At the end of March, Scott Gegenheimer completed his first full quarter as Zain Group CEO. Expectations for him to turn the Middle East player around are high, and the service provider’s operational results for the first three months of the year clearly identify the areas that require Gegenheimer’s attention. The question being whether current and future market conditions will permit him to raise Zain up to its former glory

Gegenheimer’s first full quarter as Zain CEO has seen him shift the company’s focus to several key areas, including customer experience, operational excellence and synergies, human resources, and new business areas

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The proliferation of independent tower operators in Africa is a clear indication that service providers on the continent acknowledge the benefits they bring and are willing to enter long-term arrangements with a growing number of them. Rhys Phillip, the recently appointed chief commercial officer of Nigeria-based IHS, details why the opportunity has met with such success in Africa

Phillip believes that after resisting for several years, all of the major mobile operators in Africa have begun sharing towers and openly endorsing the benefits

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According to Karim Sabbagh, global practice leader CMT of Booz & Co., the telecom industry is facing a number of inflection points that, depending on the strategic options taken, will result in the character of service providers in the future altering drastically

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In the middle of March, Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa (VMMEA) announced that Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) had agreed to invest US$50 million in the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO); effectively marking VMMEA’s fourth round of funding since establishment in 2007. Comm. spoke to VMMEA founder and CEO Mikkel Vinter and GIC’s Mohamed Eissa about what use the funds would be put to, and what opportunities lie ahead for this business type in the region

Photo from the signing ceremony at the Virgin Group headquarter in London, sitting down form left-to-right:  Peter Langkilde (chairman, VMMEA), Mikkel Vinter (CEO and Founder, VMMEA), Shafic Ali (director Principal Investment, GIC) and Peter Stephens (partner and global head for Telecom and Media Investments, Virgin Group). Standing up form left-to-right: Fahad Al-Nusef (vice-president for Technology and Telecom Investments, GIC) and Mohamed Eissa (head of Technology and Telecom Investments, GIC)

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The liberalisation of many economies has resulted in numerous growth areas; and none of them has been more impressive than in the telecom sector, particularly the mobile business. However, the industry is witnessing challenges that can potentially slow the pace of further growth: eroded ARPU and increasing churn rates. Telecom operators are currently striving to work out differentiated offerings in an attempt to reduce their own subscriber defection and acquire new users from rivals

Mohamed Jamoussi is a senior technical consultant with Saudi Telecom (STC). The views expressed in this article are his own

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