GITEX 2012 INTERVIEWS ITU TELECOM World 2012 - Teletimes

Qtel Group Chairman challengesTelecom Industry at ITU Telecom WorldCalls for cooperation in delivering broadband and fair International data roaming chargesIn a bold speech at ITU TelecomWorld 2012, H.E. SheikhAbdullah bin Mohammed binSaud Al-Thani, Qtel GroupChairman, challenged thetelecommunications sector’soperators, regulators andpartners to come togetherto solve some of the majorchallenges facing bothcustomers and the industrytoday. In his keynote talk atthe opening ceremony of theevent, which is the leadingplatform for the global ICTcommunity, H.E. SheikhAbdullah identified the needto support new broadbandinfrastructure projects and thenecessity of more transparencyregarding international dataroaming charges as two of themost significant challengesfacing the industry.The price of internationaldata roaming has become ahot-button issue around theworld, with the increasinglyglobal population oftenfacing excessive chargeswhen they use their mobileabroad, inflated by theoperator in the countrythey visit. The InternationalTelecommunication Union(ITU) is pushing for legislationand industry agreement thatwould secure roaming pricetransparency, immediateaccess to price information,greater competition and pricesthat are based on the actualcosts.In his speech to the assembleddignitaries, H.E. Sheikh Abdullahpledged his support forthis international effort: “Thepeople who travel abroad areamong our best customers, andwe need to make sure they canuse their mobiles safely andsecurely. I fully support the ITUH.E. Sheikh Abdullah binMohammed bin Saud Al-ThaniQtel Group ChairmanSecretary General, Dr. HamadounTouré, and his call for fulltransparency and choice. Mymessage is that we are committedto solving this problem.We are ready to work with theITU and national regulators topromote the transparency andchoice that we all deserve.”The global roaming market in isexpected to grow from USD 45billion in 2012 to more than USD60 billion by 2016, thanks to aboom in the number of globalroamers, according to researchby Informa. Regulation andlegislation has helped toprotect customers againstescalating charges and helpedto preserve competition.Qtel Group companies havetaken the lead in providingfair and transparent roamingservices for customers, withthe launch of SmartRoamerservices in 2009 and the morerecent launch of data roamingpackages, which provide dataroaming bundles for customerstravelling abroad.In addition, H.E. Sheikh Abdullahtackled the key issue ofhow regulators and operatorscan create the right regulatoryframework to enable the nextphase of Broadband development.Nawras hosts first Qtel Group Device Forum in OmanNawras, Oman’s customerfriendly communicationsprovider, recently hostedthe first Qtel Group DeviceManagement Forum.Empowering people viaconnected mobile devicesis a goal shared by networkoperators and devicemanufacturers. Among themanufacturers and supplierswho attended the gatheringwere Samsung, Nokia, ResearchIn Motion, Alcatel and Huawei.Delegates from Nawras werejoined in the Sultanate by theirQtel Group counterparts fromQatar, Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria,Palestine and Indonesia.Welcoming the delegates,Martin Lyne, Nawras ChiefMarketing Officer, said, “It ismy great pleasure to welcomeQtel Group delegates andleading mobile device suppliersand manufacturers fromacross the globe to Omanfor this Forum. Hosting thisconference provides us witha great opportunity to shareknowledge and discuss industryJulie Amanntrends to find the best ways tomeet the changing needs of ourcustomers.”He added, “As we makeprogress with Turbocharging ournetwork, customers will soonbe enjoying a faster and richerexperience, and many will beable to choose from the latest4G LTE enabled devices to takefull advantage of the superfastspeeds and greatly improvedquality of service. By maintainingour competitive edge ascommunications continue toevolve, we can give customersmore options by offering thelatest handsets and deviceswith competitive bundles tosuit different usage styles andbudgets.”48 November 2012www.teletimesinternational.com