An alliance has been formed by four of the Middle East’s most technically advanced mobile GSM network operators that will define new categories of advanced services for regional subscribers, supporting new innovations and developments in multimedia services, Internet access, content services and seamless roaming between key regional national markets.
The Alliance, with its initial operating groups, will potentially serve markets covering over 70 million people in the region and markets in which they have operations.
With further members expected to join the grouping, founder members of the Alliance include Jordan’s MobileCom, Bahrain’s Batelco, Qatar's Qtel and Kuwait’s Wataniya. Together, the four companies today serve over 3 million mobile customers in the Middle East region, with networks deployed in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria and Tunisia.
“We are committed to working together to deliver world class advanced services to our customers, including the richest content, smartest access solutions and best value packages that will help our customers to truly extend the way they use their GSM mobile devices, whether that be phones, smart phones, PDAs or computers,” said Fuad Al Ablani, general manager of leading Kuwaiti operator Wataniya Telecom.
The Alliance brings the market strength of its members to bear in supporting the rollout of unified content and access services, including MMS and GPRS roaming, as well as unified support for EDGE class high speed mobile Internet access across national boundaries. The Alliance will include the establishment of advanced roaming agreements, common content and application development resources and will support the availability of a common platform and portal offering. The four founder members have made it clear that the Alliance is open to bringing new members from the region and beyond on board.
“We believe that by working together we can create a much bigger single content opportunity, a better value service portfolio and smarter technical resources than would have been possible working apart,” said Ian Dench, general manager, Marketing & Sales at Bahrain’s leading operator, Batelco. “This is about giving our customers the best advanced services that the market can support today and we are delighted to be working together to bring that value to customers.”
As well as collaboration on roaming for devices using the MMS, GPRS and EDGE access services, Alliance members will support prepaid roaming and common short code, easing the travel difficulties experienced by advanced service users, as well as supporting total interoperability between customers in Alliance member markets. The Alliance will see the development of specialised content and applications in a dedicated development centre.
“The synergy between Alliance members will support better value for customers, easier access to advanced services and will bring a broader range of smart, rich and compelling content and value to everyone. The economies of scale will be of direct benefit to our customers,” said Mickael Ghossein, CEO of Jordan’s MobileCom. “Together, we address markets comprising over 70 million people.”
Ross Cormack, Executive Director for Wireless Services at Qtel, said that Qtel was particularly excited by the Alliance's potential to deliver additional value to Qtel's customers, "Through partnership in development, we will be able to accelerate the delivery of a number of new products and services to our customers whilst the Alliance's combined economic and marketing power will allow us to access and offer a significantly wider range of wireless content and applications. Applications and content relationships developed by the Alliance will be leveraged across the group to benefit all parties. This will allow us to offer our customers much more diversity, value and choice. Cooperation between the operators behind the scenes will also extend our customers’ ability to use Qtel's services abroad as well as at home. This is a major development and a real boost for wireless services in the region. Qtel is very pleased to be a part of this alliance and we are committed to ensuring its success.”
New services driven by the collaboration are expected to be announced in the near future. The Alliance follows the announcement of three such regional alliances in the European market and is the first of its kind in the Middle East region. (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
