Our latest survey invited participants to provide their opinion on managing their privacy over social networking platforms. Interestingly, the results show that almost half of the respondents are maintaining their privacy while the other half are not. 12.5 % of the respondents are not even aware of privacy issues in online world.

We would like to share the results of our online survey carried out from 1 – 15 January 2012 focused on inviting opinion on mobile payments future. 55.56% of the respondents were of the view that mobile payments will be in main stream to replace traditional retail banking service by this year or next. 35.56% of the respondents were of the view that this will happen not happen until 2015 whereas 8.89% said that mobile payments would never replace traditional retail banking.

Noting that Mobily has announced earlier that all of its new and existing subscribers can enjoy Blackberry unlimited monthly and weekly services at the normal monthly package rate of SR. 99. This special offer enables all its clients including individuals and companies to communicate, chat, and exchange multimedia messages through the unlimited Blackberry service, as well as browsing the internet free of charge.

Telecommunications professionals from the across the Middle East and North Africa met in Muscat on 7th March to discuss the future of Broadband technology at a Summit organized by the SAMENA Telecommunications Council under the patronage of Dr. Mohammad Wahaibi, Under Secretary for Communications at the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

The keynote speeches and debates covered a broad spectrum of issues including the challenge for broadband technology from Next Generation Access, general growth and strategy issues for the sector in both the fixed and mobile area, the importance of building effective Public Private Partnerships for broadband growth and infrastructure and how to stimulate greater demand in the SAMENA region.
Highlighting the importance of creating public private partnership to build next generation national broadband networks as a prerequisite for economic and social development, H.E. Dr. Mohammed Ali Al Wahaibi in his opening speech said, “In many countries building a next generation national broadband network constitutes the single largest infrastructure investment.”
Commenting on the Summit, Thomas Wilson, CEO of SAMENA Telecommunications Council said, “We are delighted to be hosting such a major event in Oman which is increasingly becoming a major regional hub for the telecommunications industry thanks to its excellent geographic position and the leadership role played by Omantel in introducing modern and highly sophisticated telecommunications technology to the nation.”
“Broadband – both fixed and mobile – is one of the fastest growing technologies and we have seen extremely rapid growth across the SAMENA region in recent years. This Summit is aptly timed to discuss and debate key issues that affect its development, and share knowledge and best practices to ensure continued growth and expansion of broadband technology to individuals and the corporate and Government sectors”, added Wilson.
The one day Summit held at the Barr Al Jissah Shangri-La Resort and Spa attracted professionals from the private and public telecommunications sector from across South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. It provided an excellent opportunity for companies to exchange information and experiences in the area of broadband technology which is becoming increasingly important to both individuals and the business sector in region.

The speakers included Gary O’Neal – Chief Technology Advisor, Bocar A BA – President SAMENA, Dr. Amer Al-Rawas – Chief Executive Officer Omantel, Stewart White – MESA Head of Telecoms KPMG (UAE), Hadi Raad – Principal Booz & Co. (KSA), Hugh Collins – Director Inter connect Communications (UK), Thorleif Herrstrom – Prinicpal Advisor Herrstrom, Romain Delavenne – Director Telecom Media & Entertainment Capgemini Consulting (UAE), Ziad Matar – Business Development Director ME – Qualcomm (UAE), Jon Collins – Vice Presidnet Telcordia (UAE), Ms. Saleha Asif – Associate Principal Mckinsey & Company (UAE),  Ross Cormack – Chief Executive Officer Nawras (Oman), Noel Kirkaldy – Director of Solutions Motorola (UAE), Florian Michel Gabriel – ME Network Lead Accenture (UAE),  Hadi Raad – Pricipal Booz & Co. (KSA), Tom Koster – Vice President Speed Cast (UAE), Anil Pande – Director Telecom Marketing FTTH Council Europe (India), Lars O Gustafsson – Vice President Business Development Omantel (Oman), Emmanuel Durou – Senior Engagement Manager value Partner (UAE), Dr. Karim Taga – Managing Director Arthur Dlittle (Austria) and Jeremy Foster – Head of Marketing and Government / Industry Relation Ericsson (UAE).

On the surface, STC Group’s most recent set of financial results appeared to typify the fortunes of most incumbent telecom operators that have seen their home markets eroded by tough competition.

Ghassan Hasbani, CEO - STC International

In its Q4 2010 results, STC posted a 23% decline in net profit to SR2.29 billion ($610.7 million). STC’s operating profit rose 15% to SAR3.03 billion, but its full-year net income declined by 13% to SAR9.4 billion.
However, the results were generally in line with analyst expectations, and as STC said in its results statement, the sudden fall was also related to a one-off gain in Q4 2009, which resulted from the listing of STC’s Malaysian joint venture, Maxis Group. STC also said that its 2010 profit fell due to an increase in costs related to capital investments in Saudi Arabia and abroad.
STC’s explanation of the results appears to hold some weight. The operator has certainly faced some significant costs after launching mobile operations from scratch in Kuwait at the end of 2008, and in Bahrain in March 2010.
“The dip in the home market was a top-line dip,” says Ghassan Hasbani, CEO, international, STC. “If you look at the bottom-line issue, there is not a dip.”
“The cost efficiency programmes that have been run at STC have actually brought a positive impact on the financials so it has been a positive story, not a negative story.
“The question is one of net income. If you look at the size of STC and the dividend and payout ratio and you look at the scale of infrastructure it has globally, we are more skewed towards investments in long-term growth markets, so this is where the money is still going.”
Hasbani insists that the positive impact of international operations on profitability will take some time, possibly two to three years. However, STC’s international forays in the past few years, which have seen the telco gain a presence in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and South Africa, as well as Kuwait and Bahrain, are already having a positive effect on revenues.
“The positive income in terms of total revenue growth is there already. It is already pushing revenues significantly,” he says. “Most of the investments have already gone into the ground, so it now is a time of incremental capacity and sweating the assets,” he adds.
Bahrain and Kuwait
And two of the main assets that STC is busy nurturing are its mobile operations in Kuwait and Bahrain. STC acquired Bahrain’s third mobile licence back in March 2009, for about $240 million, and launched operations last March. Hasbani says the operation has “proven a good success” in its first year of operations. Hasbani describes the situation in the highly penetrated Bahraini market, where Viva competes with Batelco and Zain, as being a “value war”.
Despite a mobile penetration rate of well-above 100% and a population of little more than 1 million people, Hasbani insists that Viva has significant growth potential.
“If you look at our pricing structure, it is not extremely low, but it is at the right level with the benefits that you get out of it, because we don’t have any legacy systems on the network. We were able to create a lot of value and we are still creating a lot of innovative products and services and packages that offer a lot of value for the money that you pay for them,” he says.
At the beginning of February, Viva Bahrain secured funds for infrastructure expansion and general costs after it signed a $280 million financing agreement with HSBC Bahrain and Samba, a Saudi Arabian bank. Hasbani says the agreement represented a “very good deal” and that by arranging most of the agreement in dollars, Viva Bahrain was able to secure a low interest rate.
“We are deploying infrastructure anyway, and Viva is still in growth mode so it is effectively being used to fund the entire operation. “This is a long term funding so it will help the company until the cash situation is sustainable and self sufficient, so we don’t envisage any further major funding rounds beyond this,” he adds. Meanwhile, Viva Kuwait also remains in “growth mode” and is expected to become profitable in 2010, according to Hasbani.
“We already have a good traction on subscriber and revenue growth. Kuwait and Bahrain are similar stories, with steady growth and a good cost management approach, because they are both lean, small operations,” he says. Across its operations, Hasbani says that “promised new revenue streams” are also starting to emerge from “phenomenal” broadband growth.
“We have been investing in broadband, DSL and fibre and now we are starting to reap the benefits where we are experiencing actual growth on revenues in this sector. That is significant and is starting to compensate for certain diminishing revenues on traditional services,” he says.
Market dynamics
In terms of further opportunities in the Middle East, Hasbani points to Syria, where STC is one of five companies bidding for the country’s third mobile licence, which is understood to have a reserve price of EUR90 million ($122.7m).
Speaking generally about opportunities in the region’s telecom sector, Hasbani says further acquisition targets are likely to present themselves in 2011, as some larger private investors seek to cash in on the rising value of telecom assets.
“As long as they [PIs] are at the end of the cycle and they see this [telecoms] as the only sector they can exit at a good price, then we will see more of them exiting to cover other sectors that they have invested in,” he says.
“I see that happening in the next couple of years, with large PI owners of telecom assets. There is also more appetite to come into the sector and invest in telecoms, and we are seeing large PI groups eyeing up telecoms again because it is the only thing they can sell to others.

Looking ahead at the huge potential of BWA in India, the Minister further said, “different parts of the country have different definition (for Broadband).However, it should make tangible difference in people’s lives we are targeting.”
India offers a large market place for all the stakeholders in the communication value chain. It is time for ICT players and regulators of Government of India to take collaborative efforts to provide high speed broadband services in rural areas and best services at the most affordable price.
Reiterating the significance of growing importance of Broadband in India Mr Robin Mersh, CEO Broadband Forum speaking in India for the first time said, “India’s growth in broadband in 2010- second only to China and the United States-is leading towards the country soon becoming one of the top ten users of broadband in the world.” India added more than 2.5  million new lines of broadband last year and now stands at No 13 in the world- having been barely in the top 50 of broadband countries just six years ago.
“There has been tremendous and consistent growth in the broadband across India in recent years, yet this is just the tip of the iceberg” he added. Mr Mersh was speaking in India for the first time at the 19th Convergence India Expo.
Over 430 participants representing the Telecom, IT, Broadcast, Media & Entertainment, Green IT, Security & Surveillance, Cable, Satellite, IP Surveillance and Information Security sectors of 25 countries have gathered on this international platform to showcase cutting edge technologies, products & services.
The power-packed inaugural panel conference on “ NextGen applications…Empowering a Billion Lives” was attended by industry stalwats such as J S Sarma, Chairman (TRAI); Akhil Gupta, Deputy Group CEO& MD(Bharti Enterprises); Rajiv Bawa, EVP & Head Corporate Affairs (Uninor); Declan Byrne, Director Marketing (Wimax Forum); Gunter Kleindl, Chairman ( ETSI Technical Committee DECT); Rajan S Mathew, Director General (COAI); Robin Mersh, CEO  (Broadband Forum) and Weimin Ying, President LTE Solution ( Huawei Telecommunications).
Fulfilling its long-standing mandate as a premier knowledge sharing forum, the inaugural conference of the 19th Convergence India 2011 was also a launching pad for the release of the industry white paper prepared by Shiv Putcha, Principal Analysts, Ovum and titled “3G Gets Underway in India”.
The event attracted a huge number of trade visitors . Hon’ble Minister Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India
The 19th Convergence India 2011 Expo organized by the Exhibitions India Group, was buzzing with business-to-business interactions. In addition to Telecom and Broadcasting, the exhibition floor had strong presence from the Broadband and LTE companies. The focus of the industry towards the two technologies clearly indicates the emerging trends and the growth path for the ICT sector.
At the concurrently held conference, a special session was conducted by Huawei Telecommunications to highlight strategies for successful implementation of LTE technology. The conference also covered discussions on digitalization,3G ,wireless broadband, network health, VAS, rural infrastructure and green ICT.
India has over 300,000 telecom towers for which implementation of green solutions is a daunting task. With over 15 million telecom subscribers being added every month there would be a corresponding need to add over 13,000 BTS’ per month. This would translate to diesel consumption of a staggering figure of 6 million litres on a monthly basis.
There was a general consensus in the telecom industry on the business case for going green. Operators who have been looking at energy saving options to reduce their opex felt, around 25% -30% reductions were achievable through green energy options. The amount of savings for a pan-India operator, based on this magnitude, would translate into over Rs. 1 billion per quarter.
According to Mr. Rajat K. Mukarji, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Idea Cellular Ltd., there is no single green solution (wind, solar, bio-fuels etc.) that can be implemented on a nationwide basis due to the diverse conditions in terms of climate, resources, geography etc. He emphasized on the need for a forward looking telecom policy that embraces this reality. Huge amount of investments and clear roadmap would be required to implement green solutions in the telecom sector. The moot point taken up at the session was to identify the key drivers.  Mr. Mukarji asserted that the Indian Govt. needs to give stimulus to these efforts. According to Mr. Sandeep Kashyap, CTO, Acme Tele Power Ltd. we need to view the problem in a collaborative manner. All stakeholders including consumers, IP-1 players, service providers and vendors need to play their part. Mr. Arun Kumar, AGM-R&D, ITI Ltd. advocated the idea of active sharing where two operators share equipment such as feeder cables, nodes and RAN Tx Systems. This has been implemented quite successfully in overseas markets. Mr. Danesh Bansal, CTO, Indus Towers Ltd. put forth an idea to combat the challenge of alternative fuel logistics i.e. distributing or accessing the alternative energy source for multiple sites. According to him the concept of a ‘Green Fuel Hub’ shared by telecom operators should be explored.

Eng. Saud Al Daweesh, CEO - STC Group, Eng. Ghassan Hasbani, CEO - STC International in a vendor visit

Eng. Saud Al Daweesh, CEO - STC Group, Eng. Ghassan Hasbani, CEO - STC International in another vendor visit

As a platinum sponsor of the Ministerial program of the Mobile world Congress in Barcelona, STC participated in a Ministers and global CEO round table discussion on the telecom industry impact on the economy and the role of policy makers in encouraging further investment in this field.
Group CEO Engineer Saud Al Daweesh and Ghassan Hasbani, CEO International Operations, represented STC in the meeting.

“We believe that telecommunications services are key contributors to economic development and policy should focus on providing clarity and stability in regulatory frameworks to encourage higher levels of investments in the sector” said Al Daweesh, commenting on the key points raised in the meeting.

In addition, STC addressed an audience of global industry leaders and policy makers at the Leadership Summit during the Mobile world Congress in Barcelona.

The speech focused on the role of regulators and policy makers in ensuring that the industry continues to attract investments through fair regulation and usage of infrastructure, allowing access to a wide subscriber base with appropriate classes of service that suit their usage patterns at affordable cost.
STC published a paper demonstrating the direct impact of innovation in telecommunications on global economic cycles and outlining the key challenges for the sector today.

Eng. Ghassan during his keynote speech in M&A session

Mr. Anand Sishadri, Director of infrastructure and supply chain, STC Group, Eng. Omar Al Nomany, VP - IT STC Group, a senior personnel from Microsoft and Mr. Assad Kon Daji, Director International Marketing - STC Group

On the third day of the World Mobile Congress, Ghassan Hasbani, Chief Executive Officer of International Operations at STC, presented the company’s view on the global Mergers and Acquisitions developments where he indicated a revival of investments in the sector, although not at the same levels seen in 2006. He also expected further consolidation in the industry with increased competition, substitution of main revenue sources and pressure on cost management. During the panel discussion, Hasbani shared the experience of STC in operating across multiple markets. STC also participated in a World Economic forum Telecommunications Global Agenda meeting held in parallel to the GSMA Congress in Barcelona. It was attended by many industry leaders and discussed issues related to mobile banking and mobile health among other topics such as personal data exchange policies.
“This Council serves to provide an industry view to global leaders and it is very important that our region is well represented through the STC membership” said Ghassan Hasbani, who represents the organization on the Council.
STC is a Telecom industry partner to the World economic forum and has a seat on the Global Agenda Council among leading organizations from the industry. Executives from STC held several meetings with Telecom Ministers, technology vendors and telecom operators where various operational and strategic matters were discussed, including policy, regulation and technology evolution.