- The right analytics tools can not only
smartphone proliferation, and changing guage of the information economy. help you maintain control of API use,
consumer habits. Thus the requirement Alcatel-Lucent developed Open API they can help you understand how you
for management tools for converged Platform (OAP) is an end-to-end API are meeting your business objectives.
summer 2012 9

12. International news
Bulletin board
RIM reports US$518 million
loss in quarter to June 2
Huawei reports 22 per cent
fall in operating profit in H112
Chinese telecom technology
provider Huawei reported H112
sales revenue of CNY102.7 bil- Research In Motion During the period, the the overall BlackBerry sub-
lion (US$16.16 billion), represent- (RIM) reported that in the company shipped 7.8 million scriber base continued to grow,
ing an increase of 5.1 per cent three months to June 2, 2012, smartphones and 260,000 with increases in all regions
year-on-year. Operating profit the company made a loss of tablets. This compares with except for North America.
amounted to CNY8.79 billion US$518 million, compared 13.2 million smartphones Internationally, revenue fell
with an operating margin at 8.6 with a prior-year profit of and 500,000 tablets in the during the period, reflecting
per cent, an increase of 20.3 per US$695 million, on revenue of same quarter in fiscal 2012. price pressure due to compe-
cent half-on-half and a decrease US$2.81 billion, down from Providing something of a tition, and sales of its aging
of 22 per cent year-on-year. US$4.91 billion. positive, the company said that device line – a refresh is cur-
In the first half of 2012, Hua- rently underway.
wei’s three business groups – The handset manufacturer
Huawei Carrier Network, Huawei also stated that its first Black-
Enterprise, and Huawei Device— Berry 10 (BB10) device will
achieved considerable progress now not be available until
in technological innovation and the first quarter of 2013, say-
market expansion, further con- ing that the integration of key
solidating the company’s posi- features into BB10 has been
tion as a leading global ICT solu- “more time consuming than
tions provider. anticipated,” pushing back
the launch from late 2012.
RIM also confirmed its an-
ticipated job cuts, although
Smartphone success pushes the size of the cull – around
50% rise in Q2 net profit at 5,000 staff from a workforce
Samsung of 16,500 – was larger than
Samsung reported a near 50 per Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins said the company shipped 7.8 million many expected.
smartphones and 260,000 tablets during the three months to June 2
cent rise in net profit for the sec-
ond quarter on the back of strong
smartphone sales.
The South Korean electronics
vendor reported Q2 net profit
of KRW5.19 trillion (US$4.56
Ericsson impacted by lower profitability in
billion), up 48 per cent from
KRW3.51 trillion a year ago. To- Networks and increased loss at ST-Ericsson
tal revenue rose 21 per cent to
KRW47.6 trillion with the mobile Ericsson reported that net “In 2010 we made a con- decline in CDMA equipment
unit accounting for KRW20.52 sales in Q212 to end-June scious decision to gain market sales as well as weaker sales in
trillion, a 75 per cent increase increased one per cent year- share and increase technology China and Russia.
year-on-year. on-year to SEK55.3 billion and services leadership, well Global Services and Sup-
According to figures published (US$8.13 billion), and was aware of the short-term prof- port Solutions showed strong
by Strategy Analytics, Sam- up nine per cent quarter-on- itability pressure. Our focus performance, up 26 per cent
sung consolidated its lead as quarter. However, net income is now on translating these and 47 per cent year-on-year
the world’s largest smartphone fell a staggering 63 per cent gains into sustainable profit- respectively, with Ericsson
vendor by selling 50.5 million in the quarter to SEK1.2 bil- able growth,” commented describing that the underly-
devices in Q2. It is thought that lion from SEK3.2 billion a Hans Vestberg, Ericsson and ing business mix, with higher
the flagship Galaxy S3 – launched year earlier. The company president and CEO. share of coverage projects
during the quarter – accounted said net income was impact- Ericsson explained that Net- than capacity projects, was
for 6.5 million in sales. ed by lower profitability in works sales decreased 17 per unchanged in the quarter
Networks and increased loss cent year-on-year to SEK27.8 and is expected to prevail
in ST-Ericsson. billion due to the expected short-term.
10 www.comm.ae

14. International news
Bulletin board
Facebook squashes rumours
Airtel profit falls for another
regarding smartphone develop-
ment consecutive quarter
Although Facebook’s US$1.18 bil-
lion in revenue for Q2 was slightly Bharti Airtel saw its hanced capex and licence fees million, up 23 per cent from
ahead of Wall Street expectations profit fall during its fiscal resulted in the lower profit. US$50 million, on revenue of
and up 32 per cent year-on-year, Q1 to end-June, as the op- Mobile subscriber revenue US$1.1 billion, up nine per
the company swung to a US$157 erator was faced by regula- in India during the period cent from US$979 million.
million net loss – and gave little tory and tax developments was impacted by two chang- The company noted chal-
guidance on future prospects. in India, and planned accel- es: Airtel said that guidelines lenges on the horizon, how-
The number of Facebook’s erated investments in India from watchdog TRAI around ever, including “economic
so-called monthly active users and Africa. processing fees restricted the and currency headwinds” in
(MAUs) hit 955 million at the end In a statement, Sunil Bharti sale of bundled tariffs; and a key markets, as a result of
of the period, up 29 per cent year- Mittal, chairman and MD of tax increase led to all telecom the Eurozone crisis, lower aid
on-year, while 543 million of these the company, said: “Telecom services becoming more ex- and grants, rising inflation,
now access the service via mobile revenues in India have been pensive by two per cent. and “political issues” in some
devices, a 67 per cent rise. depressed due to hyper-com- In Africa, EBIT was US$62 countries.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Fa- petition and recent regula-
cebook was “focused on invest- tory and tax developments…
ing in our priorities of mobile, On the African side, we are
platform and social ads.” On the gaining market share, ben-
subject of mobile, Zuckerberg ap- efiting from the significant
peared to shoot down long-run- investments made in the last
ning rumours about a Facebook two years.”
smartphone. During a conference For the quarter to June
call he described “building out a 30, 2012, the company an-
whole phone” as something that nounced net income of
“wouldn’t make much sense for us INR7.62 billion (US$138.6
to do.” million), down by 37.3 per
cent from INR12.2 billion, on
revenue of INR193.5 billion,
Alcatel-Lucent reports net up 14 per cent year-on-year.
loss of €254 million in Q212 Stagnant EBITDA coupled Airtel’s EBIT in the quarter to end-June in Africa was US$62 million, up 23
Alcatel-Lucent reported a net with higher depreciation and per cent from US$50 million, on revenue of US$1.1 billion, up nine per cent
from US$979 million
loss for its second quarter and amortisation arising from en-
announced that it is planning to
reduce its headcount by 5,000 in
an effort to further cut costs. The
results make it the latest infra-
structure vendor to suffer at the
hands of the economic downturn,
Unitech blocks Telenor’s attempts to sell
along with Ericsson and Huawei.
The company reported a net loss Uninor assets in India
of €254 million (US$ 313 million)
for the second quarter on the back India’s Unitech has se- future. of securing higher valuations.
of revenue of €3.55 billion. The cured a court order blocking The Company Law Board Telenor had said that it would
loss was particularly severe when the mobile network, Uninor has upheld a challenge by Un- make an offer if no other bid-
the previous quarter’s €398 mil- from selling its assets prior to itech against the sale of net- ders emerged.
lion net profit is taken into account. the network’s expected clo- work assets. Uninor said that If Telenor did buy the net-
Revenue was down 7.1 per cent sure in August. it would appeal the ruling. work infrastructure, it was
from €3.82 billion reported in The network is a 67/33 joint Uninor had invited bids for seen as a precursor to re-en-
Q211 but up 10.6 per cent from the venture between Telenor and network assets, which it was tering the market following
previous quarter’s €3.21 billion. Unitech, and the two com- looking to sell before the net- the forthcoming re-sale of the
panies are in dispute over its work closure in anticipation cancelled GSM licences.
12 www.comm.ae

16. International news
Bulletin board
Nokia reports Q2 results
reflecting difficult market
RIM unveils LTE BlackBerry
PlayBook
Research In Motion (RIM) has
launched a LTE variant of its Black-
Berry PlayBook tablet with built-in conditions
support for cellular networks.
The LTE BlackBerry PlayBook Nokia announced a ing price (ASP) of the Lumia billion. On an operating lev-
tablet is also enterprise ready. It sharp fall in sales leading in range fell to €186 from €220. el, the loss amounted to €826
can be managed with BlackBerry Q112, resulting in a loss of With the company having million, compared with a loss
Mobile Fusion and includes Black- €1.4 billion (US$1.73 billion) shipped 10.2 million smart- of €487 million in Q2 2011.
Berry Balance technology, which for the period. phones during the quarter, In its Smart Devices unit,
allows a user to utilise a BlackBerry During the three months this means that Symbian and net sales fell by 34 per cent to
PlayBook for both work and per- (April to June) volumes of its MeeGo devices still make €1.5 billion, as volumes fell
sonal purposes by keeping busi- Windows Phone-powered Lu- up more than 60 per cent of by 39 per cent to 10.2 mil-
ness information secure and sepa- mia range increased to four these sales. lion units. More encourag-
rate from personal information. million units. However, it Sales for the quarter ingly, average selling prices in-
The LTE BlackBerry PlayBook also noted that on a sequen- amounted to €7.5 billion, creased both year-on-year (up
tablet comes with 32GB of mem- tial basis, the average sell- down 19 per cent from €9.3 seven per cent) and quarter-
ory storage and became available on-quarter (up six per cent)
from Bell, Rogers and Telus in to €151, aided by stabilisation
Canada on August 9, 2012. in the Symbian portfolio.
Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO
noted that Nokia’s mass-
Indian government proposes market Mobile Phones unit
2G licence fee reduction “demonstrated stability,”
The Indian government has agreed with a two per cent year-on-
to lower the proposed base prices year increase in shipment
for new 2G licences, with a govern- volumes to 73.5 million.
ment body known as the Empow- However, sales for this busi-
ered Group of Ministers (EGoM) ness declined by 11 per cent
having recommended a base price year-on-year to €2.3 billion,
in the upcoming auctions of be- with average selling prices
tween INR140 billion to INR160 Nokia CEO Stephen Elop noted that sales in Nokia’s mass-market Mobile dropping by 14 per cent (six
billion (US$2.5 billion to US$2.9 Phones unit declined by 11 per cent year-on-year to €2.3 billion, with average per cent over the prior quar-
selling prices dropping by 14 per cent to €31
billion) for a pan-Indian licence. ter) to €31.
That is below the INR36.22 billion/
MHz proposed earlier this year by
the Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India (TRAI), which would have
required local operators to shell
out more than INR180 billion for a
Etisalat reaches deal over PTCL stake payment
nationwide 5MHz licence.
According to local press reports, The Pakistan government a dispute over the transfer of ment every six months.
operators will still be required and Etisalat are reported to assets from the government The settlement reportedly
to pay existing spectrum usage have settled a long running to the telco. agrees to a payment of US$700
charges of 3-8 per cent on top of dispute over the price paid for According to the terms of the million by Etisalat, which is a
the licence fee. a stake in Pakistan Telecom- agreement, Etisalat was due to reduction of US$100 million
However, the EGoM has report- munication Company Lim- pay US$1.4 billion within one based on the valuation of the
edly agreed to allow operators ited (PTCL) in 2006. month after the signing of assets not handed over.
to pay for licences in instalments Etisalat offered US$2.6 bil- the deal in early 2006 and the Long standing plans by Etis-
with GSM operators only required lion for a 26 per cent stake remaining amount of US$1.2 alat to increase its holding to
to pay 35 per cent up front, and in PTCL back in 2006 in billion was due to be paid in a controlling 51 per cent stake
CDMA players 25 per cent. staggered payments, but has equal instalments over 4 and have been on hold until the
withheld US$800 million in a half years, with one instal- dispute is settled.
14 www.comm.ae

17. ,
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18. Delivering on
the vision
Mohammed Al Mannai, CEO of Q.NBN has
more than 13 years of experience in network
planning, deployment and optimisation with
Qtel, where he most recently served as senior
director for Network Design and Rollout
16 www.comm.ae

19. Qatar National Broadband Network
Qatar National Broadband Network (Q.NBN) is a private company owned
by the government of Qatar and charged with the responsibility to roll out
passive fibre infrastructure across the country. Given the Qatar’s ambitious
digital plans, which are summarised under the Qatar ICT Strategy 2015 and
further articulated through the Qatar National Vision 2030, Q.NBN is playing
a critical and pioneering role with respect to public-private partnership ICT
infrastructure investments in the Gulf
“Q
.NBN is a provider for the country. guiding principles for a equipment imminently
catalyst for Q.NBN’s directive is in line sustainable economy and with testing commenc-
competition,” with the Qatari govern- growth path for Qatar focus ing and services set to go
said the company’s CEO, ment’s vision to become one on human, social, economic live in the short-term.
Mohammed Al Mannai in of the most well-connected and environment develop- As part of the involve-
an interview with Comm. “I countries on Earth with ment. Providing the high- ment with Qatar’s licensed
believe what we are trying to respect to broadband; ambi- speed communications and operators, in April Q.NBN
achieve is a first in the Gulf tions that are detailed in increased fibre capacity announced it had signed
region in so far as the costly the Qatar ICT Strategy 2015 Qatar requires to achieve an Infrastructure Access
part of the deployment of and the Qatar National its ambitions is central to Agreement (IAA) with Qtel,
passive fibre infrastructure Vision 2030. The aim for building on the relationship
is being absorbed by the 2015 is to see Qatar benefit- and cooperation estab-
Q.NBN is a catalyst lished between the two
government,” he added. ting from information and
Established last year, communications technol- for competition. I companies with a heads of
Q.NBN’s mandate is to roll ogy (ICT) solutions in key believe what we are agreement signed in July
out passive fibre infrastruc- aspects of its society and trying to achieve is a 2011. The agreement last
ture across Qatar, and in economy. Articulated in first in the Gulf region year represented the first
so doing, place the com- 2010, Qatar’s five-year plan step to defining a frame-
in so far as the costly work through which both
pany in a position to offer ending 2015 contains the
wholesale fibre backbone following measurable goals: part of the deployment parties could work together
connections and capacity to • Double the ICT sec- of passive fibre to support the govern-
licensed operators, hasten- tor’s contribution to infrastructure is being ment’s goal of accelerating
ing the uptake of broadband GDP (US$3 billion) absorbed the implementation of high-
services. It is forecast that • Double the ICT speed broadband services
such uptake will cascade all workforce (40,000)
government for households, businesses
the way down to consum- • Achieve ubiquitous and government agencies.
ers being offered a much high-speed broadband ac- Q.NBN’s mission, which the Under the deal signed
improved and powerful fibre cess for households and company is diligently going in April, Qtel will supply
optic broadband service businesses (95 per cent) about trying to achieve. Q.NBN with duct network
to empower their lives. • Achieve mass ICT The passive fibre network access and access to other
Earlier this year the and Internet adoption that has so far been com- passive telecommunications
company received a 25 year by all segments of so- pleted by Q.NBN consists infrastructure over the next
licence to provide Qatar ciety (90 per cent) of 6,000 connections, with 20 years. Such an arrange-
with fibre optic broadband • Achieve wide accessibil- Al Mannai forecasting that ment is set to help reduce
throughout the country, ity and effectiveness of all licensed network operators civil infrastructure costs
having been officially key government services (Qtel and Vodafone Qatar on the part of Q.NBN.
endorsed as the fibre optic (160 online services) for the meantime) shall In May 2012 Q.NBN
broadband infrastructure Qatar Vision 2030’s four commence installing their went on to announce it
summer 2012 17

20. had signed an interim nections by 2015,” he added. view, as is the costing calcu- be attracted to invest in
wholesale agreement with The fibre network’s speci- lation, though we are clear because the return on in-
Vodafone, the first such fications have been tested that we shall charge licensed vestment is not that high,”
wholesale agreement to to meet customers’ expecta- operators per connection.” Al Mannai acknowledged.
enable a licensed telecom tions as well as to ensure Q. NBN will thus be of- “One of the government’s
operators to use Q.NBN’s interoperability with legacy fering licensed operators goals is to have affordable
network to deliver telecom systems and Al Mannai is open access to a backbone broadband services avail-
services to customers. confident the wholesale network without discrimina- able in the country, and it
The signing represented a model being instituted by tion of any one party, and is willing to bear the initial
milestone in the relation- Q.NBN will prove com- agreement terms will be costs to achieve this. So
ship begun between Q.NBN pelling to the licensed uniform across the board. while the government has
and Vodafone in 2011 with service providers it sells Al Mannai went on to ex- and will contribute funds
the signing of a heads of connections to currently plain that while Q.NBN has to the entity, existing telcos
agreement similar to the one as well as in the future. begun its life being owned are likely to also become
Q.NBN inked with Qtel. shareholders in due course.”
Under the interim whole- Our role at Q.NBN is to wholesale Al Mannai did not want
sale agreement reached with to be drawn on the capex
connections to the service providers, so to offer
Vodafone, the cellco will estimation for the first
initially provide broad- capacity or bandwidth. The wholesale agreement phase of the infrastructure
band services to residential we plan to put in place is under review, as is the investment to end-2015,
and business customers costing calculation, though we are clear that we though published reports
in Barwa City and Barwa in the media have sug-
shall charge licensed operators per connection
Commercial Avenue. gested it may rise as high
“By 2015 we should cover as US$500 million.
95 per cent of the house- “Our role at Q.NBN is to by the government, over “The costs may vary quite
holds in Qatar and 100 wholesale connections to the time this is likely to change widely,” Al Mannai said.
per cent of the business service providers, so to offer as private investors become “Depending on whether we
establishments in Doha,” capacity or bandwidth,” Al involved in the project. are rolling out infrastructure
Al Mannai said. “In num- Mannai explained. “The “Passive infrastructure is to brownfield or greenfield
bers, this will account for wholesale agreement we plan not the part of networks areas, costs could vary by as
approximately 260,000 con- to put in place is under re- that typical investors would much as 80 per cent. So we
have an estimate, but it’s not
an exact figure, though from
A high percentage of copper based broadband the start we are looking to
coverage exists in Qatar but Al Mannai believes minimise costs as much
customers are keen to have this migrated to fibre, as possible by using any
and thinks much of the demand coming between now
and 2015 shall be from this segment of the market existing infrastructure that
exists in-country,” he added
The secretary general of
Qatar’s Supreme Council
of Information and Com-
munication Technology
(ictQatar), Hessa Al Jaber
has been one of the driving
forces behind the expan-
sion and development of
Qatar’s digital credentials,
and she remains a staunch
supporter of Q.NBN as a
conduit for the country to
catalyse digital development.
Currently Qatar has
among the highest broad-
band penetrations in the
world, however, it lags
significantly behind leading
nations in terms of speed,
with current maximum
18 www.comm.ae

21. Qatar National Broadband Network
Ray Hassan, president Ericsson Gulf
Countries and Hassan Al-Sayed, ictQatar
assistant secretary general, IT and ICT
Government Sector signing the ICT MoU
collaborate in a number of
speeds of only 8 Mbps. And areas including “Technol-
while the penetration rate
Depending on whether we are rolling out ogy for Good” which covers
is high with 70 per cent of infrastructure to brownfield or greenfield areas, initiatives such as sustain-
homes having broadband costs could vary by as much as 80 per cent. So we ability through ICT solutions
at the end of 2011, Qatar’s have an estimate, but it’s not an exact figure, and also aims to use ICT to
population is expected to though from the start we are looking to minimise unlock the potential of the
double over the next five e-Economy such as e-Edu-
years, meaning more lines of
costs as much as possible by using any existing cation and e-Government
connection will be needed. infrastructure that exists in-country in Qatar and the region.
Current data from ic- Other areas of collaboration
tQatar estimates there are connectivity to every corner and 2015 shall be from this include revamping the ICT
186,000 broadband lines of Qatar, including the most market segment,” he added. infrastructure, and ena-
in the country, with nearly remote areas,” she added. As further evidence of bling platforms to support
400,000 expected to be For his part, Al Mannai Qatar’s focus on improv- consumer driven Arabic
necessary by 2020. Q.NBN believes the overriding factor ing its ICT credentials, in content development, and
aims to have 439,000 broad- driving broadband demand May Ericsson and ictQa- improving the quality and
band lines by 2025, covering and uptake in Qatar is the tar announced the launch efficiency of ICT services.
households, government basic desire for connectivity, of a strategic partnership In addition, Ericsson and
entities and enterprises. and Q.NBN is determined to that aims to boost the ictQatar will focus on ICT
“As a relatively small help drive the Small Office adoption of ICT in Qatar. maturity in order to create a
market, relying solely on Home Office segment of The partnership, which knowledge-exchange based
attracting private invest- the market in particular. was formalised through a environment to increase
ment to build an expensive “To be frank, both the memorandum of under- the ICT usage in Qatar
fibre network infrastructure traditional business as well standing, seeks to support while leveraging Ericsson’s
would limit progress, delay as the traditional home seg- Qatar’s ICT Strategy 2015. global and local compe-
advancements in important ment is driving broadband The MoU was signed by tence in the ICT industry.
sectors and likely stall some demand significantly in Qa- Hassan Al Sayed, ictQa- All said, Qatar is a bristling
already planned, forward tar,” Al Mannai said. “A high tar assistant secretary ICT and broadband market
looking projects,” Al Jaber percentage of copper based general, IT and ICT Gov- to witness, and the suc-
said. “This government- broadband coverage exists ernment Sector and Ray cess of policies instituted
led national broadband but customers are keen to Hassan, president Erics- in the coming 20 years are
network effort will ensure have this migrated to fibre, son Gulf Countries. likely to be tied directly to
progress and keep our and I believe much of the de- As part of the partnership, the success of dedicated
commitment to bringing mand coming between now Ericsson and ictQatar will entities such as Q.NBN.
summer 2012 19

22. Price vs. value
Despite a stock market share price that is languishing at more than 30 per cent below the level
it listed on the Oman bourse in November 2010, Nawras continues to be an energetic operator
that is looking to maximise the opportunities data usage represents. Through the leveraging of
its various access technologies and the bundling of products and services, Nawras continues to
expand its base of operations, believing such a focus will generate the necessary good results
N
awras CEO, Ross a 4.4 per cent growth rate.
Cormack believes the The fixed service customer
telco has the neces- base grew by nearly 176
sary positive momentum per cent during the half to
to continue propelling the 36,787 customers, though
company forward in Oman, Nawras’ overall revenue for
despite coming through a the period was down 1.7
tough operational period that per cent to OMR95.3 mil-
has impacted its financial lion, delivering a net profit
performance as well. of OMR19.5 million, down
In the first quarter of 11.8 per cent from OMR22.1
2012 the telco reported million a year earlier.
revenues fell by 2.7 per “We recently moved into
cent to OMR46.8 million new open plan office space,
(US$121.6 million), while the Nawras Campus, where
net profit also fell by 19.1 per our people can see one
cent to OMR9.8 million. another and easily interact,”
The company’s total Cormack told Comm. “It is
subscriber base rose by a fantastic location for us
2.4 per cent year-on-year to be able to make decisions
to reach 1.99 million. quickly and there is a palpa-
Nawras attributed the fall ble energy that drives us.”
in revenues to a reduction in Cormack freely admits that
SMS revenues that was not the competitive landscape
fully compensated by growth in Oman has become more
in data revenue. In addition, aggressive in the last few
revenue in Q1 2012 included years, not least through the
Cormack freely admits that the competitive
landscape in Oman has become more aggressive in a one-off accounting adjust- presence of value-focussed
the last few years, not least through the presence ment of OMR658,000. resellers together with the
of value-focussed resellers together with the The second quarter of 2012 omnipresence of a well-
omnipresence of a well-entrenched incumbent
marked a stabilisation in entrenched incumbent.
Nawras’ operational and Nawras’ competitive ap-
financial results, though proach appears to be based
the telco’s first half perfor- on focussing primarily on
mance still highlights the the factors within its own
competitive nature of the control, more so than look-
telecom market in Oman, ing to what other players
and the on-going pressure are doing in the market and
on margins. Nawras closed reacting to those factors.
the six months to end-June “It would be fair to say
with a customer base of that in some areas the huge
2.03 million, representing increase in use of data in
20 www.comm.ae

23. Nawras
Oman outstripped our abil-
ity to provide it,” Cormack
At the end of June Nawras announced it had entered into
acknowledged. “We prob- an agreement with Huawei to upgrade its Radio Access
ably did not build as fast as Network (RAN) by advancing all sites to enhanced
we should have done but 3G+ and increasing coverage, in-building penetration,
capacity and the speed of the entire network
that is all changing now
and going forward, we are
confident that we will man-
age and support the growing
data demand. We also have
new people in our top line
up, with a world leading
CTO and CMO contribut-
ing additional expertise
from worldwide markets.”
Part of Nawras’ plan to
keep abreast with the surging
demand for data is a project
it describes as ‘turbocharg-
ing’ its network, which in
essence means upgrading
the network for increased
capacity and performance.
To this end, at the end of
June Nawras announced it
had entered into an agree-
ment with Huawei to upgrade
its Radio Access Network
(RAN) by advancing all sites
to enhanced 3G+ and in-
creasing coverage, in-building
penetration, capacity and the
speed of the entire network.
At the same time Nawras
said it would be launch-
ing 4G LTE technology.
Nawras is deploying a LTE
FDD 4G network in the
1800MHz spectrum band,
and together with the Tel- It would be fair to say that in some areas the with an overlay of 4G at
ecommunications Regulatory huge increase in use of data in Oman 1800MHz also being intro-
Authority’s release of two duced in the major cities.”
outstripped our ability to provide it. We probably
more 3G+ frequencies, the Cormack broadly describes
telco is looking to at least did not build as fast as we should have done but the telecom sector as being
triple its mobile broad- that is all changing now at an inflection point given
band capacity. This upgrade the growth and prevalence of
programme is due to begin Wadi Kabir, Muttrah, Qurm, Oman. At the same time over-the-top (OTT) players,
in August in Al Amerat. Azaiba, Al Khuwair, Ghala, as new 3G+ sites are being with social networking and
Around 30 per cent of sites Baushar, Mawaleh and The introduced, the WiMAX the consumption of video
are set to be upgraded before Wave, by the end of the year. home broadband network content via Internet-based
the end of the year and All major cities will enjoy will be extended further. companies such as YouTube
customers are forecast to im- LTE coverage by June 2013. “Over the coming 2-3 years accounting for the major-
mediately notice the differ- In addition to the launch we intend to turbocharge ity of today’s data demand.
ence as they start to receive of 4G LTE, 3G+ population every base station, resulting Nawras’ broadband network
fast 3G+ and 4G services. The coverage will rise dramati- in 97 per cent of the popu- development approach is a
4G LTE network will cover cally from 53 per cent to 97 lation having 3G+ access,” diversified one, incorporating
all major areas of Muscat per cent over the next three Cormack confirmed. “Hun- a number of access tech-
governate including Ruwi, years including greater cover- dreds of such base stations nologies spanning mobile,
the central business district, age in remote areas across will be running by year-end, wireless and fixed-line. Last
summer 2012 21