26 October 2003
KUWAIT: Khaled Al Hajri, deputy director general, network services of MTC-Vodafone announced yesterday a investment of nearly $40 million to further enhance capacity and capabilities of their Kuwait network.
Khaled Al Hajri in a special interview outlined his company's commitment to the Kuwait service saying, "Kuwait is the birthplace of MTC - this is where our business first started over 20 years ago and will always be at the core of our regional strategy and vision. Since 1994 we have had an on-going process of continual improvement constantly upgrading and increasing our capacity to keep ahead of demand.
During this summer customers have noticed some off-peak outages within the network. These were planned as part of our systematic engineering enhancements both in hardware and software mechanisms."
MTC-Vodafone has been implementing a planned upgrading programme to increase customer satisfaction in the network and improve software capabilities to reduce 'dropped' calls.
In response to questioning about meeting demand during Ramadan Khaled Al Hajri said. "We learnt a lot from our Crisis Management process and team who kept out network live and running under huge pressure during the early days of the Liberation of Iraq. We recorded our heaviest ever demand with over four million SMS messages in one day. To meet this demand we moved our mobile masts into critical locations, those where we could see surges or increased in usage. We believe we are now well prepared for Ramadan and the major increase in SMS and voice traffic that usually happens during this religious time - plus with the additional investments we have made this summer we expect the network to more than cope with any additional traffic for a number of years to come."
MTC-Vodafone signed several agreements with key partners recently. Motorola, a global leader in wireless, automotive and broadband communications, has entered into an agreement (worth nearly $19 million) to provide network services and equipment to increase network capacity and coverage plus enhance MTC-Vodafone general packet radio service (GPRS) for the Kuwait market. MTC-Vodafone launched its GPRS service in early 2002 and with this latest expansion the company is expected to offer more applications and an even better customer service.
Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Networks (ICMN) has also signed an agreement with MTG-Vodafone for $17 million to undertake a phased upgrade, over the next 18 months, of the "brain" of the network, the 'switches' which carry a total profile of each and every customer from which location they are in through to their range of subscribed services.
Khaled Al Hajri concluded the interview saying, "By working with leading, global suppliers and partners such as Motorola and Siemens we keep ahead of the market and we keep our customers at the forefront of the latest technologies. Customers are demanding more creative services and products every day. Many of our customers, both Kuwaitis and expats, travel the world and they know what is out there and available with other mobile service providers and by working with the likes of Motorola and Siemens we will deliver what the customer demands!"
Khaled Al Hajri also sits on the Board of Thuraya Communications, the satellite telecommunications service that provides key communications into and across Iraq. Atheer Telecommunications, which will be managed and operated by MTC was awarded the licence to provide a mobile telecommunications in the southern sector of Iraq last week.
The MTC Group of Companies consists of MTC-Vodafone (Kuwait), Fastlink in Jordan plus two new networks seen as works in progress m MTC-Vodafone Bahrain and Atheer Telecommunications in Iraq. Atheer will be managed and operated by MTC.
Senior executives from the MTC Group of Companies arrived in Amman yesterday to attend the Jordan Economic Forum. Attendance and participation in the Jordan Economic Forum by MTC delegates is considered to be very relevant to the company's strategic planning as a regional mobile telecoms provider. MTC is the owner of Fastlink, Jordan's leading mobile telecommunication company and the managing operator of the new company, Atheer Telecommunications, who last week won the licence to provide a mobile telecoms network in the southern region of Iraq. MTC also operates as MTC-Vodafone in Kuwait and is due to launch its new service in Bahrain later this year.
In commenting on his company's reason for attending the Jordan Economic Forum, Dr Saad Al Barrak, Director General for MTC said: "We are delighted to be back in Jordan for another business forum. We attended the World Economic Forum in June this year, then the CPA conference on telecommunications and investments into Iraq in September and now we are back again for the Jordan Economic Forum to look closely at the Jordanian Axis and the role of Jordan in Iraq's reconstruction."
'This conference is very pertinent to our very recent and future investments in the region. We committed ourselves heavily into Jordan's economy when we bought Fastlink for $423.9 million in January this year. Furthermore, through Atheer Telecommunications, which MTC will "manage-operate, we have already estimated an investment of between $100m and $120m is needed over the next two years to deliver our new licence agreement in Iraq.
In speaking further on the new licence in southern Iraq, Dr Saad Al Barrak said, whilst Atheer Telecommunications is to be operated and managed by MTC, the key investments are split evenly on a 50:50 ratio between Iraqi investors and Kuwait investors." The Iraqi investment will come via a new company, Digla Telecommunications Company (DTC), a consortium of Iraqi businessmen set up following the liberation of Iraq. The MTC Group of Companies together with a Kuwaiti company, Kharafi National, make up the remaining 50 per cent of the partnership.
Saad continued, "our consortium has been appointed on the strength of our Iraqi partnership and also on the strength of MTC's reputation and history for delivering a service its customers ask for."
"We believe that through our regional presence we can offer the Iraqi people a full service that makes them totally accessible with, other Arab nations and closer to home with their friends and families. Only a tiny percentage of households in Iraq, let alone the southern region, have a phone line or access to telephony as a whole. To make Iraq work as a truly dynamic economically strong country that can contribute freely to the Arab economy as a whole we clearly have to provide the tools. The primary tool has to be real communication."
KUWAIT: Khaled Al Hajri, deputy director general, network services of MTC-Vodafone announced yesterday a investment of nearly $40 million to further enhance capacity and capabilities of their Kuwait network.
Khaled Al Hajri in a special interview outlined his company's commitment to the Kuwait service saying, "Kuwait is the birthplace of MTC - this is where our business first started over 20 years ago and will always be at the core of our regional strategy and vision. Since 1994 we have had an on-going process of continual improvement constantly upgrading and increasing our capacity to keep ahead of demand.
During this summer customers have noticed some off-peak outages within the network. These were planned as part of our systematic engineering enhancements both in hardware and software mechanisms."
MTC-Vodafone has been implementing a planned upgrading programme to increase customer satisfaction in the network and improve software capabilities to reduce 'dropped' calls.
In response to questioning about meeting demand during Ramadan Khaled Al Hajri said. "We learnt a lot from our Crisis Management process and team who kept out network live and running under huge pressure during the early days of the Liberation of Iraq. We recorded our heaviest ever demand with over four million SMS messages in one day. To meet this demand we moved our mobile masts into critical locations, those where we could see surges or increased in usage. We believe we are now well prepared for Ramadan and the major increase in SMS and voice traffic that usually happens during this religious time - plus with the additional investments we have made this summer we expect the network to more than cope with any additional traffic for a number of years to come."
MTC-Vodafone signed several agreements with key partners recently. Motorola, a global leader in wireless, automotive and broadband communications, has entered into an agreement (worth nearly $19 million) to provide network services and equipment to increase network capacity and coverage plus enhance MTC-Vodafone general packet radio service (GPRS) for the Kuwait market. MTC-Vodafone launched its GPRS service in early 2002 and with this latest expansion the company is expected to offer more applications and an even better customer service.
Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Networks (ICMN) has also signed an agreement with MTG-Vodafone for $17 million to undertake a phased upgrade, over the next 18 months, of the "brain" of the network, the 'switches' which carry a total profile of each and every customer from which location they are in through to their range of subscribed services.
Khaled Al Hajri concluded the interview saying, "By working with leading, global suppliers and partners such as Motorola and Siemens we keep ahead of the market and we keep our customers at the forefront of the latest technologies. Customers are demanding more creative services and products every day. Many of our customers, both Kuwaitis and expats, travel the world and they know what is out there and available with other mobile service providers and by working with the likes of Motorola and Siemens we will deliver what the customer demands!"
Khaled Al Hajri also sits on the Board of Thuraya Communications, the satellite telecommunications service that provides key communications into and across Iraq. Atheer Telecommunications, which will be managed and operated by MTC was awarded the licence to provide a mobile telecommunications in the southern sector of Iraq last week.
The MTC Group of Companies consists of MTC-Vodafone (Kuwait), Fastlink in Jordan plus two new networks seen as works in progress m MTC-Vodafone Bahrain and Atheer Telecommunications in Iraq. Atheer will be managed and operated by MTC.
Senior executives from the MTC Group of Companies arrived in Amman yesterday to attend the Jordan Economic Forum. Attendance and participation in the Jordan Economic Forum by MTC delegates is considered to be very relevant to the company's strategic planning as a regional mobile telecoms provider. MTC is the owner of Fastlink, Jordan's leading mobile telecommunication company and the managing operator of the new company, Atheer Telecommunications, who last week won the licence to provide a mobile telecoms network in the southern region of Iraq. MTC also operates as MTC-Vodafone in Kuwait and is due to launch its new service in Bahrain later this year.
In commenting on his company's reason for attending the Jordan Economic Forum, Dr Saad Al Barrak, Director General for MTC said: "We are delighted to be back in Jordan for another business forum. We attended the World Economic Forum in June this year, then the CPA conference on telecommunications and investments into Iraq in September and now we are back again for the Jordan Economic Forum to look closely at the Jordanian Axis and the role of Jordan in Iraq's reconstruction."
'This conference is very pertinent to our very recent and future investments in the region. We committed ourselves heavily into Jordan's economy when we bought Fastlink for $423.9 million in January this year. Furthermore, through Atheer Telecommunications, which MTC will "manage-operate, we have already estimated an investment of between $100m and $120m is needed over the next two years to deliver our new licence agreement in Iraq.
In speaking further on the new licence in southern Iraq, Dr Saad Al Barrak said, whilst Atheer Telecommunications is to be operated and managed by MTC, the key investments are split evenly on a 50:50 ratio between Iraqi investors and Kuwait investors." The Iraqi investment will come via a new company, Digla Telecommunications Company (DTC), a consortium of Iraqi businessmen set up following the liberation of Iraq. The MTC Group of Companies together with a Kuwaiti company, Kharafi National, make up the remaining 50 per cent of the partnership.
Saad continued, "our consortium has been appointed on the strength of our Iraqi partnership and also on the strength of MTC's reputation and history for delivering a service its customers ask for."
"We believe that through our regional presence we can offer the Iraqi people a full service that makes them totally accessible with, other Arab nations and closer to home with their friends and families. Only a tiny percentage of households in Iraq, let alone the southern region, have a phone line or access to telephony as a whole. To make Iraq work as a truly dynamic economically strong country that can contribute freely to the Arab economy as a whole we clearly have to provide the tools. The primary tool has to be real communication."
© Kuwait Times 2003
