Airtel Kenya appoints Shivan Bhargava as MD (Africa)
Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel, with opertaions across Asia and Africa, has appointed Shivan Bhargava as MD for its Kenyan Operations.
According to the reports, Jayant Khosla, CEO (Airtel Africa Anglophone Region), said that Kenya has always been a key market with great potential for growth within the region. Their leadership and management team in Kenya is made up of exceptionally talented, experienced, passionate and committed individuals. Shivan’s experience and qualifications will add value to the team and Airtel’s future plans to deliver innovative and best-in-class mobile services. Khosla concluded by wishing him success in his new assignment.
Bhargava has been a part of Bharti Airtel since 2003 and has significantly contributed to growth of the business.
Bharti Airtel launches mobile services in Rwanda (Africa)
India’s leading telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, has launched mobile services in Rwanda, taking its presence in Africa to 17 countries. According to reports, Airtel has said that it plans to invest over $100 million in its operations over the next three years
Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel said during the launch that they are delighted to launch their operations and bring Airtel to the people of Rwanda. They believe that Rwanda is an extremely promising market and this launch further strengthens their footprint in eastern Africa. It will be their endeavour to bring world-class and affordable services to their customers in Rwanda and add value to the economy. Further, they would like to thank the Rwandan government for giving them this opportunity, and they are committed to contributing to their aim of bridging the digital divide in the country.
Right Hon. Dr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, Prime Minister, Rwanda, said that the government welcomes Airtel into the country. They are looking to partner with the private sector to provide good quality, accessible and affordable telecommunications services. He added that they are especially excited about the prospect of connecting Rwanda with the rest of the East African region and, indeed, with the rest of Africa. As Rwandans begin engaging in business ventures and looking for regional partners, telecommunications companies – like Airtel – that are able to provide access to a pan-African wireless network, become a crucial part of expansion.
Airtel received the license to operate 2G and 3G GSM mobile services last year. Currently, the Airtel provides services across Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Drinkaware to launch mobile friendly version of the site (UK)
In an attempt to increase awareness about the effects of alcohol consumption, UK’s independent charity, Drinkaware, is offering tips and advice to consumers on its website. As per the company, users access their mobile phones even under the influence of alcohol. As a result, the charity is working towards creating a version of the website adaptable to the mobile phone.
The site offers tips to consumers to modify their behavior over long term alcohol consumption. Further, for consumers looking for advice at different stages, the charity site offers certain tips ad facts. According to reports, Chris Sorek, CEO, Drinkaware, said that behaviour change is at the heart of Drinkaware’s approach. He added that they are aware that people accessing the website from mobiles on a night out or lying in bed with a hangover want quick and easy access to the facts and advice about alcohol.
The charity site has been witnessing a rapid rise in the number of people accessing its website in the past year. It offers information on hangovers and alcohol consumption as well as the legal consumption limit for driving.
Leadership change in Vodafone Albania (Europe)
Haris Broumidis, Vodafone Albania’s CEO since November 2007, moves by early April 2012 to Vodafone Group Headquarters in London as Commercial Director for Europe. In this new role, he will be responsible for accelerating the implementation of Vodafone’s commercial priorities in the European markets, including Albania.
Haris Broumidis commenced his co-operation with Vodafone in 2002 and served successively as Marketing Director and Enterprise Business Unit Director at Vodafone Greece, while the last four years under his leadership enabled Vodafone Albania to become the undisputable leader of telecommunications market in the country.
Dietlof Mare has been appointed new CEO for Vodafone Albania. During his career he served for four years as CEO of Vodacom Tanzania and prior to that managed the Vodacom business in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
MWC 2012 sets new record for event attendance (Spain)
The Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain has proven to be extremely successful. According to a report by the GSMA, the event played host to over 67,000 visitors, setting a new record for the number of attendees. The event was covered in four days and integrated the different players in the telecom industry on one platform.
According to reports, John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd., said that the 2012 Mobile World Congress was a phenomenal success, by any measure. The record numbers that attended this year’s event underscore how central mobile is to the lives of people around the world. He added that this is also illustrated by the breadth of companies that participated at Mobile World Congress, with representation from not only the traditional mobile industry players, but companies from vertical sectors such as automotive, health and finance, among others. It’s exciting to see the powerful role mobile has in driving innovation in new markets.
Further, reports reveal that the MWC helped inject over US$ 395 million to the Spanish economy, an increase of US$ 33 million from the past year. Hoffman added that the Mobile World Congress is an important contributor to the Barcelona economy, and as a key pillar of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona, it is a positive factor in driving new opportunities for companies and individuals in the city and region.
EU asks Google to delay consolidation of privacy policy (Europe, USA)
European regulatory group, Article 29 Working Party, has reportedly asked internet search engine Google, to postpone its plan to consolidate its privacy policy in a letter addressed to Larry Page, CEO, Google. According to reports, Google had announced that it plans to consolidate over 60 privacy policies into one universal policy that will govern its entire product range.
Google planned to launch the new policy from 1 March 2012; however, the regulatory group has reportedly asked the internet giant to pause its changed policy in order to ensure that there can be no misunderstanding about Google’s commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens.
In response, Google claimed that they will continue with the scheduled date as they have maintained that there will be no changes in the privacy policy. Further, the firm also said that they had briefed most of the members of the working party in the weeks leading up to the announcement and none of them expressed substantial concerns at the time.
Qtel Group announces new strategy for changing market (Qatar)
Telecommunications service provider Qtel Group has announced a new strategic plan in an attempt to keep up with the changing needs of the telecom industry. According to reports, Dr Nasser Marafih, CEO, Qtel Group said that they have had significant success to date and their aspiration to join the top twenty global operators by the end of the decade remains important for them. However, they recognize that the market is changing quickly and that they need to change with it.
He added that their new vision and Group strategy builds on their previous strategy and refines it by increasing their focus on differentiated customer experience, on transforming the way they manage their operations and embracing emerging and parallel business opportunities. At the same time, they will continue to set themselves challenging financial targets.
AT&T lashes out at FCC over lack of spectrum (USA)
America-based wireless carrier AT&T is still fuming over the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to reject the merger with T-Mobile. Randall Stephenson, CEO, AT&T, has lashed out saying that the FCC has made it abundantly clear that they will not allow significant M&A to help bridge these delays in clearing up new spectrum.
He said that that the primary issue for the company continues to be spectrum, and in the absence of options operators have taken the logical step to make smaller transactions to acquire the spectrum required to meet demand. However, he added, that even the smallest and most routine spectrum deals are receiving intense scrutiny from this FCC, often times taking up to a year and sometimes longer for these to be approved.
Stephenson also said that in such a capacity-constrained environment they will manage usage-based data plans, increased pricing and manage the speeds of the highest volume users, as these are all logical and necessary steps to manage utilization.
He added that the deployment of LTE does give them a 30-40 percent lift in network efficiency, but at current growth rates that equates to only a year’s growth in traffic. Thus, LTE is important but it is not the silver bullet in terms of capacity planning, and so they need to continue with their spectrum push in order to meet customer demand.
Apple passes Exxon as the most valuable firm (USA)
US giant Apple Inc has reportedly emerged as the most valuable US company surpassing Exxon once again. According to reports, the market capitalization of Apple was at $ 418.5 on Wednesday, while Exxon had a mobile capitalization of $ 413 billion. However, Exxon regained its position at the end of the day.
Apple recently reported its first quarter financial results, where in the company posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, against a revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion, for the same quarter in the past year.
As per the company report, Tim Cook, CEO, Apple has said that they are thrilled with their outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs. He added that Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and they have some amazing new products in the pipeline.
Safaricom launches cloud computing services (Kenya)
Mobile network operator Safaricom has launched an indigenous public cloud solution in the region. According to reports, Safaricom invested US$ 24 million for setting up the infrastructure and is expected to invest an additional US$ 18 million over the next two years.
Cloud Computing is online-based computing in which shared resources (such as network printers), software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand. Companies essentially pay for one license for each user and receive a host of applications as opposed to paying for them individually and installing them on their machines.
According to reports, Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom has said that this launch means a great deal for them and shows that the partnerships they have built pack great strategic potential and value for their customers. With this move, they have solidly positioned themselvea as the go-to provider for cost-efficient and secure corporate data solutions of scale and impact in this market.
He added that they believe that the full potential of enterprise data services will not be tapped unless they deploy ‘world class’ solutions to match corporate and public sector requirements. Their partnership with SST, Cisco and EMC² on the SafaricomCLOUD is sharply focused on achieving this end through an unmatched cloud computing offering.
