The world is innovating around us at a rapid pace, and nowhere is it more evident than in Dubai. Large, medium and small organisations are innovating to compete with an increasingly competitive environment, with technological advancements ranging from the Palm Island development to the latest customer feedback terminals installed within taxis.

Akshay Lamba is the head of strategic businesses and new initiatives at Al-Futtaim Technologies

Innovation is undoubtedly the key to success today. In the ICT arena, innovation is perhaps best presented in the words of P Evans and TS Wurster – A fundamental shift in the economics of information is under way – a shift that is less about any specific new technology than about the fact that a new behaviour is reaching critical mass. We believe this new behaviour is the demand from business leaders in the region to demystify technology and have it delivered based on sound financial and business reasoning rather than on purely technology-driven considerations.

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With escalating fuel prices, frequent blackouts, and expansion of networks to rural areas off the electricity grid, operators in emerging markets in particular are trialling renewable energy sources to help run their telecoms networks. Given the relatively cheap and reliable energy resources in the GCC, operators in this region are yet to feel the pinch, though threats of an impending energy crisis are set to affect service providers globally. Michelle Mills considers the economically viable ‘green’ energy alternatives that are gaining popularity

There is increasing demand from operators in emerging markets to have their own renewable energy-powered telecoms networks, such as this solar-powered Ericsson site in Indonesia for Telkomsel.

Energy is a costly and rising operating expense in the mobile telecoms sphere, with some network providers in Africa and parts of Asia having to fork out half of their OPEX on energy, and as much as 80 per cent of energy being consumed by base station sites. Such companies are increasingly coming under pressure to develop alternative, affordable energy resources.

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The telecommunications sector is one of the most volatile industries in terms of the tenure of chief executives of companies, who face one of the highest turnover rates, according to consulting firm Booz & Co. With recent high profile changes at the top at telecoms companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, Vodafone and Vodacom, Michelle Mills explores the dynamics in managing succession plans in the telecoms arena and the skills set required to survive the corner office

The spate of changes of top management at leading telecoms firms across the globe in the last two years suggests that the industry is unrelenting in its pursuit of the best talent necessary to lead telecoms companies – be they technology providers or service operators – in what has become an especially complex industry.

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Last December, Vodafone scored a number of firsts by being awarded a mobile licence in Qatar. Vodafone became the first European operator to win a mobile licence in the Gulf, and the opportunity stands out as the first greenfield investment Vodafone has undertaken since acquiring a licence in Egypt ten years ago. In an exclusive interview, Vodafone Qatar CEO, Grahame Maher explains why this prospect is set to change how Vodafone does business in the region, and how success in Qatar will be exported across the region

Grahame Maher, CEO Vodafone Qatar

Every significant operator in the Gulf had expressed an interest in the second mobile licence in Qatar, and its award to a consortium comprising Vodafone and the Qatar Foundation last December came as something of a surprise to onlookers. Qatar’s telecoms regulator, ictQatar, did not do itself any favours by reviewing the final stages of the bid process behind closed doors and not publicising the amount of the winning consortium’s pledge for some time after the winner was announced.

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Almost every market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has at least two mobile network operators, and fixed-network markets are becoming increasingly liberalised. However, the region is idling in value-to-market development by competing facilities-based operators, and new competitive development may be reinforced by service-based operators, found a new study by Booz & Company.

Increased competition has driven market players to be more efficient, offer better services, an improved product portfolio, better pricing, better customer care, and an improved customer experience. However Booz & Co. has identified the absence of service-based competition, and describes why it ought to be introduced.

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