“Content is the way to compete in today’s market”

Issue 132
December
2016
“Content is the way to compete
in today’s market”
Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari
President & CEO - Es’hailSat
December 2016

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35 08
Huawei Rotating CEO Ken Hu announces
X Labs for mobile broadband research
ITU Telecom World 2016: Highlights importance
of collaboration across ICT ecosystem
Interviews
26 Content is the way to compete in
today’s market
Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari, President & CEO - Es’hailSat
Event Reports
16
Executive event “Beyond the Internet of Things”
44 Dhahi Khalfan Tamim inaugurates Critical
Communications MENA 2016
Telecom, IoT and AI
29 Ooredoo Group implements Ericsson
solution for next generation charging and billing
22
Gulfsat Communications & Palsat renew their TV
broadcast cooperation agreement
30
Veeam succeeds against Symantec’s
infringement challenge
24
Intelsat and Orange partner to expand 3G
connectivity in Cameroon
31 Etisalat Group and Cisco Gear Up
for the IoT era with release of White Paper
34
Huawei showcased its telecom energy solutions
at AfricaCom 2016
36 Osman Sultan joins prominent leaders
to discuss private sector role in
sustainability
38
39
Amir Malik joins Clicksat as the new Managing Director
Yahsat ignites discussions on
collaboration in the space industry
40 ABS partners with PT Sarana Media
Vision to launch DTH FreeViewSat platform
43 Panasonic selects Newtec as technology
partner for its advanced global satellite network

Letter to Readers
Dear Reader
Welcome to the latest edition of Teletimes International.
As we bid farewell to 2016, it is important to say that this year
has been full of challenges and success simultaneously. As the
demand for traditional communication technologies goes down,
it is exciting to see how both telecommunication operators
and satellite internet providers are diversifying, creating new
business models and revenue streams.
Jordan ICT Minister H.E. Mrs. Majd Shweikeh
inaugurates ZTC 2017
19
This issue of Teletimes features an exclusive interview with Dr.
Ali Al Kuwari, CEO of Es’hailsat. Dr. Ali talks about Es’hailsat’s
performance over the past few months, the current market
dynamics and Es’hailsat’s plans for the future, especially with
respect to Es’hail 2.
This edition also features a post-show report on the recently
concluded ITU Telecom World in Bangkok.
As always, you will find the latest updates and insights from all
major players in this edition.
Please enjoy reading and your feedback is welcome on
info@teletimesinternational.com
13
Becoming a managed security service provider:
The critical success factors
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ITU Telecom World 2016
Highlights importance of collaboration
across ICT ecosystem to grow
digital economy
Khalid Athar
Key Telecom World 2016 Statistics
Over 8,800 participants
250 exhibitors, including 107 exhibiting SMEs, 60 partners and sponsors from 37 countries
162 speakers from 55 countries in the Leadership Summit and Forum
338 leaders from 95 countries, split between public and private sectors
7 agreements/contracts signed during the period of ITU Telecom World 2016 between
governments, regulatory bodies and private entities.
235 accredited media attended from 17 countries
ITU Telecom World 2016 wrapped
up proceedings on November 17, at
IMPACT Convention and Exhibition
Center, Bangkok, following an actionpacked
programme of showcasing,
debate, networking and Awards.
The event, which was formally opened
in the presence of H.R.H Princess Maha
Chakri Sirindhorn, Kingdom of Thailand and
General Chan-o-cha Prayut, Prime Minister,
Kingdom of Thailand included big names,
countries and SMEs from around the world
and welcomed over 8,800 participants.
Among the high-level guests in attendance
were: H.R.H. Tapouto’a Ulukalala, the
Crown Prince of Tonga; Xavier Bettel, Prime
Minister of Luxemburg; Charlot Salwai
Tabimasmas, Prime Minister of Vanuatu;
Debretsion Gebremichael Deputy Prime
Minister of Ethiopia; and Mukhisa Kituyi,
Secretary General of UNCTAD.
Some 250 Exhibitors, including 107
exhibiting tech-SMEs and 60 partners
and sponsors took part in the event. Over
330 leaders from 90 countries joined the
8 December 2016

Hamad Al Mansouri
debates, including top-level representatives
from Hungary and the Republic of Korea
– past and future ITU Telecom World host
countries.
“From its high-level Forum debates to the
activities on the show floor, ITU Telecom
World has successfully moved towards
becoming the truly inclusive international
platform connecting tech-SMEs with global
governments and industry leaders,” said
ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao. “The
dialogues, showcases, networking and
other activities I have joined this week have
given all our community and stakeholders
– be they senior government officials,
international organizations, leading
corporate players or SMEs - the chance to
examine issues vital to accelerating ICT
innovation, and explore the many ways in
which ICTs can help meet the SDGs.”
“Thailand is pleased to be the host of the
very successful ITU Telecom World 2016,”
said Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong,
Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Minister
of Digital Economy and Society. “I have
received positive feedback from Thai
participants that the event has been
extremely useful in showcasing Thailand’s
thriving digital economy and society and,
importantly, demonstrating innovations
and entrepreneurship which are key drivers
for national development today. The event
and speakers have provided many lessons
and case studies on how the government’s
forward looking and inclusive digital
economy policies are being turned into
action by the private sector including SMEs
and start-ups.”
The Exhibition featured the types of
technology driving our digital economy,
from 5G and cloud computing to smart
devices, smart city solutions and national
broadband plans, as well as investment and
partnership opportunities from around the
world.
Reflecting the significance of ICT across key
verticals, ITU welcomed new vertical sectors
to the event, such as MasterCard, Honda or
Toyota, joining debates in sessions such as
the Connected Car or Cashless Future.
Leadership Summit & Forum debates
162 speakers from 55 countries took part in
plenaries, panel debates, workshops, highlevel
roundtables and networking sessions
in the Forum and at the Leadership Summit.
Speakers spanned heads of state and
governments from across the globe, leaders
from the ICT industry and key verticals,
SMEs, entrepreneurs and innovators to
international organizations and academia.
They provided truly global perspectives and
viewpoints from developed and developing
countries alike.
Discussions launched with the Leadership
Summit, on 14 November, which brought
highly influential participants together
to share views and explore why working
together is so important for growing the
digital economy. Forum sessions delved
into an exciting set of topics such as AI,
how ICTs can meet the UN’s Sustainable
development goals (SDGs), the connected
car, digital financial inclusion and fiscal
incentives and taxation in the industry.
Other debate highlights included the B2G
and B2B dialogues, which brought together
tech-SMEs and large companies for an open
exchange; the Ministerial Roundtable on the
crucial role of governments in advancing
digital economy; Economic and Industry
Roundtable, bringing together global ICT
consulting firms, R&D entities, regional and
international organizations; and the Asia
Pacific Exchange on Broadband Regulation
and Policy (co-hosted with Huawei).
The event showcased sponsored sessions
on topics spanning 5G, reaching the next
billion, digital financial services, towards a
digital Nigeria and enabling third network
services for the digital economy. Key
players included Huawei, KT, Japan’s
MIAC, GTI, China Mobile and TDIA, Intel,
MasterCard, GSMA/GSA, Nigeria and
MEF. Panel lunches hosted by the Smart
Africa Alliance and CITRA, helped facilitate
networking and discussion, along with
high profile networking occasions, such as
the Leaders Lunch, sponsored by Huawei,
or Korea night sponsored by ITU Telecom
World 2017 host, Republic of Korea’s MSIP.
Networking breaks sponsored by Rohde &
Schwarz and URCA of the Bahamas helped
ensure conversation continued between
December 2016
9

Forum sessions.
Global Platform
As the international platform connecting
ICT SMEs with corporations and
governments, it was no surprise that highlevel
participants used the opportunities
and influential audience that the event
offered to conclude many important
agreements between business and business
(B2B), business and governments (B2G) and
business and governments to UN, as well as
launching new reports.
ITU Telecom World Award
The Event Closing and ITU Telecom World
Awards Ceremony brought ITU Telecom
World 2016 to a close on the final day of
the event and also saw the much-awaited
announcement of the winners of the ITU
Telecom World Awards. During the
week of the event, finalists pitched
their ideas and innovations to judges
and a global audience. In keeping with
ITU Telecom World’s focus on SMEs
and their role within the broader ICT
ecosystem, these Awards recognized
excellence and innovation in ICT solutions
with social impact from SMEs and
corporations alike. The winning entries
included:
• Global SME Award: BRK, Kenya
• Host Country SME Award: ServisHero,
Kingdom of Thailand
• Thematic Award (eGovernment): Nile
Center for Technology Research (NCTR)
10 December 2016

• Thematic Award (eHealth): Neofect,
Republic of Korea
• Thematic Award (eEducation): Academic
Bridge, Rwanda
• Thematic Award (Disaster Prevention/
Recovery Communications): MasterCard,
United States
ITU co-hosted events
The event also welcomed perspectives
from across ITU and its membership and
partners, who used the international
platform which the event provides in order
to hold a series of important co-hosted
events. A series of closed meetings took
place a day before the official opening.
These were the advisory boards meetings
of the Smart Sustainable Development
Model Initiative (SSDM) and m-Powering
Development Initiative, 7th Private Sector
Chief Regulatory Officers (CRO) meeting,
8th Chief Technology Officers (CTO)
Meeting.
For the first time this year, the event
proposed an extensive program engaging
with academia in the global debate.
Activities included the ITU Secretary
General Academia Consultation, 2nd
Brainstorming Meeting of Impact Study
on ICT4SDGs, ITU Kaleidoscope Academic
Conference 2016, World Standards
Cooperation Academic Roundtable,
organized in cooperation with International
Organization for Standardization (ISO)
and the International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC).
Important side-events working on technical
standards included the 4th APT and
ITU Conformance and Interoperability
(C&I) event - IPTV Testing, Third ITU
Test Event on Compatibility of Mobile
Phones and Vehicle Hands-Free Terminals,
and showcasing of the implementation
of recommendation ITU-T X.1255
promoting interoperability of
heterogeneous systems via digital labelling.
A strong gender equality agenda focused
events, such as EQUALS: the Inaugural
Meeting of the Global Partnership for
Gender Equality in the Digital Age,
Mentorship Sessions: Promoting Women’s
Digital Entrepreneurship, and the Gender
Equality and Mainstreaming in Technology
(GEM-TECH) Awards, a joint ITU/UN
Women prize recognizing outstanding
efforts in using the power of information
and communication technology (ICT) to
empower women and girls was conferred
during a prestigious ceremony at Telecom
World.
Event Baton passes to Republic of Korea
For 2017, ITU Telecom World will head
to Busan, Republic of Korea, focussing
on the creative digital economy and
fostering SME growth. Telecom World 2017
will take place from 25-28 September.
ITU warmly invites Member States,
regulators, and heads of international
organizations, global media, digital
experts and visionaries, leading ICT
corporations and cutting-edge tech-SMEs
from the region and across the globe
to save the date and prepare to join us
at the event.
12 December 2016

ARTICLE
Becoming a
managed security
service provider:
The critical
success factors
Tarek Jundi, Managing Director, ME &
North Africa, Intel Security
Over the last couple of years,
between the spate of high
profile cyber-attacks, the
resulting focus on security and
the uptake of cloud and IoT,
today, enterprises in the Middle East have
realized that the only way to truly safeguard
against cyber threats is to deploy cloudfirst,
integrated security solutions that
address the entire threat defense lifecycle.
While this makes perfect sense in principle,
the reality is that few organizations, if any,
have the resources and the technical knowhow
to deploy and manage a robust security
solution across the enterprise network. To
address this security gap, more and more
organizations are turning to Managed
Security Service Providers (MSSPs). In fact,
according a 2015 Infonetics research report
titled ‘Cloud and CPE Managed Security
Services’, the demand for managed security
services is growing at double digit figures
and is expected to reach close to $20 billion
Over the last couple of years, between the
spate of high profile cyber-attacks, the resulting
focus on security and the uptake of cloud and
IoT, today, enterprises in the Middle East have
realized that the only way to truly safeguard
against cyber threats is to deploy cloud-first,
integrated security solutions that address the
entire threat defense lifecycle.
globally by 2019. Global IT research firm
Gartner, defines managed security services
as remote monitoring or management of
IT security functions delivered via shared
services from remote security operations
centers and not through personnel on-site.
For inclusion within Gartner’s MSSP criteria,
players must be able to remotely monitor
and manage through shared service
delivery, firewalls, intrusion detection
prevention devices from multiple vendors
and have security operations centres
in multiple locations, amongst other
requirements.
Service providers like telecommunication
December 2016
13

and internet service providers use such a
broad-based portfolio approach and as
such possess all the requirements to deliver
robust managed security services. So what
are some of the key success factors that
service providers should consider when
embarking on this MSSP journey?
Bridging the Talent Gap
Talent shortage in the Middle East and
globally for that matter, particularly in the
security space, is a topic of much discussion.
In fact, by 2017, reports suggest that there
will be a shortage of 2 million cybersecurity
professionals skilled in analytics and
forensics. The limited resource availability
directly translates to weak security
protection levels within an organization
and the net result is longer lead times
for protection, detection and correction.
While this is one of the main drivers for
organizations choosing to partner with
MSSPs, the onus now falls on the service
provider to bridge this talent gap.
Talent shortage in
the Middle East and
globally in the security
space, is a topic of
much discussion. In
fact, by 2017, reports
suggest that there
will be a shortage of 2
million cybersecurity
professionals skilled in
analytics and forensics.
Competing against security vendors for
talent could be an effort in futility so service
providers that are serious about building
an MSSP practice should have a clear
strategy for hiring, training and retaining
security personnel with a focus on nurturing
in-house talent. Not only should personnel
be technically savvy and have a thorough of
the various security products and solutions,
but as importantly, they need to have a
deep understanding of the threat landscape
in the region and possible attack vectors to
allow them to spot potential threats to an
organization.
Partner with Best-in-Class
Over the last couple of years, we have seen
the emergence of a staggering number of
security vendors on the market, almost
all claiming to be ‘best-in-class’! The good
news for MSSPs is that they are spoiled
for choice but the bad news is that many
of these solutions overlap and providers
often trade off product features for ease of
integration and collaboration between the
various products and solutions.
Rather than opting to integrate disparate
point solutions, service providers looking
to build an MSSP practice would be well
served to partner with a couple of key
security vendors from the outset to develop
a security service platform from the ground
up that address the needs of the market and
customers they are looking to serve.
Address the Hybrid Cloud
At present security service providers and
end customers take joint responsibility
of the business security integrity. Due to
growing complexity of security solutions
and the increasing need to focus on core
competence, managed security service
providers are under pressure to take full
management control of the business
security environment. This is compounded
with the growing adoption of cloud in the
region.
With the increasing adoption of hybrid
cloud in the Middle East (primarily
because of security and privacy concerns)
and increasing spending on public cloud
solutions, MSSPs will soon need to take
charge of monitoring end user cloud
application activity along with hybrid
solutions and to that end, should integrate
security in to all their applications and
product offerings.
Become a Trusted Advisor
Too often, vendors and partners alike,
use the term ‘trusted advisor’ when
characterizing their partnership with endcustomers.
But what does being a trusted
advisor really mean? It means, building a
level of accountability and transparency
with the customer that goes far beyond just
providing tactical security services. MSSPs
should be in constant communication with
their customers, regularly sharing analytics,
threat intelligence and incidence reports.
By educating the customer on their security
posture, MSSPs allow the customer to take
more informed, ‘evidence-based’ decisions
and in doing so, gain the customer’s trust.
Across the nineties, the early generation of
internet service providers would bundle a
firewall at the customer site with a public
network connection and would manage it
is as well. This was the start of managed
security services from service providers,
almost ten years ago. Since then the
challenges of managing IT security for
both service providers and businesses have
transformed and scaled tremendously.
This has created the opportunity for
service providers to increasingly manage
the routine IT security operations for
end users. And for end users, the core
competency and scale of the technology
platforms managed by service providers,
has given them confidence to contract
out the administration of their IT security
operations, a win-win for all!
14 December 2016

EVENT
Executive event “Beyond the Internet of Things”
From Technology to Services and the Internet of Everything
Marting Born, Ansgar, Schlautmann
Arthur D. Little hosted its annual executive
conference in Munich and welcomed more
than 50 senior executives from different
industries in Europe, the Middle East,
Asia Pacific, and the US. This year’s major
theme was “Beyond the Internet of Things
– from Technology to Services.” Insightful
presentations and lively discussions allowed
all participants to gain valuable perspectives
on and ideas about how the IoT and
digitalization are impacting business models
and operations of different industries,
and how successful players master these
challenges. The event concluded at the
Munich Oktoberfest, where many guests
networked in a relaxing atmosphere.
Beyond the Internet of Things – from
technology to services
The increasing digitalization challenges
players across the industries to transform
and embrace the emerging opportunities.
Until today companies have often seen
digitalization and the Internet of Things
(IoT) mainly from a technology perspective.
Digitalization, however, has a broader
scope than devices becoming IT or internet
enabled and “smart”. Therefore, companies
need to abandon the narrow view and
understand that digitalization drives
not only technological change, but also
the transition of offerings from physical
products to services, and even disrupts
entire business models. The Internet of
Things will even develop further into an
Internet of Everything, comprising also the
digital twins of services and human beings.
These changes urge companies to develop
new capabilities and understand and
adjust to the different characteristics
of new service offerings, in order to
effectively provide integrated value
propositions to their customers. Most
importantly, the digital opportunity needs
to be viewed holistically, in contextual
environments, in which the new solutions
will be introduced.
However, this massive change, in most
cases, cannot be handled by one industry
alone. Hence, the IoT can only be mastered
jointly and not by competition across the
industries. Partnering will therefore gain
importance in every industry and market.
In summary, the IoT is the core driver of
business model change and efficiency
improvements. However, no industry or
player has a dominant position in this space
yet and mass market application of the IoT
can only be mastered effectively through
partnerships. This understanding was
shared across the presentations of André
Stark (BMW), Sven Heistermann (Google)
and Yüksel Sirmasac (RocketHome).
Another important aspect discussed by
the participants was machine learning, i.e.
the ability of machines to learn constantly
by connecting to the outside ecosystem in
order to improve services and create value
for the customer. “You have to put the
customer into the center of your activities”,
Sven Heistermann said. Henriette
Wendt of Telia Company agreed: “We are
reaching the point of machines having the
intelligence of human beings.” And “We are
now at the tipping point of IoT becoming
real in people’s and organizations’ lives”,
Wendt stated. In the discussions during the
event, it also became apparent that data
security, privacy and ownership of data are
critical and important aspects of successful
IoT deployments. Despite this topic being of
highest importance to participants, it also
became clear that no permanent solution
to this issue has been found. Hence, this
topic still imposes huge insecurity to most
players.
Converging business models driven by the
Internet of Things
Manufacturers such as BMW see
16 December 2016

AN EVENT OF
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transforming entire industries, bringing new levels
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Over three decades, mobile has evolved from an
emerging communications technology to a
phenomenon that is now at the foundation of
everything we do. How can we describe the role
of mobile in today’s world?
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digitalization also as an enabler to
transform their core businesses. “In
the future, the mobility experience in
vehicles will be totally different to what
we experience today,” stated André Stark,
Head of Digital Services at BMW. Due to
the continuing trend towards autonomous
driving, vehicles will become more like living
rooms, and hence need to be able to offer
similar experiences to customers. Engaging
in service dialogue with the customer,
however, is a new dimension for OEMs.
Furthermore, to provide these advanced
services, vehicles require secure back-end
systems as well as broadly available and
effectively stable connectivity. Christof
Hellmis, VP Strategic Programs at the
digital-map service provider Here, picked up
and confirmed this aspect.
Yüksel Sirmasac, CEO of RocketHome,
believes truly smart solutions need to
connect the whole ecosystem that is
emerging within the smart home market.
He highlighted to the audience that today’s
digital solutions in the smart home space
are mainly independent and isolated –
hence, they are less accepted by customers
due to the low additional value add. By
offering integrated portfolios, smart home
providers such as telecoms and utilities
could transform their businesses, bind their
customers more effectively and reduce
churn significantly.
IoT as an enabler of smart manufacturing
Alastair Orchard, VP Digital Enterprise
Project at Siemens, outlined the importance
of grasping the digital opportunity for the
product development process. “The digital
revolution enables companies to transform
the internal value chain into a competitive
advantage”, Orchard believes. Siemens
is already today running its product
development and manufacturing processes
as a “virtual copy” of manufacturing sites
comprising production facilities, people and
products. This advanced technology enables
Siemens to produce highly customized
products for its clients – right the first time.
The example of Siemens demonstrated to
the participants, how far digitalization has
driven the developments in manufacturing.
Even if, as Alastair Orchard pointed out, not
all of Siemens’ facilities are yet working with
these highly sophisticated technologies
they are making pace on this path.
Partnering is becoming a key
differentiator
Panelists from Vodafone, BMW, insurance
service provider Audatex, and Google
reiterated that in particular the need for
partnering within and across ecosystems
will be required for succeeding in the
digital age. “Every company has to focus
on its key capabilities – if we combine
these capabilities, we will be able to build
differentiating solutions,” said Erik Brenneis
from Vodafone. Hubertus von Roenne of
BT agreed: “Players will be strongest when
they identify their individual strengths
and focus on those, while partnering with
others to acquire the capabilities the player
does not have itself.” However, internal
organizational structures often do not
match innovative ecosystems.
Beyond the Internet of Things – driving
the future of operations
As “Industry 4.0” shapes the future of
operations, Bernd Schreiber of Arthur D.
Little highlighted that the integration of
the value chain is key to driving radical
performance improvements in enterprises.
In order for companies to effectively
leverage digitalization for their businesses,
they need to understand the available and
emerging technologies, develop target
pictures, and improve transparency on cost
structures, which is essential for setting the
right priorities.
LPWAN for new IoT solutions: enabling
low-cost use cases
Emerging technologies such as “lowpower
wide area wireless access” (LPWA)
represent new and efficient ways to realize
small band and very remote use cases.
“Solutions can go as low as five Euro total
cost of ownership,” said Pierrick Hamon
from Qowisio. By introducing such types of
low cost solutions, the market could move
to “disposable” IoT solutions (“Long-range
RFID”), enabling use cases such as palette
tracking and tracing in the logistics industry,
sensor networks in remote locations, and
smart city networks and numerous others in
the utilities and telecoms industries.
Big data as a value driver
Many IoT applications will depend on large
amounts of data and analytical input from
numerous sources (e.g. weather, emissions,
traffic-light data) with the aim of providing
the most precise information at any
location – e.g. delivering accuracy of less
than one centimeter for mobility services.
“The real value adds, however, is the ability
to “make sense” out of big data and put it
into a meaningful form and result – from
business of data to business of knowledge,”
Christof Hellmis from Here claimed. Claudiu
Pasa from Amazon as well as Tariq Hussain
from Zumtobel Group explained that IoT
use cases can however become difficult to
implement due to the “massive scale” of
solutions, physical constraints of devices
and the need for devices to work seamlessly
on a global scale. Henriette Wendt from
Telia Company added that operators
will have to work on global connectivity
solutions aiming to make it easier for
businesses to offer their services worldwide.
Oktoberfest
Traditionally and also this year, the event
was closed by a visit of the Bavarian
Oktoberfest to which Arthur D. Little
invited. A number of participants joined the
gathering and used the casual atmosphere
to network and exchange ideas across
industries.
18 December 2016

EVENT
Jordan ICT Minister
H.E. Mrs. Majd
Shweikeh inaugurates
Zain Technology
Conference, attended
by 700 professionals
Teletimes Report
Zain Group had a successful
commencement of its sixth
annual Zain Technology
Conference (ZTC) Held under the
patronage of His Excellency the
Prime Minister of Jordan, Dr. Hani al-Mulki,
the conference was inaugurated by Her
Excellency the Minister of Information and
Communication Technology, and Minister
of Public Sector Development, Mrs. Majd
Shweikeh who made an inspiring keynote
address.
The theme of ZTC 2016 ‘Moving Forward’,
will focus on Zain’s strategy execution as it
continues to transform into a digital lifestyle
provider of the highest caliber, investing
extensively in network and technology
upgrades to ensure its individual and
enterprise customers receive the best and
simplest digital mobile experience.
The event saw the attendance of over
700 telecom professionals made up of
Zain technology, innovation and product
development personnel from across its eight
operations as well as representatives from
60 of the world’s leading technology solution
providers. Also in attendance was the
President of the Jordan Telecommunications
Regulatory Commission, Dr. Ghazi Jbour;
Zain Group CEO, Scott Gegenheimer; Zain
Jordan CEO, Ahmad Al Hanandeh; and Zain
Group CTO, Hisham Allam.
In her opening keynote address, Her
Excellency Mrs. Majd Shweikeh said, “The
holding of this important conference in
Jordan by Zain Group, a regional telecom
pioneer, reflects the Kingdom’s success
in the global digital arena and its everincreasing
attraction as a regional hub for
digital innovation. Jordan recognizes the
importance of the ICT sector as a key driver
of economic activity, and this conference’s
ability to showcase the latest digital
innovations will support our strategy and
transition to become a knowledge-based,
digital economy.”
Her Excellency continued, “Over the last
decade, Zain has played an instrumental role
in bringing the latest technologies to Jordan
and across the region, and we recognize the
importance of both the public and private
sector working closely together to fully
exploit the potential of digitization for the
benefit of society at large.”
The opening session also saw keynote
presentations made by Zain’s primary
technology partners, Ericsson, Huawei,
and Nokia, each of which showcased their
strategic technology offerings in support of
Zain’s digital transformation aspirations. In
addition, renowned consulting firms
December 2016
19

Detecon and Strategy& made presentations
focusing on the experiences of global
operators in their digital transformation
journey. The keynote address presented by
Fadi Ghandour, the Co-Founder of courier
company Aramex and Executive Chairman
of WAMDA Capital was well received and
set the tone for the rest of the conference.
Highlighting the significance of the
event being held in Jordan and the
importance of innovation to the company’s
overall strategy, Zain Group CEO, Scott
Gegenheimer said, “Jordan is an appropriate
backdrop in which to host ZTC 2016, given
the emphasis on innovation that is driven
from the Zain operation in the country,
notably the Zain Innovation Campus (ZINC),
and from which digital ideas are being
injected into the Group in order to deliver
unique digital mobile experiences for our
customers.”
The CEO continued, “I would like to extend
a special thank you to the Prime Minister’s
Office, as well as the Office of Information
and Communication Technology, and
of Public Sector Development for their
unwavering support of our efforts and the
creation of an enabling environment in
which we are able to continue deploying
cutting edge technology.”
Gegenheimer concluded, “We operate
in a highly competitive industry, where the
margin between success and failure is very
thin. We are required to push ourselves
constantly, and together with trusted
partners we devise new operating models to
deliver the best quality service
to customers. This is why events such as
ZTC are so important in aligning Zain’s ambitions
to become a digital lifestyle provider
of choice with our technology partners’
technology roadmaps and expectations.”
Zain is utilizing the latest technologies in
the development of tailored solutions in
areas such as Machine to Machine (M2M)
communications, Enterprise (B2B) offerings,
and Smart City connectivity,
in attracting and offering its customers
unique and business enhancing mobile
solutions.
Peter Kaliaropoulos appointed as CEO of Zain KSA
Zain Saudi Arabia announces the
appointment of telecom stalwart Peter
Kaliaropoulos as CEO of Zain Saudi Arabia
(Zain KSA), effective January 1, 2017. Peter
joins the company to continue the healthy
foundation of transformation and growth
achieved over the past three years by
Hassan Kabbani, who has decided to step
down from his post for personal reasons,
effective 31st December 2016.
Mr. Kaliaropoulos joins Zain Saudi Arabia
as a highly-accomplished telecom
professional having enjoyed over 30 years
of experience in the international ICT sector,
and playing a key role in the transformation
and growth of a number of companies
operating across the Asia-Pacific and Middle
East regions.
In his most recent role, Mr. Kaliaropoulos
was the GM of ‘touch’ Lebanon until June
2016, the country’s leading operator that
Zain manages on behalf of the Lebanon
Telecom Ministry and then took on the role
as an advisor to the ‘touch’ Chairman and
Vice Chairman of Zain Group, Mr Bader Al
Kharafi.
In his varied roles over the years, Mr.
Kaliaropoulos has been responsible for
driving customer-centric operating
cultures, optimization of productivity
levels and implementing growth
strategies. He has also served as a Director
on the Board of various technology
and telecommunication companies in
Singapore, India, USA, Australia, New
Zealand and the Middle East.
20 December 2016

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NEWS
Gulfsat
and Palsat renew
their TV broadcast
cooperation agreement
Gulfsat has announced the
renewal of the cooperation
agreement for a twoyear
term with Palsat, a
subsidiary of the Palestinian
TV & Radio Broadcasting
Corporation in charge of the Palestinian TV
cable channels.
This step comes within the framework of
renewing trust and partnership between
the two sides, which began two years ago.
Its also reaffirms the essential role played
by Gulfsat as the third-largest satellite
operator and the leading specialized
provider of broadcasting and rebroadcasting
services in the region.
The agreement was signed by Public
Authority for Radio and Television General
Supervisor and Palsat’s Acting Board
Chairman, Mr. Ahmed Assaf, and Gulfsat
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr.
Mohammed Al-Haj. The ceremony was
attended by top executives from both sides.
After signing the agreement, Mr. Ahmed
Assaf said: “We are delighted to announce
this renewed cooperation, which began
two years ago Palsat, owned by the General
Authority for Radio & TV, and Gulfsat.”
Assaf pointed out that the agreement and
cooperation renewal between the two sides
serves as a confirmation of the Palestinian
National Authority institutions’ confidence
in Gulfsat and the quality of its services.
This has enabled Palsat to annex most of
the Palestinian satellite channels, provide
TV cable services to 11 Palestinian channels,
in addition to a group of radio stations via
a uniform frequency for the Palestinian
bouquet (Palsat).
Mr. Assaf added that the renewed
agreement, designed to enhance
cooperation, represents a future outlook
and convenient opportunity to examine
the latest services offered by Gulfsat. This
includes the secured communications
services that featured an unprecedented
interest in the past few years, and can be
used between the Palestinian Authority’s
institutions and embassies of the Palestine
State abroad. Mr. Assaf praised the
advanced infrastructure owned by Gulfsat,
and the wide broadcasting package services
and communications offered across the
region and worldwide, which will open great
prospects of cooperation between the two
sides in the future.
On his part, Gulfsat Chairman and
CEO, Mr. Mohammed Al-Haj said: “The
agreement referred to, which came into
effect two years ago in favor of Palsat,
aimed to provide a specialized bouquet
22 December 2016

in all Palestinian TV channels, both of the
government and the private sectors.”
Mr. Al-Haj outlined some technical
and functional advantages related
to this package provided by Gulfsat,
including free jamming, as well as media
content transmission over fiber-optics
from Ramallah to the assembly plant
(Aggregation Point) of Gulfsat, based in
London, then to Rambouillet station in Paris
in order to rebroadcast to the Middle East
and North Africa, over an orbit course of 7
and 8 degrees neighboring to the Nilesat.
Mr. Al-Haj added that the agreement
renewal is of great importance, reaffirming
the strategic partnership that links Gulfsat
to the Palestinian National Authority and its
affiliates in both public and private sectors.
It opens a wider range of possibilities in
providing other parallel services added to
the satellite broadcast and media, including
secured communications services, while
supporting the company’s operational
activities and enhancing future revenues at
the same time.
The signing of the agreement represented
an opportunity for Gulfsat to shed light on
its strategy, aimed at providing the latest
technology and services, which enjoy a
high level of safety. In this context, Gulfsat
Chairman Mr. Mohammed Al-Haj pointed
out that the secured communications
maintain great importance and interest
to the company. He noted that Gulfsat
had already launched services in this field
four years ago, aiming to provide the
highest levels of protection both for the
provider and the viewer in facing deliberate
obfuscation, explaining that such services
have opened the door to several TV
organizations to cooperate with Gulfsat
and take advantage of packages with safe
capacities.
Mr. Al-Haj added that the company is
keen to keep up with the field’s latest
communications and satellite broadcasting
services, in line with qualitative
developments promoted in this area.
This has recently been translated through
launching a Cloud Content Delivery Service
for TV broadcast (CloudBro) based on
providing TV broadcasting channel services
relying on Gulfsat’s advanced infrastructure,
and provided by the Cloud Content Delivery
Service.
With regard to the geographic trends
that the management focuses on, Mr.
Al-Haj explained that Gulfsat is currently
concentrating on promoting services
in North Africa and African countries in
general, given the fact that these markets
offer great opportunities of growth with
regard to TV broadcasting services. He
stressed the importance of the central role
played by the company, through its five
broadcast stations where the main station
is located in Umm Al-Haiman (Kuwait), and
the others in Cyprus, Slovenia and New
York, in addition to their centre stations in
London, not to mention cooperation with
more than 37 countries around the world
and being the third largest satellite operator
in the region.
In addition to Mr. Ahmed Assaf, the meeting
was attended on the Palestinian side, by
Ambassador Rami Tahboub, Palsat Vice-
Chairman Mr. Mazen Hamarsheh, Palsat
Board Member Mr. Mahmoud Salama,
Mr. Ahmed Al-Sabah, Mr. Khaled Sukar
and Mr. Ahmed Barahmeh. Representing
Gulfsat was the Chairman and CEO Mr.
Mohammed Al-Haj, Commercial and Sales
Director Dr. Reyad Doughlas, Mr. Alaa
Al-Banna, Mr. Rabih Salim, Mr. Sabah Al-
Sultan and Mr. Antoine Bechara. At the end
of the ceremony, the two sides exchanged
commemorative plaques to mark the
occasion.
December 2016
23

TELETIMES MEDIA LLC.
teletimes
INTERNATIONAL

NEWS
Intelsat and Orange partner to expand 3G
connectivity in Cameroon
Intelsat has announced that the Orange
Group has renewed an agreement for
satellite solutions and support that will
bring 3G services to existing customers of
Orange Cameroon as well as expand the
network’s reach to remote regions of the
country.
Orange currently provides 2G services using
satellite infrastructure provided by Intelsat.
Under the new agreement, the Orange
network will expand its geographic footprint
and add a 3G offering by leveraging C-band
solutions from the Intelsat 22 satellite at
72.1° East. The Intelsat solution optimizes
the network to deliver the additional
coverage and throughput that Orange
needs to expand its reach in remote areas
of Cameroon, deliver 3G services and
provide more differentiated offerings to its
subscribers.
Orange will expand its service territory
to currently underserved remote regions
of the country and deliver data services
for businesses in the region, stimulating
economic growth in the country.
“Intelsat has been instrumental in our
efforts to expand 2G and 3G connectivity
throughout Cameroon,” said Bénédicte
David, West and Central Africa Regional
Director for Orange. “As demand for
connectivity grows beyond city centers,
communities need faster, more reliable
broadband connectivity to support business
growth as well as critical healthcare and
educational services. With our enhanced
infrastructure, we will be able to offer
upgraded, differentiated services to our
customers, expand our subscriber base and
extend our geographic reach to the benefit
of those located in less densely populated
areas of the country.”
“As part of our ongoing relationship with
Orange, we understood that deploying
3G services was a critical component
of its business plan,” said Brian Jakins,
Intelsat’s Vice President, Africa. “We
assessed their network and developed
an extension strategy that addressed
their performance and business model
requirements, providing the additional
coverage and throughput they needed to
Brian Jakins
meet their customers’ demands. Using
our expertise, Intelsat’s goal is to ensure
that our customers are always getting the
maximum performance from their network
and delivering an exceptional experience to
their end users.”
Telecom Egypt enhances VSAT connectivity for
critical government applications in Country with Intelsat
Intelsat has announced that Telecom
Egypt reaffirmed its commitment to
Intelsat satellite solutions to support
communications services in the country.
Under a multi-year agreement, Telecom
Egypt, the country’s incumbent
telecommunications operator and the
largest communication network in Egypt,
will use connectivity provided by Intelsat
10-02, located at 1° West, to provide
VSAT services for a network that connects
multiple sites across Egypt.
“The extension of this agreement from
Telecom Egypt is a strong endorsement of
the value of Intelsat’s satellite services
and our commitment to deliver the
best services possible to our customers
and their end users,” said Shahrokh
Khanzadeh-Amiri, Intelsat’s Director
of Sales, Middle East and North Africa.
“Satellite remains the best way to provide
connectivity for critical communications
networks in the region, and we continue to
innovate and drive the level of services we
deliver even higher.
This will ensure that enterprises of all types
have access to secure, reliable networks to
connect operations and sites spread far and
wide.”
24 December 2016

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INTERVIEW
Content is the way
to compete in
today’s market
Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari, President & CEO - Es’hailSat
Speaks to Teletimes International in an exclusive
interview on Es’hailSat’s corporate strategy and
market dynamics in the Middle East.
Khalid Athar
Khalid Athar: Please give us a little
background of Es’hailSat and your vision
for the company moving forward.
Ali Al Kuwari: Es’hailSat was established
with the objective of providing satellite
services to strategic stakeholders and
commercial customers. At that time when
the Qatar government decided to enter the
space sector, we partnered with Eutelsat
in late 2009 to build the satellite and the
company was incorporated in 2010.
We launched our first satellite in 2013 in
August and we hope to launch our next
satellite in 2017. It is difficult to talk about
the exact time of the launch right now – we
are planning to use Falcon 9 and the launch
still has some final planning to be done.
As the CEO of this company, my aim is to
improve its financial stability and make it
a global player as compared to its previous
MENA positioning. In that direction, we
have already had some positive discussions
with potential partners and customers in
East Asia and Africa to extend our global
growth.
As I said, I would like to see Es’hailSat as a
global player. I would like to see Es’hailSat
in a healthy financial situation in terms of
EBITDA. Today, we are financially stable and
healthy but I want to improve this situation
and take us to the best of industry averages.
KA: What are the latest broadcasting
trends you are seeing today?
AA: Most of the broadcasters today
are trying to move towards HD and 4K
and these two remain the top trending
technologies for the broadcast industry. As
a satellite capacity and solutions provider,
our role is to allocate the required capacity
to our customers, and as they make this
transition towards HD and 4K, the amount
and quality of satellite service required
is increasing. In respect of these trends,
we are much focused to ensure that our
customers’ transition from standard
definition towards HD or 4K is seamless and
well supported at the back-end.
KA: Which areas will provide the highest
growth for the broadcast market in your
opinion?
AA: When we look at things from
Es’hailSat’s perspective, about 80% to 85%
of the 2000+ channels in MENA are actually
SD (Standard Definition) and there is a high
probability that these channels will move to
HD as per the industry trend. This will drive
consumption and growth in the market.
We are also seeing some growth in other
verticals such as Aviation. The quality of
service really matters for this vertical,
and talking about the MENA region,
leading airlines like Qatar Airways, Etihad
are competing with each other for the
26 December 2016

The dynamics of
competition in the
Middle East are
complicated and in
some situations, we
are not competing”
“I believe that it
is not the satellite
operator who decides
competition but the
content itself which
drives this industry
– we plan to follow
the good content and
content trends as our
way to compete”
best services in-flight which include
mobility and connectivity – hence, we
are also expecting to see growth in this
vertical.
KA: Would you like to comment on the
current situation of the Pay TV market?
AA: I believe that MENA is becoming quite
saturated as a broadcast market, however I
see room for growth in Pay TV. Then again,
MENA is still not mature enough in terms
of Pay TV services. The channels on Pay TV
have doubled over the last year and there
is still some more opportunity. Channel
conversions to Pay TV platforms will
increase, especially in the MENA which will
have its effect on capacity consumption and
we are already taking that into account for
our own forecasting.
KA: Many of our readers would like some
insights by an industry leader like yourself
on the competition between satellite
operators in the Middle East.
AA: The Middle East now has 4 major
players. There is Nilesat, Arabsat, Es’hailSat
and Yahsat. However, the dynamics
of competition in the Middle East are
complicated and in some situations, we
are not competing. For example, we are
sharing the 25.5° / 26° E Orbital slot with
Arabsat – we are not competing but in fact
complementing each other.
There is competition from other orbital
slots like 7° West where Nilesat and Eutelsat
exist, but then again I believe that it is
not the satellite operator who decides
competition but the content itself which
drives this industry – we plan to follow the
good content and content trends as our way
to compete. We are trying to bring premium
content to our orbital slot because this
premium content will push viewers to shift
to 25.5° / 26° E – so the competition is
really taking place between the orbital
slots and not between the operators.
Our way to go is not to compete with any
specific operator but to get the most traffic
towards our orbital slots – and any operator
who shares that attracts traffic as well, so
it’s more like complementing rather than
competing with anybody who is sharing the
slot.
KA: Would you like to comment on
Teletimes International?
AA: Teletimes is a very informative
publication that is highlighting the latest,
most important information. Reading
the last issue of Teletimes, I could see
that this publication is covering a vast
area of the industry and continues to
provide great insights. I hope Teletimes
will continue with the same effort in
covering the current trends – as a part
of the industry, we wish Teletimes
all the best.
December 2016
27

NEWS
Ooredoo marks tens years of Qatar Data Centre Innovation
Senior executives, major customers, VIPs
from across Qatar and leading technology
experts have attended a major ceremony at
Ooredoo’s Qatar Data Centre to mark ten
years of operations.
Officially launched in 2006, the Qatar
Data Centre was the first facility in
Qatar to offer businesses a full suite of
enterprise services, evolving into one of
the most important technology assets in
Qatar’s drive to become a truly “smart”
nation.
The first facility was approximately
2,000 sq. feet and provided colocation
and basic reporting services. Over the
past decade, Ooredoo’s Data Centre
offering has grown so that it now manages
and operates five data centres with a
capacity of more than 55,000 sq. feet,
with potential future expansion capacity
of up to 100,000 sq. feet.
Present at the ceremony were H.E. Sheikh
Abdulla Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani,
Chairman of Ooredoo and H.E. Jassim
Bin Saif Al Sulaiti, Minister of Transport
and Communication, State of Qatar. They
officially cut the ribbon to inaugurate the
new server floor at Ooredoo’s QDC5.
H.E. Jassim Bin Saif Al Sulaiti stressed that
Qatar Data Centre, operated by Ooredoo,
contributes to the growth of businesses in
Qatar by expanding the scope of solutions
and technologies that are available to them.
He indicated that Ooredoo has become one
of the leading companies in this area in the
region.
He said: “The Ministry of Transport and
Communications is focusing its attention on
positioning Qatar as a leading nation for the
digital economy, and has made significant
strides towards achieving that leadership
role.”
He stressed the need to intensify efforts to
ensure network safety and security across
Qatar. He also emphasised that the Ministry
is working on enhancing market conditions
and making existing and upcoming
knowledge-sharing easier, and underlined
the Ministry’s support for all projects
that will help drive Qatar’s move towards
deploying smart solutions.
H.E. Sheikh Abdulla Bin Mohammed Bin
Saud Al Thani, Chairman, Ooredoo, said:
“Today is a proud day for Ooredoo and for
Qatar. The Qatar Data Centre has evolved
into the most advanced and sophisticated
facility in the region and continues
to enable businesses to achieve greater
efficiencies and deliver significant success.
We will continue to invest in new services
and solutions for our customers and look
forward to further innovation in the future.”
The ceremony was also attended by
a number of senior Ooredoo executives,
including Sheikh Saud Bin Nasser Al
Thani, Group CEO, Ooredoo; Waleed
Mohamed Ebrahim Al Sayed, Chief
Executive Officer, Ooredoo Qatar; Yousuf
Abdulla Al Kubaisi, Chief Operating Officer,
Ooredoo Qatar; and Sheikh Nasser
bin Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani, Chief
New Line of Business Officer, Ooredoo
Qatar, among others.
28 December 2016

NEWS
Ooredoo Group implements Ericsson solution
for next generation charging and billing
Ooredoo Group and Ericsson have agreed
a five-year contract to implement an
innovative revenue management system
across the Group’s footprint in the Middle
East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.
By deploying the next generation charging
and billing solution, Ooredoo will be able
to offer customers the products they
need more quickly and be able to tailor
pricing, packages and services according to
customer demand in each market.
Ericsson Revenue Manager is a cloudready
convergent charging and billing
system that redefines the role of business
support systems (BSS). It makes innovation
fast and efficient, and opens the door to
easier digital services creation that spans
beyond telecom and integrates partners
from different industries. Ooredoo Group
companies will enjoy a single, converged
platform that enables them to handle
all their users and services, regardless of
payment option or access method.
The solution will be gradually deployed
across all Ooredoo operations and will
enable them to bring new offers for
telecommunication services to market in
minutes, rather than months.
Deploying Ericsson’s software and cloud
technologies will also support Ooredoo’s
ongoing Digital Business Transformation.
As a result, Ooredoo will realise significant
cost savings from replacing its existing
systems and local agreements with a
pioneering new group-wide licence model
and the latest evolution of Ericsson’s
charging and billing solution across its
operations.
Waleed Al Sayed, Deputy CEO, Ooredoo
Group, said: “Across our footprint,
Ooredoo is aiming for data experience
leadership, and placing renewed emphasis
on empowering our customers and giving
them the services they need when they
need them. Through this agreement with
Ericsson, we will enable every Ooredoo
operation to deliver fast, customer-oriented
offers and launch new data products and
services that support our growing portfolio
of digital services and enables the growth of
the ‘Internet of Things’.”
Rafiah Ibrahim, Head of Ericsson Region
Middle East and East Africa, said: “We
are proud to collaborate once again with
Ooredoo Group in their strategic digital
transformation journey. This collaboration
recognises the innovative Ericsson Revenue
Manager product and its capabilities
to deliver a differentiated customer
experience. Today’s announcement
highlights our vision of the Networked
Society and our role in transforming our
customers’ business and operations.”
The cloud-ready Ericsson Revenue
Manager will provide Ooredoo with a
number of advantages as it updates
its product portfolio and drives the
development of digital innovation across
its markets. The simple configuration
reduces dependency on technical
departments, makes it easier and faster
to launch new services, and helps
future-proof operations against
changing demands from customers
and technological disruption.
December 2016
29

NEWS
Veeam succeeds against Symantec’s infringement
challenge, both in court and at the USPTO
Veeam® Software, the innovative provider
of solutions that deliver Availability for the
Always-On Enterprise, has announced
that the patent infringement cases
Symantec (now Veritas) brought against
Veeam more than four years ago are
finally over with the federal district court’s
dismissal with prejudice of the consolidated
legal actions.
The Court and the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) have vindicated
Veeam’s innovative approach to delivering
Availability solutions for the Always-On
Enterprise, demonstrating that vendors
seeking to prolong the longevity of legacy
technologies cannot suppress innovation
and crush the innovative approaches of
disruptive providers with unsubstantiated
legal claims.
“It is not unheard of in our industry for
‘traditional’ vendors to fear change, and
for them to abuse the legal system in
a vain attempt to stifle innovation and
protect their legacy business,” said William
H. Largent, CEO at Veeam. “This case is
a perfect example of this. Over the past
four years, Veeam has stood its ground
in contesting these unfounded claims. I
am delighted that the USPTO found in
our favor, and I truly believe that our case
William H. Largent
sends a clear message to the market that
innovators [such as Veeam] will not be
bullied by assumed ‘established’ vendors.”
Veeam has triumphed after a four-year
dispute initiated by Symantec because
Symantec’s legacy physical backup products
could not compete with Veeam’s innovative
approach to delivering Availability solutions
for the Always-On Enterprise. Industry
giant Symantec, concerned about Veeam’s
increasing success, initiated two separate
lawsuits in the U.S. District Court in the
Northern District of California - the first
lawsuit filed in February, 2012, with the
second filed in October, 2012 - claiming
that Veeam’s products infringed several
of Symantec’s data storage, restore and
backup patents.
With these decisions, all of the patent
claims Symantec asserted against Veeam
have been found either invalid by the
USPTO or dropped from the lawsuits with
prejudice by Symantec.
With the recent Federal Circuit decision
affirming the USPTO’s decision that the
asserted claims on the last remaining
Symantec patent were not patentable, its
efforts to remove Veeam as a competitor
effectively came to an end.
In all, the USPTO found as unpatentable the
asserted claims of seven Symantec Patents:
U.S. Patent Nos. 7,831,861; 7,024,527;
8,117,168, 7,480,822, 7,093,086; 6,931,558;
and 7,191,299. The U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of California has now
dismissed all eight asserted patents with
prejudice.
Veeam joins HPE complete program
Veeam® Software has announced that is
has joined the Hewlett Packard Enterprise
(HPE) Complete program. The program
adds Veeam solutions to HPE’s price list
so that customers can purchase complete
HPE and Veeam solutions directly from HPE
and its resellers. This enables customers
to benefit from Veeam’s industry-leading
Availability solution, enabling them to
operate 24.7.365 in today’s cloud-first era.
As part of the HPE Complete program,
customers will be able to purchase Veeam
Availability Suite, Veeam Backup &
Replication and Veeam Backup Essentials
Enterprise and Enterprise Plus editions
for both VMware vSphere and Microsoft
Hyper-V environments.
“Veeam has enjoyed a long-standing
relationship with HPE, and I am delighted
that we are further strengthening this
by becoming an integral part of the
HPE Complete program,” said Peter
McKay, President and COO at Veeam.
“By combining Veeam’s class-leading
Availability solution with HPE’s heritage in
servers, storage and converged systems, we
will enable customers to thrive in the Digital
Transformation era.”
30 December 2016

NEWS
Etisalat Group and Cisco Gear Up
for the IoT era with release of White Paper
Etisalat Group, in collaboration with Cisco,
has unveiled a White Paper outlining its
vision for the development of the Internet
of Things (IoT). The White Paper - ‘Evolving
the Service Provider Architecture for the
IoT Era’ - provides a road map for how the
service provider network will need to evolve
to meet customers’ needs and adapt to the
growing IoT market and maintain Etisalat’s
position as a leader in delivering nextgeneration
technology advancements to
the market.
Analysts forecast that the worldwide IoT
installed base will exceed 28 billion by 2020,
while total market revenue could exceed
US$ 7 trillion. IoT infrastructure must be
able to support the demands of high data
rates, large numbers of connected things,
deep coverage, advanced data analytics,
and security and data management
capabilities, among other requirements.
“Etisalat has been at the forefront in
creating new technology breakthroughs
in the UAE and the IoT is in our DNA.
We believe that the IoT is vital for
regional development and have made a
commitment to build best-in-class IoT
capabilities to bring to the market. The
whitepaper in collaboration with Cisco is an
initiative that is aligned with Etisalat’s 2020
technology vision,” said Hatem Bamatraf,
Chief Technology Officer, Etisalat Group
International. “Our shared vision identifies
IoT as a key priority for Etisalat Group, to
maintain its position as a leader in delivering
next-generation platforms and services to
the market.”
Hatem Bamatraf, CTO - Etisalat Group
As a result, the White Paper provides
operators with a road-map and practical
approach that paves the way for the
evolution in its capabilities and future
network architecture needed to realise
the potential of IoT. Moving forward, this
will involve managing a diverse network
infrastructure, as access technologies
continue to develop. It also highlights how
service providers will need to invest new
technologies and advanced networks to
ensure the necessary capabilities are in
place.
“The Internet of Things is profoundly
disrupting business and commerce and
shaping the future outlook for service
providers. Etisalat Group has been
working closely with Cisco to bring IoTbased
solutions and the unprecedented
opportunities they present to the markets
Abdelrahman Ibrahim, CTO GSP, - Cisco ME
in which it operates,” said Abdelrahman
Ibrahim, CTO of Global Service Provider,
Cisco Middle East. “Together we are
examining the building blocks of an SP
architecture that can capture the full
potential of IoT by delivering exceptional
next-generation user experiences. Our
collaboration will help define the future
architecture that can be adopted by telcos
in the region, building on our expertise in SP
architecture transformation and our holistic
vision for the IoT.”
The White Paper identifies current and
potential activities where IoT will have an
impact. These include: Healthcare, fitness
and wellbeing, manufacturing, agriculture,
utilities, extractive industries, surveillance,
logistics, transportation, retail and
finance, as well as new applications related
to Smart Cities.
Etisalat rolls out ipv6 for home subscribers
Etisalat announced the roll out of IPv6,
the latest standard in internet addressing
technology enabling every device to have
its own IP address and connect directly to
the internet.
IPv6 is the future of internet addressing
and is now rolling out across the UAE for all
Etisalat eLife customers. IPv6 will
enable many new and innovative
services including smart homes,
connected wearables, smart power
grids while acting as the foundation for
billions of machine-to-machine devices to
communicate directly via the Internet of
Things (IoT).
Etisalat eLife subscribers are expected
to benefit from improved latency and
speed while using applications, websites
and services. As more connected-home
devices become available, IPv6 will
improve the set-up experience while
delivering the potential for increased
security.
December 2016
31

NEWS
Saudi Tech Start-ups to drive Kingdom’s Vision
2030, says Minister of Communications and IT
Saudi tech start-ups will drive the Digital
Economy over the next 15 years, and
support job creation for technology talents,
the Saudi Minister of Communications and
Information Technology announced at SAP’s
first Start-up Focus event in the kingdom.
“Government support for tech start-ups is
essential for driving the Saudi Vision 2030
goals of national digital transformation
and sustainable career paths for Saudi
talents. Public-private partnerships,
such as with SAP, combine government
vision and private sector expertise to
amplify Saudi entrepreneur’s ideas and
enhance the Kingdom’s digital economic
competitiveness,” said His Excellency Dr.
Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel, the
Saudi Minister of Communications and
Information Technology.
As part of SAP’s mission to support
promising technology start-ups, SAP
has seen strong success on the Start-up
Focus Program globally. Start-up Focus
has helped eligible start-ups, whose
product ideas are based on Big Data,
predictive or real-time analytics solution,
accelerate the development of their
solutions, and assist in bringing their
solutions to market.
Boosting regional innovation and
supporting local entrepreneurs, the SAP
Training and Development Institute has
now launched the initiative in the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia with an event in Riyadh.
During the two-day event, attendees gained
insights from successful start-up founders
and thought leaders, and interacted with
the start-up ecosystem in the Kingdom.
Promising entrepreneurs also learned how
to grow their innovative business plans with
SAP’s cutting-edge technology.
“Saudi tech talents and Millennials are
already among the best-connected in the
world, and have the ambition and business
acumen to become global start-up leaders.
SAP is dedicated to joining forces with the
Saudi government and local partners to
support Saudi Vision 2030, digital economic
innovation, and talented youth in reaching
their dreams,” said Ahmed Al-Faifi,
Managing Director, SAP Saudi Arabia.
Selected Saudi start-ups now have the
chance to develop their solutions on the
SAP HANA real-time analytics platform,
receive free support from technical experts
to help them productizing their ideas and
making the best use of the SAP HANA
cloud platform. Participating start-ups
have access to a community network of
entrepreneurs, partners, investors, thought
leaders and industry experts.
Once validated, start-ups can pitch to SAP’s
ecosystem of more than 320,000 customers
worldwide. The program has engaged
with more than 3,750 start-ups across
59 countries and 22 industries, bringing
hundreds of solutions to market.
“Launching the Start-up Focus Program
in the Kingdom concludes with
impressive turnout, bringing together the
countries’ start-up scene with successful
entrepreneurs to exchange best practices
and get inspired for an entrepreneurial
career in KSA. SAP is now reviewing
submitted business cases to identify
the strongest start-ups, eligible for the
program, taking Saudi innovations to a
global scale and boosting local innovations,”
said Marita Mitschein, Senior Vice President
and Managing Director, SAP Training and
Development Institute.
Demonstrating the economic impact of
digital transformation, the Saudi GDP could
increase by USD 31 billion by 2020 if the
Kingdom optimizes digital tools, according
to a recent Accenture report.
32 December 2016

NEWS
Huawei supports quality and excellence in the KSA
Huawei Tech Investment Saudi Arabia
Company reiterated its commitment
to quality and excellence in the Saudi
market, during its participation at the
third edition of Quality & Excellence Best
Practice Forum, an event organized by
the General Secretariat of King Abdulaziz
Quality Award, which is aimed at promoting
best practice amongst Saudi entities and
enterprises.
Representatives from various local and
regional government entities, excellence
bodies and businesses from all sectors
took part in the two-day event. In addition,
spokespeople from both local and
international winners of national excellence
awards, who shared their experiences with
the audience.
On the second day of the event, John Wu,
Deputy Director of Corporate Quality,
Huawei, showcased the company’s
philosophy regarding achieving excellence
and superior quality, which places clients
at the center of all its operations. Wu also
stressed the importance of setting key
performance indicators (KPIs) at all levels
of the organization to ensure customer
satisfaction while ensuring that the KPIs are
met.
“Customer-centricity, quality assurance and
innovation are the foundation of success
for any enterprise. Continuous monitoring
of the quality of products, services and
solutions is key to providing the best
customer experience,” said Wu. “Customer
satisfaction is a major driver for all
departments to achieve goals and resolve
issues. For example, over 10,000 customers
of Huawei’s Carrier Network and Enterprise
Business Groups are surveyed every year to
ensure that the products and solutions are
up to their standard.”
Huawei is a multiple recipient of the
“China Quality Award’, the highest level
government honor that can be given to
an organization and is awarded by the
government every two years. The China
Quality award was given to organizations
that made an outstanding contribution
towards establishing a great nation for
quality and played a leading role model, and
to individuals who made an outstanding
contribution towards increasing the level of
quality in Chinese industry and regions.
December 2016
33

NEWS
Huawei showcased its telecom
energy solutions at AfricaCom 2016
The annual Africa’s biggest and most
influential telecom expo, AfricaCom 2016,
has concluded on November 17 Cape town.
Through a series of booth demonstration
and interactive experience, Huawei
showcased its telecom energy solutions
which are designated to help carriers to
reduce cost and improve efficiency. These
solutions attracted lots of African countries’
carriers, industry experts and analysts to
discuss about the future development of
network energy for a “Fully Connected
Green Africa”.
A fully connected era is coming, and
telecom energy is facing new challenges.
With the incentives of increasing internet
business and progressing telecom
technology, the network structure and
site forms keep changing along with the
evolution of ICT integration. The future
energy supply in the fully connected era
will face three major challenges:
“0 Interruption” and “0 Cost” of power
supply when connection is needed, and “0
Energy Consumption” when connection is
not needed.
Huawei was the first to apply the intellectual
controlling management technology into
the telecom energy field, launching the
Migrate Towards Simplicity (MTS) smart site
solutions which improves the site energy
efficiency. Through the application of high
efficient components, reasonable design
of air passage, system controlling logic,
monitoring the performances of all the
sites, MTS continuously provides energy
efficiency improvement suggestions to
optimize the network energy efficiency.
The purpose of MTS is to realize sites fast
deployment, easy Operating & Maintenance
(O&M), smooth upgrade, energy-saving
and emission-reduction, which will help
customers to save OPEX and ensure the
reliable operation of sites.
Hybrid power supply solution is another
green energy solution presented at
AfricaCom. Huawei hybrid power supply
solution combines different method of
power generation, including diesel and
solar. In most African regions with unstable
grid power supply, compared to the
traditional D.G. sites, Huawei solutions
can not only help African tower companies
to develop flexible business modes, but
also can lower site OPEX and lower carbon
emission, which helps to realize the
maximization of energy efficiency and the
optimization of cost effectiveness.
Management system is an important
element in Huawei’s energy solutions. The
Huawei smart site management system
of the new generation is an end-to-end
energy management platform which is able
to provide simple, efficient and reliable
management for the sites O&M including
power, fuel, energy consumption, energy
efficiency, assets & inventory and daily
maintenance. Due to the influence of
harsh natural environment and backward
infrastructure, African tower companies
and telecom carriers always invest huge in
the aspects of energy acquisition and O&M.
Comparing with the traditional labor-based
O&M, the smart site management system
can help to stop the increasing OPEX with
precise O&M, proactive management and
energy-saving operation, bringing more and
more benefits to African tower companies
and telecom carriers.
Mr. He Xiaomin, Vice President in Huawei
Network Energy Product Line, said during
AfricaCom:” An intelligent society is
coming. Based on the deep understanding
of telecom network, Huawei innovatively
combine ICT technology with energy
technology to create high efficient energy
management solutions. The future site
power is no longer an isolated dump device.
Instead, it will become a smart node in
the intelligent energy network. Moving
towards digitization, interconnection and
intellectualization, with network energy
efficiency maximization theory, network
energy will become an energy network that
is easy for management, optimization and
operation.
PCCW Global wins AfricaCom Award with
transformative digital solutions for Africa
PCCW Global won the Best Network
Improvement Award at the AfricaCom
Awards held on November 16 in Cape Town,
South Africa.
In 2016, PCCW Global proudly became
the world’s first service provider to be
accredited with MEF 100Gbps CE2.0
certification for E-Line and E-Access
services on our SES (Ethernet over MPLS
and VPLS) and DES (Ethernet over SDH)
platforms. This represented a milestone for
the industry because the previous upper
limit for MEF CE2.0 services certification
was 10Gbps.
It was an important initiative enabling a
100Gbps connection across its African and
global network, when the industry standard
is far below this. PCCW Global plans for
the long-term capacity requirements to
meet the rising demand of businesses and
communities across Africa.
PCCW Global’s network has recently been
certified to offer all CE2.0 services and has
now achieved historical milestones such as
being the first CE2.0 certified network to
offer services across continental boundaries
and to offer 100Gbps services.
34 December 2016

NEWS
Huawei Rotating CEO Ken Hu announces
X Labs for mobile broadband research
More than 1,500 telecom and vertical
leaders, analysts, and media gathered today
at the Makuhari Messe convention center in
Tokyo, Japan for the seventh annual Mobile
Broadband Forum (MBBF), jointly hosted by
Huawei, GSMA, and GTI. During his keynote
on three unprecedented development
opportunities that await telecom operators
in video, household, and vertical markets,
Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman and Rotating
CEO of Huawei, called upon operators to
build application-centric networks and help
establish an open ecosystem. In support of
these efforts, he announced X Labs, a new
research platform that will bring together
operators, technology providers, and
vertical industry partners to jointly explore
future use cases for mobile applications,
drive innovation in business and technology,
and promote an open industry ecosystem.
Hu went on to describe “a wild world of
mobile applications” that is reshaping
everything around us, from our everyday
lives to the way that businesses and
societies operate. Behind this rapid growth
of applications are several key enabling
technologies, including mobile broadband
networks, sensors, man-machine interfaces,
cloud computing, big data and AI, which
themselves are developing at a lightning
pace. These technologies will converge and
integrate, not unlike a chemical reaction,
to create brand new applications for
products and services, and drive the digital
transformation of all industries.
“The first opportunity we see is in video.
Video has become the most popular
form of content delivery in media, social,
and professional communications, like
marketing,” Hu said. “Video and images
now account for more than 60% of mobile
network traffic. Entertainment video
is the largest part of this market, with
plenty of room for operator involvement.
In industrial applications, mobile video
solutions for public safety, traffic
surveillance, and logistics are also brimming
with opportunity. And in the video
communications domain, live video has
become a huge global phenomenon.”
Beyond video, the second major
opportunity for carriers is in the household
market. Right now, there are around two
billion households in the world. Of these, 1.3
billion don’t have broadband connections,
and 300 million have connections slower
than 10 Mbps. These 1.6 billion households
are an ideal market for wireless broadband.
To date, more than 100 telecom operators
have deployed Huawei’s wireless-to-the-x
solutions (WTTx), covering 30 million
households.
The third opportunity identified by Hu, the
vertical market, is on the verge of explosive
growth. Mobile networks have become
the key enabler of digital transformation,
and against this backdrop, Hu encouraged
operators to identify specific opportunities
that can best leverage the capabilities
of mobile communications, and then
adopt a fresh mindset when it comes to
collaboration.
In order to seize these three opportunities
in the video, household, and vertical
markets, existing networks need to evolve
from technology-centric to applicationcentric.
According to Hu, this evolution
depends on three key factors: connectivity,
architecture, and application-enablement
platforms.
1) Enhanced connectivity
In order to connect millions of new
applications for people and things, future
networks need enhanced connectivity,
improved network performance, and new
technology for new services. For example,
applications with HD video need 10 Mbps
network connections with end-to-end
latency below 50 milliseconds. Beyond
better support for video services, networks
also need to introduce wide-area IoT
technology for connections between things,
and Cellular-V2X technology for connected
vehicles.
2) End-to-end cloud architecture
An application-centric network needs
end-to-end cloud architecture to achieve
true elasticity. Huawei’s innovation focuses
on full cloudification of mobile networks,
from core to access—and especially air
interface—to help its customers boost
network performance and reduce overall
costs.
3) Application-enablement
platforms (PaaS)
Application-centric networks need strong
application-enablement platforms. These
platforms should provide APIs, data
storage, data analytics capabilities, and
cloud management services in order to
open up network capabilities and accelerate
application development.
“At Huawei, we aim to support and
enable the mobile ecosystem. We have
made a lot of progress, and we want to
do more,” concluded Hu, leading into is
announcement of X Labs.
X Labs is a research platform designed to
explore three separate areas of mobile
communications: people, verticals, and
household. The mLab (short for “mobile
user experience lab”) focuses on how
to create immersive user experience in
emerging mobile applications like video,
live streaming, VR and AR. vLab focuses
on vertical applications, exploring how
mobile technology can enable the digital
transformation process of all vertical
industries. The third lab in the X Labs
initiative, hLab, focuses on connecting
more households and leveraging broadband
connections to develop smart home
applications.
December 2016
35

NEWS
Osman Sultan joins prominent leaders
to discuss private sector role in sustainability
Osman Sultan, du’s Chief Executive Officer,
joined industry luminaries in a panel
discussion to examine how the private
sector can achieve shared prosperity for
businesses and communities in uncertain
times during the Pearl Initiative and UN
Global Compact 2nd Regional Forum.
“We are staunchly committed to
sustainability, and developing sustainable
practices throughout our business is
in line with our principles. Our annual
Sustainability Report is testament to this,
and every year we work toward developing
sustainability from within our business,
and working with other organisations and
the government to create a conducive
environment wherein sustainability
thrives,” said Osman Sultan, CEO, du. “We
will continue championing public private
partnerships, and are very proud to be a
part of this Forum and a contributor to this
discussion.”
During the discussion, Osman Sultan
tackled the issue of how long it would
take for sustainability to become a truly
integrated business practice. Contrary to
the current standard practice for many
businesses worldwide, Sultan argued that
businesses should take a transformative
approach to delivering shareholder value
through a dedication to sustainability – not
just in terms of monetary returns, but in
terms of creating prosperity through the
various layers to ensure a holistic value
chain. Later on the discussion, Osman also
discussed the importance of cyber security
in the modern digital environment. He
highlighted that regardless of whether we
are operating in the business or social space,
everything we do is now operated remotely
and online. He reiterated the importance
of partnership across all levels, public and
private, to create a culture where security is
paramount.
Sustainable practices form the core of du’s
business ethos and touches every part of
the organisation. Last year, the company
formalized its volunteering structure in
communicating top management’s support
in order to boost employee engagement
and this year, du brought together its
employees and members of the public when
it completed its annual Ramadan initiative
packing over 20,000 boxes of iftar ingredients
to be donated to families in need.
Furthermore, investment by the company
in the Babnoor App - an innovative solution
that assists children with nonverbal autism
and other disabilities with a first of its kind
application specifically developed for local
Arabic dialects – has supported and empowered
many families across the UAE whose
children suffer from learning disablities.
When it comes to supporting local initiatives,
du’s Fujairah Call Center serves a dual
purpose – it is 100% Emirati operated with
over 90% female staff. Moreover, du’s Masar
programme and other education initiatives
such as the Zayed University Media Lab
support ICT education from a grassroots
level, and its Agent 055 Network program
gives the youth a glimpse into life as an
entrepreneur.
du’s Sarah Saifei embarks on the first
knowledge exchange programme with the ITU
Kicking off the first knowledge exchange
programme with the ITU du has sent Sarah
Saifaei from Wholesale Products to Geneva
as the first participant in the initiative. She
joined the team at ITU on October 9, 2016
for a 6 weeks exchange programme during
which she will learn about the latest global
technologies and key ICT topics.
Speaking about her experience so far,
Sara said: “Taking part in this exchange
program is incredibly exciting. My days
at the ITU are filled with research and
discussions on a wide variety of topics –
some that I am closely familiar with, and
others that are relatively foreign. It has
been an invaluable experience to discuss
and understand the various perspectives on
current telecommunications trends, while
also gaining perspective on the internal
workings of an international organization
such as the ITU. A few of the many
things that I will take back with me to my
work in Dubai is the global viewpoint on
telecommunications topics and the linkages
between various policies and decisions.”
36 December 2016

NEWS
Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Library Foundation launched
Wesam Lootah, CEO of Smart Dubai Government Establishment
& Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr, DG of Smart Dubai Office praises the launch
H.E. Wesam Lootah, CEO of Smart Dubai
Government Establishment and H.E. Dr.
Aisha Bin Bishr have praised the directive
of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid
Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime
Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to
build the largest knowledge facility in the
Arab World.
On the launch of Mohammed Bin Rashid
Al Maktoum Library Foundation, H.E.
Lootah said: “The Mohammed Bin Rashid
Al Maktoum Library Foundation will be a
knowledge platform and an incubator for
intellectuals, writers and scientists from
all fields of learning. The largest of its kind
in the Arab world, the library is mainly
aimed at enhancing human life through
knowledge, education and learning. It
fulfills H.H. Sheikh Mohammed’s keen
vision of making the UAE among the world’s
best countries by enabling learners and
readers to take advantage of science and
knowledge. This will also contribute in
achieving the ultimate goal of making the
UAE people the happiest and have the most
powerful effect on humanity.”
“One of the most important features of
a smart city is its ability to provide an
environment that supports innovation
and is based on science and knowledge.
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Library Foundation will become the beacon
of knowledge that will promote culture in
the world, starting from the pearl of the
world Dubai to be the culmination of a
large number of cultural and knowledgebased
initiatives launched in the UAE.” H.E.
Lootah concluded.
On this occasion, H.E. Dr. Aisha Bint Butti
Bin Bishr, Director General of Smart Dubai
Office, said: “The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al
Maktoum Library Foundation, the largest
knowledge-based project in the Arab
World, will be a meeting place for seekers
of science, culture and knowledge from
around the world. It will become a hub of
creativity that will contribute in promoting
the UAE as the world’s capital of culture.”
H.E. Bin Bishr added: “Knowledge is a
gateway for communities to progress.
Dubai, owing to its cultural, literary and
knowledge-based activities and initiatives,
has always been a beacon of knowledge.
A smart city is originally aimed at taking
mankind to higher levels, in order to make
them happy through developing plans,
drafting policies and creating initiatives. The
directive of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and
Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to build
the library, which will become the largest
digital and visual platform, is for the benefit
of humanity. It will also help the UAE in
attracting the most creative minds and
intellectuals from around the world.”
December 2016
37

NEWS
Amir Malik joins Clicksat as the new Managing Director
provides virtualisation of the Wide Area
Network (WAN) allowing companies and
banks to build carrier agnostic, policycontrolled
and cost-effective environment.
This transition means that Amir has left his
role as Chief Executive Officer of COMSATS
Internet Services (CIS), where he has
had a successful run for 2 years. He has
been able to secure major collaborations
for CIS with leading organizations and
successfully established the CIS Technology
Park. Previously, Amir served as Member
IT at Ministry of Information Technology,
Managing Director at Pakistan Software
Export Board and Chief Executive Officer of
Pak Datacom Limited, Pakistan.
Muhammad Amir Malik has been appointed
as the new Managing Director at Clicksat
(Pvt) Ltd. and has taken over the charge
of his new role. Clicksat, is involved in
providing latest satellite broadband
services, and is keen to expand their
operations all across Pakistan. Amir Malik
will also be taking additional charge of Chief
Commercial Officer (CCO) for REDtone
Telecommunications Pakistan. REDtone
is in the process of joining very soon a
consortium of renowned international
telecom companies to build and operate
a submarine cable network. The Pakistan
landing of the submarine cable will be
owned and operated by REDtone.
Additionally, REDtone is aggressively
launching Viptela’s secure technology that
He has worked as Head of Regulatory
Compliance at Ufone, PTML and at Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in the
capacity of Director (ICT). His earlier work
experience includes working with SAP AG,
Air France, Schlumberger, and Alcatel CIT.
He has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical
Engineering with Honors from National
University of Science and Technology
(NUST), Pakistan, and a Masters in
Computer Science and Telecommunication
Engineering with Honors from ENSIMAG,
INPG, France. He is also an alumni of
Lawrence College, Murree.
SpeedCast broadcast solution leads the way
at ‘Everest of the ocean’ Vendée Globe Race
SpeedCast has provided its two-way
secured satellite communication and
broadcast services to over 90% of
competitors in this years’ Vendée Globe
Race – one of the toughest sailing events in
the world – making SpeedCast the number
one provider of satellite services for this
huge sporting event.
The eighth Vendée Globe Race were held
recently from Les Sables d’Olonne, France,
and is the only non-stop solo race around
the world without assistance. This year’s
event will see 29 skippers representing four
continents and ten nations setting sail on
IMOCA 60s in pursuit of beating François
Gabart’s record time of 78 days, 2 hours and
16 minutes set in the 2012-13 race.
SpeedCast’s innovative media transmission
solution and value added services have been
installed on 27 out of 29 competing vessels,
in order to benefit from livestreaming
capabilities, monitoring and connectivity.
SpeedCast’s Clipway will play a big
role as the solution allowed the Race
Headquarters, family members and the
general audience to watch the race in
real time. Clipway can store, forward and
livestream broadcast quality video and
accepted all broadcasting formats, including
HD, SDI and GoPro, which differentiates it
from competing technologies.
38 December 2016

NEWS
Yahsat ignites discussions on
collaboration in the space industry
Yahsat and EMEA Satellite Operator’s
Association (ESOA) hosted a gala
dinner to discuss opportunities for the
satellite industry and identify ways of
future collaboration. Prominent industry
leaders from organisations including
UAE Space Agency, Thuraya, Arabsat,
SES, Arianespace, Telespazio, Inmarsat,
exchanged ideas and explored prospects.
“Historically, satellite services have been
utilized by governments, broadcasters,
NGOs, humanitarian agencies, and large
corporations. However, we believe that
the opportunities are far beyond these
stakeholder groups and the sector is
seeing a tectonic shift where we are more
than ready to engage with a wider set of
stakeholders in a much more effective
manner,’’ said Masood M. Sharif Mahmood,
CEO, Yahsat.
The EMEA Satellite Operators Association
(ESOA) leads a coordinated and
impactful response to global challenges
and opportunities for the commercial
satellite communications sector by
raising awareness of the reach, resilience,
variety & capability of satellite services.
Together with ESOA, Yahsat is looking to
address challenges faced by the satellite
industry and paving the way for industry
collaborations.
The high-level event took place in
Yas Viceroy Hotel in Abu Dhabi and
featured industry-specific key-note
speeches from Masood M. Sharif Mahmood
(CEO Yahsat), H.E. Dr. Mohammed Al
Ahbabi (Director General, UAE Space
Agency), Rupert Pearce (Chairman of ESOA
and CEO of Inmarsat), and David Wang
(CEO at Huawei UAE).
Yahsat & Talia sign multimillion-dollar partnership agreement
Yahsat has announced the start of a
strategic partnership with Talia Under the
agreement, Talia is committed to capacity
on Yahsat’s upcoming Ka-band Al Yah 3
satellite, located at 20°W to be launched in
2017, alongside existing services on the Y1B
satellite.
Talia has also signed its first customer
on Yahsat’s Y1B satellite. The NGO customer
will be utilising the high bandwidth
service with Newtec MDM6000 Satellite
IP Modems and integrating the additional
capacity into their hybrid network. This
includes coverage across multiple satellites
and terrestrial fibre - all provided by Talia.
The addition of Ka-band HTS satellite
services to Talia’s portfolio re-affirms Talia as
a market-leading company providing hybrid
solutions, using appropriate technology
driven by customer demand.
Alan Afrasiab, Talia President, said, “The
addition of Yahsat to our coverage builds on
our strong and growing relationship with
satellite operators. This further extends
our infrastructure and network operations,
enabling the delivery of protected and
secure communications to our strategic
customers”.
Farhad Khan, Yahsat’s Chief Commercial
Officer said, “We are delighted to be
partnering with Talia as a long-term client.
This agreement is yet another example of
Yahsat’s growth strategy, which will be
further enabled by the launch of our third
satellite, adding 20 new markets to our
existing footprint. We are thrilled Talia
believes in our cutting edge technology
solutions, team’s capabilities and our
commitment to the delivery of customised,
bespoke services.”
As part of the agreement Talia will have
access to Yahsat’s latest VNO services
powered by its satellite broadband service,
YahClick from the Y1B satellite.
December 2016
39

NEWS
ABS partners with PT Sarana Media
Vision to launch new Indonesian
DTH FreeViewSat platform
Leading satellite operator ABS has
announced that it will partner with PT
Sarana Media Vision (SMV), using SMV’s
DTH license to launch a consumer FreeView
satellite service – FreeViewSat - across
Indonesia in January 2017. The service will
be called SMV FreeViewSat and will initially
broadcast over 60 television channels via
the ABS-2, ABS-2A and ABS-6 satellites in
both Ku and C-band.
For the first time in Indonesia, a free-toview
platform will be available throughout
the entire country, allowing advertisers the
opportunity to reach the full potential of the
Indonesian audience.
The FreeViewSat model will promote
maximum distribution and the cost of
the STB & dish will be less than US$35.
Customers will only need to make this
one-time purchase to enjoy all the TV
channels on the platform (with no monthly
recurring subscription fees).
Tom Choi, CEO - ABS
Tom Choi, CEO of ABS commented that
“SMV’s FreeViewSat will be very attractive
for Indonesia by providing great quality
international and unique domestic
programming to the entire country. The
goal is to deliver high quality entertainment
and educational content affordably to all -
For the first time, everybody, not only the
affluent or those in the urban areas, will be
able to receive high quality programming
for free, with just a one-time purchase of a
set-top box and dish. FreeViewSat will also
give advertisers the first real opportunity to
reach the whole population of Indonesia,
even in rural areas. ABS is delighted to
be partnering and supporting this highly
worthwhile venture.’’
At launch in January, FreeViewSat will carry
at least 30 local Free-to-Air channels and
more than 30 high quality international
channels.
The number of channels will continue to
grow to over 100 channels in the first 6 to
12 months as new and interesting content is
added.
LeoSat and Globalsat Group
sign strategic worldwide agreement
LeoSat Enterprises has entered into a
strategic agreement with the Globalsat
Group to market the fastest, most secure
and widest coverage HTS data network in
the world.
LeoSat will provide the Globalsat Group
with access to infrastructure for the
Globalsat LEO Network, based on a high
performance architecture pairing the speed
of fiber with the ubiquity of satellite, and
the Globalsat Group will provide LeoSat
with access to the Americas market,
leveraging its extensive presence and
experience.
LeoSat’s new system of low earth orbit
communications satellites can deliver lower
latency and stronger end-to-end security
compared to traditional satellite and
terrestrial solutions used today.
This is achieved through a unique
architecture utilizing inter-satellite laser
links, creating an optical backbone in
space with fiber-like symmetry at gigabit
per second speeds. It also provides
unprecedented security as the data is
encrypted from end-to-end across the
network, with no terrestrial touch points.
This is possible through a system design
combining proven and cutting edge
technologies, leaps ahead of projects
which look more like science fiction. We
are thrilled to be part of one of the most
important and promising upcoming satellite
constellations in sight today”.
40 December 2016

NEWS
AsiaSat and Spacecom announce
transponder service agreement for AsiaSat 8
AsiaSat has entered into a
transponder service agreement with
paceCommunication Ltd. (Spacecom).
The agreement is in respect to the use
of AsiaSat’s in-orbit satellite AsiaSat 8,
which will be relocated to an orbital slot as
agreed with Spacecom.
Exclusive rights to use all Ku-band
transponders on AsiaSat 8 will be granted
to Spacecom for a minimum of four years
for the provision of commercial satellite
communications services.
AsiaSat will continue to be responsible
for the satellite’s tracking, telemetry
and control functions. The service term
is expected to commence from the first
quarter of 2017 subject to necessary
regulatory approvals and satisfactory
testing after the relocation.
AsiaSat expects that Spacecom will
become one of its top customers in
terms of revenue contribution once the
service term commences. Andrew Jordan,
President & CEO of AsiaSat, said, “We
welcome Spacecom as our latest customer.
AsiaSat 8’s superior performance
offers an ideal fit for Spacecom’s needs.
We look forward to growing this strong
partnership in the years to come.” David
Pollack, CEO and president of Spacecom,
said, “We are glad to strengthen our
connection with AsiaSat.
AsiaSat 8 satellite enables us to
continue serving our customers at
4W orbital location following the end
of life of AMOS-2 and provide them
with additional capacity and
services.”
AsiaSat granted patent for effective
satellite connectivity to aircraft
Asia Satellite has been granted a patent
from the United States Patent and
Trademark Office, titled, ‘Methods
and Systems for Providing High-speed
Connectivity to Aircraft.’ (US Patent No.
9,425,888)
The patent is about the methods and
systems that enable effective aviation
communication via satellite over a broad
area at high altitude. Example methods
include the use of a wide-beam antenna on
a satellite to provide a wide flatten coverage
by transmitting signals at a frequency
higher than 10 GHz and at a relatively low
satellite power (EIRP) to avoid interference
with ground stations or adjacent satellites.
At the same time, the satellite system is
configured with a spot beam antenna to
receive signals from a mobile antenna
on the aircraft at a different frequency of
at least 13.75 GHz to achieve better gain
for higher data throughput rate of the
connection.
Dr. Roger Tong
VP, Engineering Operations & CTO - AsiaSat
With the use of a low-power wide beam
antenna, the described system enables
communication coverage for aircraft
with fewer beams, fewer antennas and
receivers onboard a satellite thus reducing
its payload, hardware and ground stations
requirements, and results in a more reliable
service that can be achieved with less
switching and traffic handover issues.
The same method and system can also
be configured to provide connectivity to
an unmanned aviation vehicle (UAV) for
establishing immediate communication
links in emergency situation due to natural
disaster or warfare.
The invention was developed by Dr. Roger
Tong, Vice President, Engineering and
Operations and Chief Technical Officer of
AsiaSat and his team members, Fred Vong
and Harry Leung. “Being in the satellite
industry, where technologies and user
needs are rapidly changing, we recognise
there is no boundary to our imagination and
we have to continue to innovate in order to
provide the best services to our customers,”
said Dr. Tong.
December 2016
41

NEWS
Newtec appoints Sjoerd De Clerck as new VP Asia
Newtec – a specialist in designing,
developing and manufacturing
equipment and technologies for satellite
communications – has appointed a new
sales Vice-President for the Asia-Pacific
region.
Sjoerd De Clerck will be responsible for
leading the Asia-Pacific team and ensuring
the company’s continued growth across
the continents. The appointment follows
Newtec’s partnership with leading Asian
players and several important customer
wins. All leading satellite operators, the
majority of broadcasters, service providers
and Satcom partners are among customers
served by Newtec in the Asia-Pacific region.
De Clerck’s previous appointments
include positions at Barco N.V. – a global
technology company that designs and
develops virtualization solutions for
a variety of professional markets – where
he held various VP positions. He will
be based at Newtec’s Singapore office
and report to Newtec’s global Chief
Commercial Officer (CCO) Thomas Van den
Driessche.
“I am delighted to be joining the team at
Newtec during a time when the company
is doing extremely well,” said De Clerck.
“Newtec already has an established
customer base in Asia and its recent
partnership and customer announcements
highlight how important the region is for
the company. My mission will be to lead the
team to develop that growth even further
and I cannot wait to get started.”
Asia-Pacific is one of Newtec’s most
important regions due to the increasing
demand for global GEO High Throughput
Satellite (HTS) services, which is expected
to reach 1.5 Tbps globally by 2024,
according to a number of studies, with
Asia named as the second largest market
for satellite capacity. The rapidly growing
mobility market, Asia’s continued digital
transformation and expanding multiservice
ecosystem will further add to Newtec’s
growth in the region.
Van den Driessche said: “The appointment
of Sjoerd comes at a pivotal time for
Newtec in the region and I have no doubt
that he will lead the team to continued
success.”
Telenor Maritime provides
mobile and Wifi services on
all color Line Vessels
Telenor Maritime having a long standing relation to Color Line has
announced an expansion of the communications services onboard
the entire Color Line fleet, deploying connectivity platforms
supporting the complete digital value chain that will greatly
enhance the customer experience.
“Telenor Maritime is a mobile company at sea, placing the mobile
in the center of all we do. With our connectivity platform, we take
full end-to-end responsibility for connecting the applications; the
access layer with the onboard mobile and WiFi systems; and the
backhaul from Ka/Ku satellite and land-based mobile broadband
from our network of global operators,” said Frode Støldal, CEO of
Telenor Maritime.
The THOR-7 Ka high-performance satellite provides seamless
coverage throughout Europe, favorable in the northern regions
where Color Line operates, enabling unprecedented performance
for mobile services and applications.
“The introduced connectivity platform will be a major
steppingstone for the ongoing digital transformation within Color
Line. Our focus is always to improve the end user experience, and
improve operational efficiency,” Frode Støldal continues.
Thaicom launches C-Band MCPC
broadcast platform for content
distribution in Africa
Thaicom has signed a contract with iSAT Africa to expand its
C-band Multi Channel Per Carrier (MCPC) broadcast platform and
service into Africa. The service will facilitate distribution of TV
channels on the THAICOM 6 satellite.
The MCPC broadcast platform enables Thaicom to expand its
broadcast services in Africa from the THAICOM 5 to the THAICOM
6 satellite at the company’s 78.5° East prime video neighbourhood.
The platform is a cost-effective solution for African and
international broadcasters requiring to develop their content
distribution across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Teleport operator iSAT Africa will provide ground and uplink
services for the MCPC broadcast platform from its facility in
Nairobi, East Africa.
Patompob (Nile) Suwansiri, Chief Commercial Officer, Thaicom.
said “The MCPC broadcast platform supports entry for new
channel carriers and complements our growing portfolio of content
distribution solutions. We are very pleased to welcome iSAT Africa
as our teleport partner to help us in our mission to provide channel
carriers the opportunity to reach new audiences in Africa.”
42 December 2016

NEWS
Panasonic selects Newtec as technology
partner for its advanced global satellite network
Panasonic Global Communications and
Newtec has unveiled a new, high bandwidth
satellite modem, which offers Panasonic
customers twenty times the bandwidth of
Panasonic’s current solution. Versions of
this new modem will be available across
Panasonic’s mobility markets including
air transport, business aviation, maritime,
cruise ships, mega yachts, and river cruises.
Developed in partnership, the new modem
is capable of exceeding 400 Mbps, and it
can scale to meet the evolving needs of
airlines and their passengers by facilitating
the increasing bandwidth coming on stream
over the next two years as High-Throughput
Satellite (HTS) and Extreme-Throughput
Satellite (XTS) services continue to be
layered over the Panasonic’s existing global
network. This will expand network capacity
from 2,300 MHz today to 15,000+ MHz by
2017.
The next-generation modem includes three
demodulators for seamless beam switching
and simultaneous data and video reception
and is also part of the Newtec Dialog®
multiservice platform, which supports a
wide range of verticals, including aviation
and maritime. Featuring the award-winning
dynamic bandwidth allocation Mx-DMA® ,
it combines the efficiency of SCPC with the
dynamic bandwidth allocation capabilities
of TDMA to deliver up to 300 percent more
data than legacy Time Division Multiple
Access (TDMA) systems.
Paul Margis, Chief Executive Officer of
Panasonic Avionics Corporation, says:
“As we continue to optimize our second
generation Global Communications
network, we are constantly looking for new
pieces of critical technology that will enable
our customers take full advantage of HTS
and XTS technology. Newtec’s broadband
modem, which is based on the innovative
DVB-S2X standard and customized to our
requirements, allows us to access much
larger blocks of frequency and better
support high bandwidth platforms across
all of our vertical markets.”
Serge Van Herck says on behalf of the
Newtec Board of Directors: “Newtec has
a proven track-record in delivering highquality
and reliable Satcom solutions. Our
partnership with Panasonic will combine
next-generation ground segment and
satellite technology to deliver the most
efficient high-throughput solution to
customers across the world.”
Newtec HTS solution powering Avanti’s ECO project
Newtec Dialog® platform, including a
Wi-Fi hotspot solution, has been selected
by Avanti Communications as the High
Throughput Satellite (HTS) ground segment
technology platform for its ECO project.
The ECO project – which is a public-private
partnership between the European Space
Agency (ESA) and Avanti – will provide
affordable and reliable satellite broadband
connectivity in its first phase to 1,400
schools and community sites across Sub-
Saharan Africa within the next two years.
Newtec’s optimized ECO terminals will
deliver the ECO satellite broadband services
to all identified sites through Avanti and its
service providers. These Wideband DVB-
S2X 500 Mbaud terminals combine the
satellite connectivity with a Wi-Fi hotspot,
including optional solar panels, and are part
of the Newtec Dialog multiservice platform.
Didier Tymen, VP Sales EMEA - Newtec
The ECO service will initially be deployed
in 32 Ka-band spot beams out of multiple
gateways in Europe and Africa.
The ECO satellite broadband services will
benefit thousands of schools, communities
and health centers, as well as Internet
cafes and community area networks. The
connectivity will also be used by local
governments, telecom providers, mobile
network operators and Internet service
providers.
“One of Newtec’s long-term objectives
has been to reduce the digital divide
and projects such as ECO are essential
to this goal,” said Didier Tymen, VP Sales
EMEA of Newtec. “Our technology,
including the Wi-Fi hotspot solution,
delivers well against Avanti’s network
philosophy of Quality & Flexibility. It
plays an important role in delivering the
initiative’s goals and makes reliable, but also
affordable broadband a reality for millions
across the region.”
December 2016
43

EVENT
Dhahi Khalfan Tamim inaugurates
Critical Communications MENA 2016
Teletimes Report
H.E. Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan
Tamim, Deputy Chairman of Police and
General Security in Dubai, headed the
opening rites of Critical Communications
MENA (CCMENA) 2016, the fourth
edition of the region’s premier critical
communications conference and expo, was
held on November 7, 2016, at the event’s
new venue, the Dubai World Trade Centre.
More than 1,000 critical communications
professionals, 50 visionary speakers and 40
exhibitors will converge during the two-day
expo to discuss, demonstrate and explore
the emergence of a new era of broadband
innovation marked by increasing Long-
Term Evolution (LTE) network adoption.
CCMENA 2016 introduced a number of
firsts reflective of the evolving regional and
global critical communications landscape.
For one, it features Dubai Networking
Evening, a networking party on the opening
day for participants to get acquainted with
each other and share experiences in an
informal and relaxed setting. It also hosts
the inaugural International Leadership
Summit, a new format that reveals the
key challenges and opportunities faced by
industry and specifically engage the public
safety and transport domains.
This year’s edition also welcomes the
Middle East Showcase Platform, a venue for
visitors to gain valuable insights on regional
market developments and the latest
industry innovations.
Visitors and participants at CCMENA
2016 gained first-hand knowledge and
information from the industry’s experts
on presentations and topics like the
world roadmap towards public safety
broadband; a focus on the Middle East-
Innovation in public safety; the argument
for and against the Mobile Virtual Network
Operator (MVNO) model to deliver public
safety broadband; exploring the future
needs of the transport sector; a vision of
Dubai Airport’s communications in 5 years’
time; how can technology development
in communications allow the oil & gas
sector to react to changing prices, among
others. In addition, case-studies will also
be presented by high-ranking officials from
Dubai Police, Hong Kong
44 December 2016

Police, Australian Government and Qatar
Government. Participants can look forward
to the CCMENA Innovation Award, Power
Roundtable discussions, and Interactive
Demo Tours as well.
Saeed Bin Abid, CEO, Nedaa, Host Operator
of CCMENA 2016, said: “Our extensive
experiences in deploying wireless solutions
for Dubai and the Northern Emirates have
shown us the urgent need to incorporate
advanced technologies to ensure
uninterrupted and high-quality critical
communications during emergencies
and other situations concerning public
safety. CCMENA 2016 will reveal how new
innovations in critical communications will
impact vital fields such as public safety and
how industry players can help direct the
sector’s ongoing transformation.”
Phil Kidner, CEO, TETRA and Critical
Communications Association (TCCA), said:
“The TCCA is delighted to be present at
the CCMENA event once again in Dubai, at
what we hope will become its permanent
home in the World Trade Centre. This region
has long been known for its willingness
to embrace the latest advances in critical
communications, and this event promises
to be a showcase that highlight the best
of our industry today, and promote the
potential of tomorrow.”
“For this year’s CCMENA we introduced
‘Team on Mission,’ an on-premises solution
to provide Mission Critical Push-To-Talk
(MCPTT), text, tracking, voice, video
streaming, and dispatching for public
safety teams. It can operate over public and
private 3/4/5G LTE networks and Tactical
4G LTE. We intend to support the public
sector’s ongoing efforts to transition from
legacy professional mobile radio systems to
3GPP-compliant solutions and enable public
safety professionals to enjoy the highest
levels of communications quality and
reliability possible,” added Lilian Gaichies
– Chief Operating Officer, StreamWIDE
SA, a leading Telecom systems provider
for Telecom operators, Governments and
Enterprises with Worldwide reach.
“We look forward to showcasing the
strengths of our COREMOTE CHIASMA
Tactical Video Sharing solution which will
enable the transmission of real-time video
feeds between field units, field command
and back-office control rooms. Video feeds
can be viewed in smartphones and tablets
Rashid Al Mutawaa
VP Chairman - Atlas Group
and as part of the COREMOTE Tactics
Automatic Vehicle Location web User
Interface. As CCMENA 2016 emphasizes,
mission critical communications is
undergoing paradigm shifts and we
intend to incorporate more broadband
and multi-technology features to our
products to complement the fundamental
changes sweeping the field,” concluded
Sami Honkaniemi. (CEO), Mentura Group,
the leading provider of advanced and
intelligent software solutions for Critical
Operations.
Atlas Telecom, the regional technology arm
of UAE telecom veteran Atlas Group, also
led the pack with a demonstration of the
advanced capabilities of Tactilon Dabat, a
smartphone and a full TETRA radio in one
device.
Atlas Telecom, a full-service
communications technology integration
and security solutions company, joined an
elite group of locally-based companies to
share the UAE’s experiences in expanding
its communications capabilities in line
with UAE Vision 2021’s dependence
on information and communications
technology as a key enabler of local
development.
Rashid Al Mutawaa, VP Chairman, Atlas
Group, said: “Atlas Telecom introduced
the superior capabilities of Tactilon Dabat,
a revolutionary device that combines
mission-critical features such as resistance
to shocks, water and dust with modern
smartphone conveniences such a touch
screen and front and back cameras. The
‘smart’ app-enabled broadband device has
Android capabilities and special ergonomic
properties and is backed by the worldrenowned
quality and integrity of the
Airbus Defence & Space. Atlas Telecom is
the exclusive reseller of Tactilon Dabat in
the MENA region”.
Atlas Telecom also provided valuable
insights on the transition to Long-Term
Evolution technology, the relevance
of legacy and emerging TETRA-based
and hybrid solutions, and local and
national strategies for optimizing critical
communications capabilities, among other
core industry concerns.
Abdulaziz Al Shammari, Managing Director,
Atlas International, said: “CCMENA 2016’s
theme of an emerging era of broadband
innovation is a perfect fit for our focus on
Tactilon Dabat which marries the strengths
of existing and future technologies to
provide more effective methods of critical
communications support. With more than
30 years of experience in the GCC markets,
we have witnessed firsthand the growing
role of critical communications in the
development agendas of the region.
The UAE has eagerly embraced cuttingedge
technologies to achieve superior
critical communications capabilities and
has been very receptive of groundbreaking
solutions such as Tactilon Dabat.”
“We are eager to share the country’s
experiences and plans in the field and
what Atlas Telecom can contribute and,
of course, to learn more about how critical
communications is evolving in the MENA
region and around the world. This is just our
second time to join CCMENA and yet we
have forged strong connections with
its visitors and exhibitors, so we expect
an even more productive participation
this time around,” commented Gerard
Robinson, Chief Technology Officer, Atlas
Telecom.
Critical Communications MENA 2016
is presented by the TETRA and Critical
Communications Association under the
patronage of H.E. Lieutenant General Dhahi
Khalfan Tamim, Head of General Security
for the Emirate of Dubai.
December 2016
45

EVENT
Dubai Customs officially
launches the Smart Workplace
Dubai Customs has launched the Smart
Workplace Platform, the latest innovative
initiative that comes as part of Dubai
Customs’ efforts to materialize the vision
and directives of the UAE wise leadership
in instilling innovation as a fixed approach
and a daily practice in order to achieve the
move towards a full smart government
following the directives of Highness Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice
The new smart
workplace aims at
turning traditional
services into a unique
user experience that
reduces time and cost
and accelerates the
process of finalizing
declarations using a
number of smart and
innovative tools and
characteristics.”
President and Prime Minister of the UAE
and Ruler of Dubai.
The new smart workplace aims at turning
traditional services into a unique user
experience that reduces time and cost
and accelerates the process of finalizing
declarations using a number of smart and
innovative tools and characteristics.
Five folds
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of DP World said that the launch of this
initiative will serve the objectives of Dubai
Customs’ strategic plan 2016-2021 which
supports the objectives of the national
agenda following the directives of His
Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid
Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime
Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DP
World explained that the new smart
46 December 2016

workplace will accelerate the process of
finalizing customs declarations and reduce
the time from 4 to 5 minutes instead of 20
to 40 minutes. Declarations consumed an
average of 1.76 million man-hours annually
and now, using the new smart platform, the
number is reduced to only 360,000 manhours;
which means a five-fold reduction.
“This will help boost customs transactions
and increase Dubai non-oil trade which
witnessed a 17% increase during the first
half of 2016 compared to the same period
in 2015” bin Sulayem added.
AED 68 million
The new smart workplace will also help
companies save AED 68 million annually.
This will help raise client satisfaction and
boost Dubai Customs further to maintain
its position being the top department on
the happiness index, according to Smart
Dubai Office.
“Dubai Customs is always proactive when it
comes to clients’ satisfaction. This is what
gained it the first place on the Happiness
Meter at 95 % “bin Sulayem explained.
“DP World carries out about 18 million
transactions annually or 50,000
transactions daily. This huge number
encourages us to always look for more
innovative ways to handle this job” he
concluded.
Boosting Dubai’s Economy
Commenting on the launch of the new
smart workplace, Juma Al Ghaith, Executive
Director of Customs Development Division
at Dubai Customs said: “We, at Dubai
Customs, seek the best partnership
approaches with our clients to achieve the
highest levels of client satisfaction and to
help boost Dubai’s economy.
Dubai Customs is the first defense line
that protects the economy and health of
our society. We always seek best ways
that facilitate our job and reduce time and
cost which will reflect on a better clients’
performance and their ROI. This initiative
will also support Dubai’s efforts in hosting
Expo 2020 through the facilitation of
customs transactions and processes” he
explained.
“The number of declarations carried
out through the new smart workplace
witnessed a 53% increase from May to
November which resulted in a 100% client
satisfaction last September compared to
93% in May. Also, the number of companies
using the new workplace increased by
78% between April and October, with 80%
increase in using the workplace for customs
declarations” he added.
Al Ghaith thanked his team at Customs
Development Division for their hard
work and dedication to help this Smart
Workplace go live.
Increasing productivity
Al Ghaith briefed the attendees with the
functions of this new platform:
“The new initiative is a platform that
turns traditional online services into smart
services through restructuring the services
and declarations and improving interaction
and usability”
“The new smart workplace will provide the
clients with a number of smart tools that
will reduce their time and cost and increase
the number of customs declarations.
The number of companies using the new
workplace rose by 74%, and the number
of users rose by 78% during the period
between April and October” he explained.
Awarding the heaviest users
Dubai Customs awarded the first ten users
and the top five companies using the Smart
Workplace since its launch in May until
November. They were awarded with Dubai
Customs memorial shield and appreciation
letters.
December 2016
47

GLOBAL ICT, TELECOM & SATCOM EVENTS
PTC January & February 2017
15 - 18 January Honolulu, Hawaii, US
SCWS MENA 16 January Dubai, UAE
Customer Experience Management 23 - 26 January London, UK
Global Space Congress 31 Jan - 01 Feb Abu Dhabi, UAE
MEET ICT Bahrain & BITEX 2017 07 - 09 February Manama, Bahrain
Convergence India 08 - 10 February New Delhi, India
GTX-i 15 - 20 February Baghdad, Iraq
Milsatcom 21 - 22 February Abu Dhabi, UAE
GTI Summit 23 February Barcelona, Spain
GSMA Mobile World Congress 27 Feb - 02 March Barcelona, Spain
March & April 2017
Satellite 2017 06 - 09 March Washington Dc, DC, USA
Capacity Middle East 07 - 09 March Dubai, UAE
Telecom 3rd Telematics World Conference Asia ME & Africa 21 08 - 22 09 March Bangkok, Dubai, UAE Thailand
CeBIT Telecom Germany World Asia 20 21 - 24 22 March Hannover, Bangkok, Thailand Germany
CABSAT CeBIT Germany 21 20 - 23 24 March Dubai, Hannover, UAEGermany
NFV CABSAT & SDN MENA Forum 27 21 - 28 23 March Dubai, UAE
Australian NFV & SDN OTT MENA Summit Forum 27 - 28 March Abu Dubai, Dhabi, UAE UAE
MEFTECH Australian OTT Summit 28 27 - 29 28 March Abu Dhabi, UAE
TV MEFTECH Connect 28 - 30 29 March London, Abu Dhabi, UKUAE
Convergence TV Connect Africa World 05 28 - 07 30 April March Nairobi, London, Kenya UK
Broadband Convergence TV Africa Connect World Asia 11 05 - 12 07 April Hong Nairobi, Kong Kenya
ITC Broadband FEST TV Connect Asia 11 - 12 April Dubai, Hong Kong UAE
SCWA ITC FEST Asia 11 April - 12 April Singapore Dubai, UAE
Financial SCWA Asia Inclusion Summit Asia 18 11 - April 19 April Singapore
Seamless Asia 19 - 20 April Singapore
NAB Show 22 - 27 April Las Vegas, US
MVNOs World Congress 24 - 27 April Acropolis Nice, France
48 December 2016

March & April 2017
5G Latin America 25 - 27 April RIO de Janeiro, Brazil
Expo Comm Russia 25 - 27 April Moscow, Russia
Broadband Latin America 25 - 27 April RIO de Janeiro, Brazil
5G MENA 30 April - 02 May Dubai, UAE
Seamless Middle East
May 2017
01 - 02 May Dubai, UAE
Cloud MENA 01 - 02 May Dubai, UAE
The Mobile Show ME 01 - 02 May Dubai, UAE
Transform Africa Summit 2017 10 - 12 May Kigali, Rwanda
MilsatCom Asia Pacific 15 - 16 May Singapore
Critical Communications 16 - 18 May Hong Kong
World Telecom Day 17 May Globally Celebrated
GISEC & GEMEC 21 - 23 May Dubai, UAE
Future Technology Week 21 - 23 May Dubai, UAE
ioTx 21 - 23 May Dubai, UAE
Casbaa Satellite Industry Forum 22 May Singapore
CommunicAsia 2017 23 - 25 May Singapore
SCWS Forum 23 May London, UK
June to October 2017
West Africa Com 06 - 08 June Lagos, Nigeria
5G World 13 - 15 June London, UK
GSMA Mobile World Congress 28 June - 01 July Shanghai, China
IBC 14 - 19 September Amsterdam, Netherlands
Telecom World ME 18 - 19 September Dubai, UAE
ITU Telecom World 25 - 28 September Busan, Korea
PT/EXPO China 2017 27 - 30 September Beijing, China
5G Asia 02 - 04 October Singapore
GITEX Technology Week 08 - 12 October Dubai, UAE
Broadband World Forum 24 - 26 October Messe Berlin, Germany
CommUnic Indonesia 25 - 27 October Jakarta, Indonesia
December 2016
49

50 December 2016

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Our aim is to help ideas go further, faster to
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