Muscat, 15 November 2009 - Nawras Chief Executive Officer, Ross Cormack joined a lively debate at the recent Convergence to Istanbul 2009 event, held by the SAMENA Telecommunications Council. Taking his place amongst regional industry peers, Cormack joined the panel of nine in discussing a range of important issues that are topping today's agendas for the leading operators of the region.

Proceedings began with an introduction from A. Bocar, President of SAMENA Telecommunications Council preceding the opening speech from Thomas Wilson, the council's CEO.  Honorary Guest, H E Binali Yildirim, Turkey's Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology gave the keynote address.

The thought provoking CEO session was moderated by Ghassan Hasbani, Partner and Head of Middle East Communication and Technology for Booz & Co in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Joining Cormack were CEO panel members Samer Salameh from Alfa Mobile, Wilson Varghese from Kalimat, Dr. Paul Doany from Turktelekom and Dr. Amer Awadh Al-Rawas from Omantel as well as Hatem Bamatraf, Senior Vice President Technology - du, Ahmed Bin Ali, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, Etisalat; Alex Shalaby, Chairman of Mobinil and Dr. Homoud Al Kussayer, Vice President Regulatory, STC.

It was noted that the telecoms industry has shown resilience during this period of economic difficulty and has contributed to the recovery of many of the world's economies. 

The panellists agreed that the new growth is coming from broadband in all countries of the region and that broadband is now much more of a need rather than a want for large parts of the populations.  The CEOs debated strategy for delivering broadband to corporate customers recognising that system integrators may well be partners in that growth opportunity.  Such system integrators could include the providers of the computing and software facilities to corporations who are trusted partners of major corporations.

The operators also debated how to help regulators achieve their aim without the need for the type of intervention that has been seen in other markets for example Europe, where it has probably been to the detriment of customers as well as the operators.

It was suggested that regulators needed strong help from governments in terms of setting clear policy frameworks in which to apply their regulations in order to allow all stakeholders to make secure long term decisions for the benefit of customers.

Later this month, Ross Cormack will be addressing the TelecomsWORLD Middle East 2009 conference in Dubai where he will talk about 'excelling in customer experience as a key growth strategy'. 

Nawras, a Qtel Group company, covers 96% of the population with its reliable EDGE network and over 40% with its trusted 3G+ network. 

-Ends-

Nawras:
Omani Qatari Telecommunications Company SAOC was founded and registered in the Sultanate of Oman in December 2004. It launched its service in March 2005 as the second mobile operator in Oman operating under the name Nawras. Omani Qatari Telecommunications Company SAOC is majority owned by the Qtel Group, the leading telecommunications provider in Qatar and one of the world's leading telecommunications companies. Omani Qatari Telecommunications Company SAOC also has a number of significant Omani shareholders which ensures that the company is strongly integrated into the Omani society.  Nawras has won a number of awards including Middle East Call Centre of the Year 2009, Middle East Mobile Operator of the Year from CommsMEA and Above and Beyond the Call of Duty at the World BSS Awards.  Nawras was named Best Telecom Brand Oman 2008 by a leading local business magazine.

Qtel Group: 
Based in Qatar, The Qtel Group is a diversified telecommunications group with three business lines including consumer telephony, consumer broadband and corporate managed services, and is committed to expansion in line with its strategic vision of becoming a global top 20 telecommunications provider by the year 2020. Over the past three years, The Qtel Group has built a successful track record of acquisitions hence expanding its geographic footprint from 2 to 17 countries within the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, connecting more than 57 million customers.

For further information please contact:
Julie Amann
Press Manager
e-mail: julie.amann@nawras.om

© Press Release 2009