Etisalat DB Opens Second Customer Contact Center (India)
Cheers Mobile Services, the GSM service from Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Limited (Etisalat DB), a joint venture between UAE’S largest telecom group, Etisalat and the Dynamix Balwas Group, today inaugurated its second customer contact centre in Noida, India. The company has an end-to-end outsourcing partnership with Tech Mahindra, the leading provider of solutions and services to the telecommunications industry.
With the launch of its second contact centre, Etisalat DB has reinforced its commitment to provide superior customer management services and establish itself as a leading telecom player in one of the world’s fastest growing mobile markets.
While Tech Mahindra will be responsible for managing Etisalat DB’s services in North & South India; West and Central India will be managed by Aegis. The BPO’s multi-site centers will provide inbound, outbound and back-office services in the respective regional languages besides English and Hindi.
Enabled by state-of-the-art technology, the contact centre operations will offer distinctive features like ‘automated call-back’ in case the customer’s call gets terminated; ‘schedule a call-back’ which allows customers to schedule calls from the contact centre as per their convenience. The BPO’s safeguards will ensure seamless service and business continuity for Etisalat DB with all centres being linked to each other, thereby presenting the company with a single window to provide superior experience to customers.
Commenting on the occasion, Official Spokesperson, Etisalat DB said, We are pleased to announce the opening of our second customer contact centre in India. These state-of- the-art contact centres align with our long-term commitment in India and are in line with our global strategy of, customer focus, innovation and market leadership. Our outsourcing partner Tech Mahindra has demonstrated capability and expertise in managing extensive customer-support operations for large telecom service providers, in India and globally. Tech Mahindra’s superior customer-facing processes will reflect the strong customer service ethos of Etisalat.â€
Mr. Sujit Baksi, President – Corporate Affairs & BPO, Tech Mahindra, said, “We are excited about further strengthening our relationship with Etisalat DB as they have innovative plans to address the mobile telephony market in India. With robust BPO capabilities, Tech Mahindra has a proven track record of delivering world class seamless customer experience leading to increased customer stickiness and growth. Our association with Etisalat DB will further strengthen our leadership position in the telecom software and solutions ecosystem.”
With an initial investment of USD 900 million, in India, Etisalat DB has built a strong telecommunication network in the Indian market. Backed by global and domestic financial institutions, the company, in the last 18 months has entered into long term strategic relationships with the leading names in the Telecom sector for its IT Outsourcing, Telecom Equipments and Network Infrastructure. Over 2000 proficient employees of Etisalat DB have been engaged to established widespread retail distribution network across the country to be a part of and value add to the Indian Telecom growth story.
About Etisalat DB
Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd. has the Unified Services Access License in 15 circles. The company launched its services across its circles under the brand name, Cheersâ€. These licenses enable the Company to provide a full spectrum of telecom services covering a population of over 900 million across these circles. Under the license the Company can also provide Internet Telephony, Internet Services and Broadband Services. The company is headquartered in Mumbai. Etisalat DB’s services will include national & international long distance telephony solutions, full range of prepaid & postpaid products, national & international roaming and Value Added Services.
About Etisalat:
Etisalat is the Middle East’s largest operator and third largest corporation. With a market value in excess of Dhs. 80 billion (US$20 billion) and annual revenues of approximately Dhs. 30 billion (US$8 billion) Etisalat is today on the verge of being numbered amongst the top ten operators in the world. Etisalat, a true multinational powerhouse with operations in eighteen countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Etisalat’s terrestrial GSM network now covers a population of two billion and its satellite network provides services over two thirds of the planet’s surface. Etisalat’s Dhs. 36 billion international acquisition programme began in earnest in 2004 by winning the second mobile license in Saudi Arabia. Since then the company has witnessed rapid expansion positioning Etisalat as one of the world’s fastest growing operators with its mobile subscriber numbers rocketing 2,500% from 4 million in 2004 to 107 million in 2010. It is one of the telecommunication industry’s innovation pacesetters powering its home country, the UAE, into the top ten nations list by providing the latest technologies first. It is a pioneer in next-generation networks for both fixed-line and wireless networks and is in the process of deploying a nationwide fiber-optic network that includes enough cable to stretch to the moon and back two and a half times. In 2009, Etisalat reported annual Net Revenues of Dhs. 30.8 billion (US$ 8.4billion) and Net Profits of Dhs. 8.8 billion (US$ 2.4 billion) ranking Etisalat as the eighteenth most profitable telecoms group in the world. For the first nine months of 2010 Etisalat has achieved healthy Net Revenues of Dhs. 19.1bn (US$ 5.2 billion) and Net Profits of Dhs. 7.3bn (US$ 1.9bn). As a result, Etisalat has been named ‘Best Overall Operator’ in the Middle East ten times since 2006 and was named Best International Carrier at the World Communications Awards in 2008. It has also won numerous accolades for its innovative marketing being awarded for having the ‘Best Brand’, ‘Best Customer Service’ and ‘Best CSR Programme’. Etisalat’s management team is also well-celebrated with its Chairman, Mohammed Omran, receiving the top accolades in 2010 at both the International Business Awards and the World Communications Awards.
About Tech Mahindra:
Tech Mahindra is a leading provider of solutions and services to the telecommunications industry, majority stake owned by Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, in partnership with British Telecommunications plc. With total revenues of INR 4625.4 crore in the year ended March 31, 2010, Tech Mahindra serves telecom service providers, telecom equipment manufacturers, and software vendors. Tech Mahindra enables clients to maximize return on IT investment by providing solutions which help the clients achieve shorter time-to-market, reduced total cost of ownership, and high customer satisfaction. Tech Mahindra achieves this through its domain and process expertise, distinctive IT skills, research and development, and proven innovative delivery models. Assessed at SEI-CMMi Level 5, Tech Mahindra’s development centres are ISO 9001:2000 & BS7799 certified and the company has principal offices in the UK, United States, Germany, UAE, Egypt, Singapore, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines, Canada, and Australia.
Millions affected as Skype goes down
Internet phone and video service, Skype suffered an outage lasting several hours on Wednesday affecting millions of users of the Internet communications service.
According to Skype’s partly owned by web retailer EBay, some users were having problems signing on. Users in the US, Asia and Europe complained of the outage on social network site Twitter.
In its Twitter feed, the company apologized for the disruption and stated that it was investigating the cause.
Around 3.30pm EST, it alleged that the service was returning to normal, but that it may take several hours for everyone to be able to use it again.
The so-far unexplained outage, just days before the Christmas holiday, marked the latest blow to the service’s reputation.
Dropped calls and service quality have long been seen as a weak point for Skype, which offers free voice and video services between users as well as low-cost calls to landlines.
It now also faces competition from rival online phone providers such as Google, which lets its users make calls through their Gmail accounts, and high-end videoconferencing tools like Cisco Systems’s umi†service.
Market for Mobile Communications Gear Nears Quarter-Trillion-Dollar Mark
Propelled by the unstoppable cell phone market, worldwide factory equipment revenue generated by the mobile communications industry will near the quarter-trillion-dollar mark by the end of 2010, according to the sources.
Global mobile communications factory equipment revenue this year will reach $235.5 billion, up 7.9 percent from $218.2 billion in 2009, driven by the energetic expansion of mobile broadband in all parts of the world as well as by major increases in sales of 3G cell phones. Growth next year will be even more spectacular, data show, when revenue surpasses the quarter-trillion-dollar level and hits $271.3 billion.
Continued revenue growth seems assured in the years ahead for mobile communications, a wide-ranging market encompassing cell phones, cordless phones, battery chargers, mobile infrastructure, mobile and fixed broadband access devices and wireless LAN equipment such as routers. By 2014, total mobile communications factory equipment revenue will reach $359.3 billion.
Among the various segments of the market, 3G mobile handsets this year will take up the largest share of revenue at $86.4 billion, up 34.6% from $64.2 billion in 2009.
Revenue is also sizable, although declining, in the older category of 1G/2G mobile handsets-still a significant force in the emerging markets of Latin America, Asia and Africa. Revenue in 2010 for the combined 1G/2G category will fall to $55.6 billion, down 18.6% from $68.3 billion in 2009.
Revenue figures are much smaller in the latest-generation technology known as 4G-a category whose precise definition is in dispute-but growth is highest in this segment. From a paltry intake of only $11 million in 2009, revenue is expected to skyrocket to $1.3 billion in 2010.
3G is still dominant; 4G ramping
According to sources, among mobile handsets, 3G continues to be the dominant technology in 2010 and likely will maintain that distinction beyond 2014. For their part, wireless carriers-while wrestling with the issue of heavy data traffic on their networks-are attempting to maximize investments in existing 3.5G and 3.75G technologies through incremental network upgrades. At the same time, carriers are deploying next-generation 4G technologies such as long term evolution (LTE), to begin in earnest by 2011.
Within the mobile handset segment, smart phones are the unrivaled stars, with projected growth this year of 40.6%, compared to a 12 percent expansion in 2009. Manufacturers in the smart-phone-specific space, such as Apple Inc., Research in Motion Ltd. and HTC Corp., continued to gain market share at the expense of other players with more generalized handset offerings.
Overall, cell phone shipments in 2010 are forecasted to reach 1.29 billion units, up 11.7 percent from 1.15 billion units last year. The projections do not take into account the presence of gray-market handsets, especially popular in China, which will contribute $8.9 billion worth of revenue to the industry for 2010.
Millicom International Cellular: Creation of New Towers Company in DRC
Millicom International Cellular S.A. (Millicomâ€) today announces that its subsidiary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (â€DRCâ€), Oasis (Tigo DRCâ€) has agreed to sell 729 towers to Helios Towers DRC (HTDâ€), a direct subsidiary of Helios Towers Africa (HTAâ€). As a result of the transaction, Tigo DRC will receive at least $45 million of cash up front and will retain a significant minority interest in HTD.
Additionally, Tigo DRC and HTD have entered into a long term leasing agreement whereby HTD will provide Tigo DRC with access to wireless communications towers and a build-to-suit agreement to support the company’s wireless networks. HTD will seek similar agreements with other operators in DRC. The transaction is expected to create savings in both capital and operating expenditure for Tigo DRC.
Mikael Grahne, President and CEO of Millicom, said:
This agreement with HTD in DRC is Millicom’s third such deal with Helios in Africa and it brings us to a point where nearly two-thirds of our towers in Africa are committed to be outsourced. We view the DRC as a very attractive market for asset sharing considering its size, lower average purchasing power and logistical complexities. We are confident that this and similar previously announced ventures will continue to produce satisfactory results and improved service levels as we have experienced in Ghana since the creation of the first tower joint venture in Africa with Helios in January 2010. These agreements, and any future sale of our remaining towers in Africa, will enable us to improve both our capital and operating efficiency by focusing on our core activities of sales, marketing, branding, distribution, service innovation and customer care.â€
Charles Green, CEO of HTA, said:
With this latest transaction with Millicom in DRC, HTA is firmly established as the leading independent tower company in Africa. Under increasingly competitive conditions in many African markets, HTA enables wireless operators to outsource non-core tower-related activities and focus capital and management resources on providing higher quality services more cost-effectively. We continue to be enthusiastic about extending to Tigo DRC our successful partnership formed in the landmark transaction completed earlier this year with Tigo Ghana and more recently in executing the agreement to acquire Millicom’s tower assets in Tanzania. As with the other transactions, we are pleased to enter into such an innovative arrangement with Millicom, which ensures that HTD has, as an anchor tenant on each of its towers, a high quality operator with a demonstrated long-term commitment to the development of wireless services in DRC.”
The specific number of towers and final purchase price will be determined at closing. First closing of the transaction, subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to take place around Q3 2011.
Millicom International Cellular S.A. is a global telecommunications group with mobile telephony operations in 14 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. It also operates cable and broadband businesses in five countries in Central America. The Group’s mobile operations have a combined population under license of approximately 267 million people.
VimpelCom face problems with Sawiris deal (UAE)
Russia’s second-largest mobile phone operator, VimpelCom plans to combine with the telecoms assets of Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian entrepreneur, are in doubt.
VimpelCom’s board is due to meet in Amsterdam on Tuesday to approve the deal, but the mobile operator’s shareholders are privately warning that an agreement may not be reached.
According to sources, the Russian operator could be overpaying for the assets of Weather Investments, Mr Sawiris’ private investment vehicle. He accused Telenor of objecting to proposals for a new shareholder agreement that would accompany the Weather deal.
According to Mr Sawiris, the company has shown extreme courage and extreme flexibility with this transaction. They do not think they gave anybody any reason not to go through with it.
In October, VimpelCom outlined plans to merge with Weather, which owns Wind, Italy’s third-largest mobile operator, and has a controlling stake in Orascom Telecom, the Cairo-listed telecoms company with assets in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
VimpelCom agreed to pay $1.8 billion in cash to Weather, which would also get a stake worth $4.8 billion in the Russian mobile operator. Weather would hold 19% of the voting shares in the enlarged VimpelCom group.
VimpelCom also agreed to assume about $15 billion of debt held by Wind and Orascom under the transaction.
But the Weather transaction has been dogged by uncertainty partly because it will be the first big test of a 2009 peace deal between Alfa and Telenor following a bitter dispute over Ukrainian telecoms assets.
The uncertainty has also focused on Djezzy, Algeria’s leading mobile operator and Orascom’s most valuable asset. Djezzy is supposed to form part of the VimpelCom deal, but Algeria wants to nationalize it.
Etisalat may cut Zain stake buy (UAE)
Etisalat may be set to lower the share size of Zain to 40% after shareholder opposition threatened to delay the sale. The company had originally proposed to buy 46% of the shares.
Objections from shareholders outside the consortium had threatened to block the transaction from going through.
Al Fawares Holding, which owns a 4.5% stake in Zain, took legal action to halt the due diligence in the planned sale, although a ruling was not due until 22nd December.
According to Etisalat, the purchase would extend its reach in the Middle East, where Zain operates in countries from Kuwait and Iraq to Bahrain. Etisalat offers phone services in 18 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, counting more than 100 million customers, according to its website. The seven emirates comprising the UAE make up about 86% of Etisalat’s sales.
LTE Services in the US Will Generate More than $940 Million in 2015, Says ABI Research Forecast
When it comes to mobile network infrastructure discussions, LTE is the name on everyone’s lips. Yet the very meaning of the acronym Long-Term Evolution†is a hint that it isn’t going to happen overnight. LTE’s deployment as the mainstay 4G technology will take place gradually, and won’t even begin to gather real steam until 2013. Nonetheless, LTE is forecast by ABI Research to generate $942 million in service revenue in the United States in 2015, with nearly a further $650 million to come from Western Europe.
The LTE service revenue growth curve for Western Europe is practically a straight line,†notes ABI Research director Philip Solis. That contrasts sharply with constantly accelerating revenue growth in the US, and is largely due to the sometimes exorbitant amounts European network operators paid for their 3G spectrum: many of those operators want to squeeze every drop of value from their 3G investments before migrating to 4G.â€
In the US, though, carriers such as Sprint deployed WiMAX, and began publically advertising 4G as each city rolled out starting in late 2008. Other carriers, not wanting to be left out in the cold, started jumping on the 4G bandwagon, with Verizon Wireless already launching LTE, and AT&T Wireless bringing its announced launch date forward in 2011.
Although carriers will appreciate LTE’s bandwidth efficiency and users its higher data speeds and lower latency, voice will only start to enter the LTE picture in a meaningful way in 2013 or 2014,†adds research analyst Xavier Ortiz. Existing networks still provide voice services with great coverage and reliability. Using LTE for voice will mean completely abandoning the tried-and-true legacy TDM backhaul and replacing it with IP backhaul at considerable cost. Carriers will only make that leap when 4G can truly replace 2G and 3G for voice, although ABI Research recommends doing it sooner rather than later.â€
ABI Research’s LTE and LTE-Advanced†study (http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1003359) gives an LTE and LTE-Advanced standards overview and update, considering trends, network architecture, and the elements that make up that architecture, as well as approaches and strategies. Forecasts include device and equipment shipments broken down by region, as well as subscribers, service revenue and ARPU.
It is part of the 4G Research Service (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/service/4G_Research_Service).
ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 30+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.
SLT boosts broadband speed (Sri Lanka)
Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the island’s biggest fixed line operator, has revealed that it has increased broadband speeds for customers after upgrading its international internet capacity and improving links with service providers.
The international internet backbone capacity serving SLT broadband customers has been increased by 30% and now data transfer speeds of over eight gigabits per second.
According to the company, SLT has improved its direct connectivity to global ISPs in Asia, Europe and USA as well as to the high rating social networking, web application and video service providers to offer improved internet and broadband experience to Sri Lankan customers.
It added that the changes in bandwidth control have increased the average data rates enjoyed by their customers by more than 200%, resulting in vast improvements in access to information and application performance. As a result of these changes its total internet traffic volume increased by more than 30% in just one month.
According to Greg Young, Chief Executive of SLT, the company’s customers have told them that they wanted improvements and they have responded positively with significant speed and quality improvements to cater to the exploding broadband demand for faster data speeds.
SLT added more than 80,000 new broadband (ADSL) customers during this year, connecting people from all parts of the country.
