Ihab Ghattas is a telecoms veteran in the Middle East region, having spent nearly 30 years working for the UAE’s incumbent operator Etisalat. In a new role as Huawei’s chief business development officer for MENA, he discusses with Michelle Mills the difference in the dynamic between working within a service provider from that of working within an equipment supplier, identifying insightful trends along the way

I know the network of the UAE like the back of my hand, because I built it,” declares Ghattas. The Egyptian national worked for Etisalat for almost 28 years where his responsibilities included introducing Next Generation Networks to the UAE, implementing wireline and wireless projects and assisting in the acquisition of Pakistan’s PTCL.

He believes this vast experience helps in his latest role with Huawei in understanding the needs of his clients. Having joined the Chinese equipment manufacturer in March 2007, Ghattas is based in Dubai and spends much of his time establishing key relationships with operators across the MENA region, as well as introducing enterprise solutions to non-telecommunications businesses.

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Oman’s telecoms sector has come alive, with a number of licensing processes following fast after each other, which will result in the market becoming one of the most competitive in the Gulf. Things are also afoot at the incumbent operators, Omantel and Nawras, making the atmosphere in the telecoms sector crackle with anticipation.

The announcement of the process to award Oman’s second fixed licence has attracted much domestic interest, though its international appeal is yet to be tested

Between 2005 and 2007, Omantel’s subscriber base grew 14 per cent year-on-year, while revenues grew 16 per cent to US$950 million at the end of 2007. EBITDA grew 21 per cent year-on-year to US$502 million at the end of the same period, while net income grew by 29 per cent to US$293 million.

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Delta Partners was established by a group of ex-Diamond Cluster (now Oliver Wyman) employees in Dubai in the second half of 2006, and has since expanded rapidly in three core areas. Delta Partners specialises in the telecommunications media and technology sectors, servicing the industry through advisory services, private equity and corporate finance facilities. In the middle of this year Delta Partners established an office in Johannesburg, headed up by managing partner Kristoff Puelinckx, who details the rationale behind the expansion.

Johannesburg is not a new city to Delta Partners’ Puelinckx, who says the company has worked with a number of companies in South Africa over the past few years. Hence, it is a natural progression for the company to establish a presence in the country and actively bolt down networking relationships and prospective deals.

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Earlier this year Etisalat announced the commencement of a trial with a local bank to utilise Near Field Communication (NFC) in order to support an array of mobile payment transactions. The initiative is a pioneering one given the few examples of commercial NFC deployments any where in the world. Comm. goes in search of what are the technology’s drivers, positioning and prospects.

A joint initiative between Etisalat and Emirates National Bank of Dubai to pilot Near Field Communication (NFC) is a move that many of the technology’s supporters and detractors will no doubt be paying attention to in order to ascertain whether a solution has finally been developed to fully leverage the mobile device’s natural affinity to banking and payment settlement services.

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A regulatory framework is under construction for mobile and fixed-line number portability to be introduced in Bahrain by the end of the first quarter next year. Michelle Mills considers the point of implementing the regime in a country with a population of less than 750,000

It is surprising that consultant John Horrocks is advising Bahrain’s regulator on how best to establish number portability (NP) in the kingdom, considering he has been outspoken in his view that NP is not feasible in smaller countries with populations of less than 10 million people. He believes that under such circumstances, the costs significantly outweigh the benefits.

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