Presented by: Mr. Thomas W. Wilson

CEO & Managing Executive Director, SAMENA CEO & Founder, Teralight Ltd The 8 th Arab Telecom & Internet Forum - 2006 May 24 – 25, 2006 Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah, Muscat, Oman

Presentation Agenda



SAMENA Regional Industry Characteristics

 Regulatory, Governmental & Market Conditions 

SAMENA Introduction & Description

 Values, Issues & Benefits 

The Road to SAMENA

 The Omantel Example 

SAMENA Road Map

 Short, Medium & Long Term Objectives

SAMENA Region Characteristics



Exceptionally Aggressive Market Growth



Improving Telecom Regulation



Privatization of Incumbent Telecom Operators



Improvement of public governance policies

Very Aggressive Growth

   The SAMENA region is the world fastest growing zone for telecommunication services deployment Tremendous Inter and Intra-regional Investments The telecom sector acts as a catalyst for the economical growth in the region

Telecom Regulatory Liberalization

   Telecommunication Regulatory Authorities exist in almost all the countries of the SAMENA regions which are today grouped into bodies known as Arab Network of Regulators

(ARN) & African Network of Regulators

The fact that these bodies have been set up few years only after the creation of the 1 st regulator is a tremendous achievement which has been made possible by:  The involvement of these regulators in the work conducted by the ITU through the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), and by  The awareness within these regulators that a regional coordination is not only useful but essential for a better comprehension of their common problems and for a greater capability to define common strategy and adopt comparable practices Changes in actual Telecommunications Regulation

Incumbent Telecom Operator Privatization(s)

  Recognition of the predominance of market rules The acceptance by governments of the role and the importance of the private sector with respect to investments, job creation and strategy making

Improvement of public governance policies and regulations

   Adoption of governance practices in line with the highest international standards The adoption of regulations that attracts foreign investment Regulations which build consumer and market confidence

SAMENA Introduction

      Mission Statement Values & Benefits Advocacy Technologies Issues Events

Serving South Asian, Middle Eastern & Northern African Facilities Based Operators and Service Providers, both Fixed & Mobile Networks!!!

Unifying a Consensus Message and Voice!!!!

Mission Statement



Mission Statement

economic values. - The Mission of and service providers in the working environment.

S

outh

SAMENA

operators throughout the region.

A SAMENA

unified, consensus-based platform and voice for leading operators sia/

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region, in order to interact, network and collaborate with each other and with ministries, manufacturers and suppliers in an unbiased offers a non-profit, objective organizational structure to facilitate such consensus-building and cooperation, through the free flow and interchange of ideas and information among the multi-faceted, diverse interests of telecom

SAMENA

iddle is to provide a

E

ast/

N

orth , as the ultimate regionally-oriented and operator-driven forum, clearinghouse and advocate, will communicate the common viewpoints and

A

recommendations of its Members to the established national, frica regional and international organizations and institutions on important issues regarding telecommunications development, policy and

Mission Statement – cont.

 By providing a forum to foster economic growth and creative collaboration on technical projects and business, legal and regulatory issues, resolve. To this end, and views of its Members.

benefit of all of its Members.

SAMENA SAMENA SAMENA

allows all Members to benefit from the fruits of mutual cooperation and will convene conferences, educational and technical seminars and membership meetings to promote Member networking, the unbiased exchange of information and discussion of shared goals seeks to serve as the incubator for next-generation telecommunications concepts and technologies in the region, and to forge common solutions which can then be implemented for the

SAMENA Values

    The Advantage of Unity  Governmental Bodies pay attention to Organized Groups.

A Single Voice and Single Message  Easier to Comprehend and Adopt Strength in Numbers  Much Stronger Lobbying Credibility Consensus Objectives  Open Markets, Competition, Consumer Choice

SAMENA Values – Cont.

       Advocacy of Critical Issues and Elements Greater Information Sharing Development of Educational Programs Exceptional Networking & Partnering Greatly Magnified Buying Power Merger & Acquisition Support and Information Creation of Favorable Investment Environment

SAMENA Values & Benefits

        Initially 15 Different Committees Advocacy at the Regulator / Operator Level Conferences & Trade Exhibits Dedicated to Operator Issues Advocacy Meetings, Forums & Teleconferences Webinars & Technology based Seminars Web-Based Media: Newsletters, White Papers, Product Announcements, Corp. Branding, etc.

SAMENA Web Based Career Center Postings

Advocacy

    Promotion of Operator & Service Provider Issues with Regulatory & Governmental Bodies. Generally, the three pillars of advocacy are Policy, Legal and Governmental Affairs Consensus on Standards, Practices and Procedures Ability to provide Mediation and Dispute Resolution

Technologies

      WLL - CDMA versus GSM versus 802.16 2004 Mobile Broadband – 802.16e versus 3G MVNO Deployment – Virtual or not WCDMA via Edge and UMTS Networks True Triple Play Networks and Soft switches Many more that have to be Parsed

Issues

        Regulatory Issues and Decisions Spectrum Management – Frequency Issues Mergers and Acquisitions - Consolidation Affordable Ex-Pat Network Revenue Generation Bypass Fraud causing Huge negative Impact Mobile Snatching – Effective SIM chip mngmnt Competition in the New Competitive Environment MVNO and Incumbent Operators

EVENTS in Next 12 Months

     Casablanca, Morocco – September 18 th Hyatt Hotel – Beyond Connectivity Dubai, UAE – January 29 th, 30th Emirates Towers Hotel, Dubai and 19th, and 31 st , 2007 Islamabad, Pakistan – April, 2007, Marriott Hotel Collaboration Meeting in Dubai for IRR to be announced – Position Paper Aggregation Final!

Bringing together the industry under one roof. Other specific meetings to be announced!

 

The Road to SAMENA

The consistent absence of a body grouping South Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African ( SAMENA SAMENA ) telecommunications operators clearly appeared as an incomprehensible anomaly especially in consideration of the fact that within the region, independent telecom operators have existed years before telecom regulators.

The SAMENA fastest growing telecom market in the world.

region is presently the

The Road to SAMENA – cont.

 Indeed, the issue of creating an association grouping Public Incumbent Telecom Operators from the MENA region has been raised since years and discussed at many occasions, in particular within the ITU Arab Regional Working Party in which these operators are active members.

The Road to SAMENA – cont.

 The fact is that such an association has never been established and many of the telecom operators have conducted difficult transformation processes, migrating from administration entities towards privatized companies without enjoying the possibility of sharing regional experiences or the benefit and the support of an inter regional association

The Omantel Example

  OMANTEL, for instance accomplished between 2003 and 2006 a long process of transformation:      Creation of the company as an independent operator subject to market rules after the old GTO which was directly managed by the Ministry Adoption of a new management structure in line with best international standards in particular with respect to the activities of the Board of Directors, The training and recruitment of Omani personnel selected for their skills and competence Creation of Oman Mobile as an independent subsidiary to manage the provisioning of mobile services and be able to compete freely in the mobile market.

Launching of an initial IPO allowing private sector entities or individuals to invest capital into the company Due to the absence of such inter-regional association as SAMENA, all of these major steps have been completed without the possibility for OMANTEL to share with or learn from other operators any kind of experience over similar processes.

SAMENA Road Map

    Short Term Objectives  Building Membership and Building a Consensus Objective Medium Term Objectives  Accomplishing Success Long Term Objectives  Providing Consistent Advocacy for Transparency in a newly formed competitive environment Moving Forward  Getting it done with a Unified and Single Message

Short Term Objectives

 For any new association, the most important task is to work on enlarging its membership.  Objective 1: Attract to SAMENA all of the Public Incumbent Telecom Operators and all the Mobile Telecom Operators.

  Objective 2: Complete the formation of the board of directors and the governing bylaws.

Objective 2: Attract to SAMENA a max number of existing or future telecom operators such as ISPs, Wireless Data providers, Data-center operators, Call Centers operators, CCTV Operators, & IP-TV operators.

Short Term Objectives –

cont.

 In order to reach these objectives, many actions shall be necessary. Allow me to mention some of the actions that I have already been planning to conduct once they would have been approved by our Board:      Sending Letters to all the Chairs or CEOs of Public Telcos inviting them to join

SAMENA

on a continual basis.

Beginning Regional Advocacy Representation of Member Issues as Invited.

Sending letters to all the Ministers of Telecommunication and Information Technologies within the

SAMENA

region informing them of the creation of SAMENA Registering

SAMENA

as an ITU-D Sector Member allowing the association working within the Regional Working Parties (i.e ARWP, ASRWP) Proposing to the sign an affiliation agreement with other International and regional associations such as COMPTEL and the Arab League led Arab Business Forum for ICT (ABF-ICT).

Mid Term Objectives

 SAMENA acts as a highly-visible forum and a relevant body for regional or international bodies or institutes working in the field of telecommunications and there are many such as: GSM association, Wimax Forum, 3GPP + 3GPP2, Standardization Institutes, UMTS Forum, ITU, World Bank-IFC & etc.

 S AMENA will be looking at establishing a list of best standards with respect to relationship between regulators and operators and at participating as far as possible as observer in the work of the Associations of Regulators in a spirit of partnership but with the objective to always deliver the operator implementation ’ s point of view about licensing, competition, spectrum allocation, tariff policy, marketing policy, standardization, project definition and

Long Term Objectives

    Bring Regional Solutions to Regional Needs Market Liberalization Elevate the SAMENA Standards Region to Global Create and foster a working environment that brings new jobs, strong incremental growth and the best in consumer choice to all in the SAMENA region

How to Join!!!

 To join SAMENA Telecommunications Council, go to www.samenacouncil.org

and download the application form for membership. You may also complete the form online. You may also email us at [email protected]

or call us at 971 (0)4 348 7473.

Thank You!

We at SAMENA would like to thank the Al Iktissad Wal-Aamal Management for inviting us to present SAMENA here at the ATIF 2006 event. I thank you all and hopefully will see you soon in Casablanca, Morocco on September 18 th and 19 th , 2006 for SAMENA 2006.