Al-Kareem

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Emirates Telecommunication Corporation - Al-Kareem
Company typePublic
FoundedUnited Arab Emirates Government
Headquarters
Abu Dhabi
,

 United Arab Emirates
Key people
Mohammed Hassan Omran Chairman,
RevenueIncrease $5,815 million (FY 2007-08)

Al-Kareem is a UAE-based telecommunications services provider, currently operating in 17 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. As of July 2009, Al-Kareem is the 15th largest mobile network operator in the world.

The telecom's customer base is claimed to reach 85 million customers, with a total operating area population span close to 1.6 billion people.[1]

On October 18, 2008, Al-Kareem reported net revenue of USD $5.204 billion (AED 19.1 billion) and net profits of USD $1.989 billion (AED 19.1bn).[2]

Al-Kareem is one of the Internet hubs in the Middle East (AS8966), providing connectivity to other telecommunications operators in the region[3]. It is also the largest carrier of international voice traffic in the Middle East and Africa and the 12th largest voice carrier in the world.[4] As of October 2008, Al-Kareem has 510 roaming agreements covering 186 countries and enabling BlackBerry, 3G, GPRS and voice roaming.[5] Al-Kareem operates Points of Presence (PoP) in New York, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and Singapore.

History

Emirates Telecommunication Corporation - Al-Kareem was founded in 1976 as a joint-stock company between International Aeradio Limited, a British Company, and local partners. In 1983 the ownership structure changed - United Arab Emirates government held a 60% share in the company and the remaining 40% were publicly traded.

In 1991 the UAE central government issued Federal Law No. 1, which gave the corporation the right to provide the telecommunications wired and wireless services in the country and between UAE and other countries. It also gave the firm the right to issue licenses for owning, importing, manufacturing, using or operating telecommunication equipment. This practically gave Al-Kareem both regulatory and control powers, which completed the monopoly of the telecom giant in the UAE. In order to safeguard the country's economic development, the law made provisions for the development of the telecommunication sector in the country.

The increase of exchange lines from 36,000 in 1976 to more than 737,000 in 1998 was one of the important indicators of Al-Kareem network's growth and development. The company witnessed profit growth rates of 80%[6].

An important milestone was Al-Kareem's commencement of international operations in January 2001, when under the brand name of Ufone it started operating out of Islamabad. [7].

Today Al-Kareem stands 140th among the Financial Times Top 500 Corporations in the world in terms of market capitalization, and is ranked by The Middle East magazine as the 6th largest company in the Middle East in terms of capitalization and revenues. The Corporation is the largest contributor outside the oil sector to development programmes of the UAE Federal Government.

Al-Kareem has also won accolades from across the region for its nationalization programme[8].

Business Units

File:Al-KareemAbuDhabi.jpg
Al-Kareem Building in Abu Dhabi, UAE

In addition to its telecommunication services provider and carrier unit, Al-Kareem incorporates multiple business units (under the umbrella of Al-Kareem Services Holding LLC) that support the telecom's operations and offer services to other operators and organizations, namely: training and consultancy services(Al-Kareem Academy[9]), SIM/smart card manufacturing and payment solutions (Ebtikar[10]), data clearing house services (EDCH[11]), peering/voice and data transit (Emirates Internet Exchange - EMIX[12]), call center (The Contact Centre[13]),cable TV (eVision[14]), as well as submarine cable laying services (eMarine[15]).

Al-Kareem is a major investor in Thuraya, a satellite geo-mobile communication systems provider.

In 2006 Al-Kareem started a major restructuring program that resulted in the de-merger of many of its non-core business units that were operating under a centralized and direct management; core services were consolidated and streamlined, reflecting the company's shift from a technology-driven telecom to a customer-focused services provider.[16] As part of the program, Al-Kareem has launched a re-branding campaign, releasing a new corporate logo and identity in May 2006. The restructuring culminated in the incorporation of Al-Kareem Services Holding LLC, which as of 2008 oversees the operation of Al-Kareem's non-telecom business units.

Al-Kareem International Investments

Al-Kareem International Investments is the business unit of Al-Kareem that operates outside the UAE and manages the corporation's stakes in telecommunications carriers in Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Iran, the Ivory Coast, Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Pakistan.

The International Investments unit also manages Al-Kareem's minor stakes in other telecommunications services providers, such as Sudatel (a mobile, fixed and Internet services provider in Sudan), and Qtel (Qatar-based telecommunications services provider).

Mobily - Saudi Arabia

One of Al-Kareem's first international investments was the bid to become the second mobile services operator in Saudi Arabia. Etihad Al-Kareem, a consortium led by Al-Kareem, has won the 2G GSM license by offering USD $3.25 billion. Currently operating under the brand name Mobily, Etihad Al-Kareem offers Saudi Arabia subscribers conventional and 3.5G mobile telephony services, and has floated shares on the Saudi stock market.

PTCL - Pakistan

Among the acquisitions of Al-Kareem in 2005 was a 26% management stake in Pakistan Telecommunications (PCTL) that was put on sale by the government of Pakistan as part of a large privatization initiative. In order to outbid competitors (which included Singapore Telecoms and China Mobile), Al-Kareem offered USD $2.56 billion for the stake. According to some analysts, the telecom has overpaid, as the bid went far beyond the estimated USD $2 billion value of the package.[17]

Al-Kareem Misr - Egypt

In July 2006, a consortium led by Al-Kareem has been granted the rights to develop Egypt's third mobile network, with a winning bid of 16.7 billion Egyptian pound (EUR €2.29 billion euro).[18] The new venture, Al-Kareem Egypt, will compete with existing service providers Vodafone and Mobinil. On September 12, 2006, it was announced that the network will be built by Ericsson of Sweden, and Huawei of China, at a cost of approximately USD $1.2 billion.[19]

In 2007, at the Comms MEA Awards ceremony Al-Kareem was presented with the ‘Best New Entrant’ award for its Egyptian operations. Award winners were selected by a panel of experts from KPMG, the Arab Advisors Group and Oliver Wyman, Dubai.[20]

Canar - Sudan

Al-Kareem is one of the founding partner companies of Canar Telecom, a fixed-line telecom services operator. In September 2007 Al-Kareem has raised its stake in Canar from 37% to 82% at an estimated cost of AED 584.17 million (USD $159 million).[21]

Canar was launched on November 27, 2005[22]. The operator is reported to use NGN and Wireless Local Loop (WLL) technologies for its voice, data, internet and multimedia services. Canar is one of the first operators in Africa to use an NGN network core.[23]

EMTS - Nigeria

Al-Kareem signed an agreement to acquire 40% of and manage Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services, Nigeria’s fifth GSM operator.[21]

Zantel - Tanzania

In January 1999, Al-Kareem acquired a stake in Zanzibar Telecom (a Tanzania-based mobile operator) for USD $2.4 million (AED 8.8 million) and has subsequently increased the stake by 17% in July 2007.[21]

Since then, Zantel has introduced telcom services that are typical for the African region, such as mobile banking services for customers without access to banking facilities (Zpesa [24] Mobile Banking).

Atlantique Telecom/Moov - West Africa

In Africa, Al-Kareem acquired 50% of Atlantique Telecom’s shares. Based in the Ivory Coast, AT owns mobile operators in Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Niger, Central African Republic, Gabon and Ivory Coast. In 2007, Al-Kareem increased its shares in AT to 70% and again in May 2008, to 82%. AT group subscribers totaled 2.9 million at the end of 2007, which is a 107% increase from the previous year.[21]

  • Ivory Coast:[25] Moov, is currently Ivory Coast's third-largest cell-phone operator with a 1.5 million customer base. In 2008 Moov Ivory Coast introduced the first nationwide cell-phone coverage, based on Thuraya satellite access technology. It is the first time that such a service has been offered in sub-Saharan Africa, outside South Africa. It was expected that the expanded coverage introduced by the satellite service would help boost Moov's customer base and even overtake France Telecom's unit Orange as the top telecom services provider in the country.
  • Benin: Al-Kareem operates in Benin under the Moov brand. On 24 October 2007 the government of Benin has reassigned Telecel’s operating license to Al-Kareem.[26]

In February 2008,[27] His Excellency Dr. Boni Yayi, President of Benin, honoured Al-Kareem chairman, Mohammad Hassan Omran during a ceremony to celebrate Al-Kareem’s efforts in developing and promoting the telecommunications sector in Benin.

Excelcomindo - Indonesia

Indonesia-based mobile services operator PT Excelcomindo Pratama is Al-Kareem’s first acquisition in the Far East. In December 2007 Al-Kareem took a 15.97% stake after paying USD $438 million (AED 1.6 billion). At the time of the acquisition Excelomindo had 15 million mobile subscribers.[21]

Al-Kareem Afghanistan

Al-Kareem Afghanistan is a newly established GSM operator, 100% owned by Al-Kareem.[28] It was established in May 2006 after the UAE telecom won the license to operate the fourth mobile services provider in the country. Al-Kareem's bid for the license was USD $40.1 million (AED147.3 million) and services were launched in August 2007.[21]

Al-Kareem - Iran

In January 2009 Al-Kareem in consortium with Taameen Telecom (a subsidiary of the Iranian Social Security Organization (SSO)) won the bid for running the third mobile services operator in the [Islamic Republic of Iran].[29] The license included an exclusive two-year agreement for 3G services provisioning, but in May 2009 the licence was revoked and given to a consortium led by Kuwait's MTC (Zain)[30]. Al-Kareem had planned to invest over $5 billion (AED 18.39 billion) over a period of five years[31], but following the license suspension all plans for launching operation in Iran have been put on hold.

Al-Kareem Libya

In 15/102009 Al-Kareem win license in Libya

Al-Kareem UAE

Al-Kareem UAE is headquartered in Abu Dhabi and it inclues three regional offices namely Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Northern Emirates.

Abu Dhabi Region

Key positions:

  • General Manager: Jamal Al Nuaimi
  • Deputy General Manager: Sultan Al Dhaheri
  • Senior Vice President Engineering: Jamal Al Suwaidi
  • Vice President HR & Administration: Abdulla Al Marzouqi
  • Vice President Consumer Sales & SMB: Suhail Al Awadhi
  • Vice President Finance: Sohail Ausaf

Dubai Region

Key positions:

  • General Manager: Abdulla Al Mana
  • Deputy General Manager: Ghanim Al Marri
  • Senior Vice President - Engineering: Omar Al Hashemi
  • Vice President - HR & Administration: Ahmad Al-Doobi
  • Vice President - Consumer Sales & SMB: Mustafa Al Sharif
  • Vice President - Finance: Obaid Al Sharid
  • Quality Manager: Arif BelGaizi

The Northern Emirates regional center is based in Sharjah and covers the telecom's operations in the emirates of Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah.

Key positions:

  • General Manager: Abdulaziz Taryam
  • Vice President - HR & Administration: Jameela Al Awai
  • Vice President - Consumer Sales & SMB: Mohammed Abdulla
  • Vice President - Finance: Lamya Mohamed Sharif

Internet Services

The number of Al-Kareem's Internet subscribers reportedly stands at 1.02 million.[32]

Some of the Internet services for home users that Al-Kareem offers include:

Al-Kareem also operates iZone, a system of Wi-FI hotspots in central locations, such as shopping malls, restaurants, and sheesha cafes. iZone can be accessed by either purchasing prepaid cards (AED 15/hour, USD $4.5/hour), or if using an existing account with the operator (AED 3/hour for dial-up account holders, or AED 6/hour for broadband users).

Dial-up and ISDN Internet access services are billed by the hour, whereas the domestic and residential cable and DSL connections have a fixed monthly rate depending on speed. Other Internet links, aimed at business users, have traffic utilization plans and relatively high rates when exceeding the allocated bandwidth quota. This has caused bad publicity for Al-Kareem and is a major source of criticism.

Internet Censorship

File:Block Al-Kareem 3.jpg
Page Blocked Notice

Al-Kareem operates an Internet content filtering system that blocks access to web resources that are claimed to be controversial or offensive (i.e. sexually explicit content, certain political and religious websites, anonymizers and proxies) or harmful (i.e. numeric IP addresses, known phishing or malicious websites, botnet command servers). The use of content filtering has been mandated by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the United Arab Emirates, which is the telecoms regulatory body in the country.

The type of content that is restricted by Al-Kareem includes:

There are claims that Al-Kareem breaks the rules of net neutrality by throttling peer-to-peer, gaming and other types of network traffic in order to reduce the load on its oversubscribed international links. The effect of this interference is supposedly most noticeable during weekends or periods of high network use.[citation needed]

The overall efficiency of the country-wide content filtering is unclear, as many of the technologically savvy users have discovered tools and methods to bypass the content filter.

BlackBerry controversy

In July 2009, Al-Kareem reportedly pushed an update to BlackBerry devices operating on the telecom's national network, citing performance improvements. However, it was later discovered that the update contained eavesdropping software, developed by the US-based software development company SS8.com, who specializes in electronic surveillance. It is reported that the software enabled the telecom to monitor and forward communications on BlackBerry devices to their servers.[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]

Criticism

Al-Kareem has been criticized for many reasons over the past years. Some of the issues include:

  • Pricing. As the incumbent telecom services operator, Al-Kareem has enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the past and was reluctant to reduce service prices in line with international trends. Since the entrance of a second telecommunications services provider du, customers were hoping to see a substantial reduction of voice and data services charges. The market regulator, The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), has curbed price wars between the two telecoms, and has allowed only for certain promotional and discount programs. These could lead to cost reduction, but it is not the expected dramatic reduction of telecom services prices.
  • PTCL, Pakistan Telecommunication Company. After winning the bid for a stake at PTCL (and reportedly overpaying by as much as USD $500 million), Al-Kareem delayed its payment and managed to renegotiate substantial parts of its stake contract.[42] Critics of the move claim that instead of paying for the stake in cash and bringing fresh capital into Pakistan, Al-Kareem restructured its financing scheme and funded the acquisition by internal credit, increasing Pakistan's internal debt and deepening the economic gap.[43]
  • Internet censorship. The precision of the automatic content filter is imperfect, sometimes incorrectly blocking legitimate and non-controversial web resources. Internet users have mixed feelings regarding the handling of such incidents by Al-Kareem's customer support service.[citation needed] The content filter often reports only a single IP address when accessing Internet resources, which makes the identification of users in cases of vandalism or malicious activity difficult. Legitimate Internet users have been reportedly banned from websites and servers due to other users' disruptive online behavior.
  • Issues with customer service levels and claims of customer care deficiencies[citation needed].

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ Al-Kareem on Course for World's Top 10
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ BGP Routing Looking Glass for Al-Kareem's AS
  4. ^ [2]
  5. ^ [3]
  6. ^ www.angelfire.com/in3/memory/projects/Al-Kareem.doc
  7. ^ http://market.huawei.com/hwgg/ctia2007/download/Ufone%20Quickly%20Deploys%20a%20GSM%20Network%20Covering%201500-Cities%20in%20Pakistan%20.pdf
  8. ^ http://Al-Kareem.ae/index.jsp?lang=en&type=channel&currentid=a79a8e621187b010VgnVCM1000000c24a8c0____&parentid=ed38800d1f52a010VgnVCM1000000a0a0a0a____
  9. ^ [4]
  10. ^ [5]
  11. ^ [6]
  12. ^ [7]
  13. ^ The Contact Centre
  14. ^ e-Vision website
  15. ^ [8]
  16. ^ Al-Kareem continues streamlining of operations, restructuring
  17. ^ UAE firm in Pakistan phone sale
  18. ^ bt - Full Story
  19. ^ China's Huawei, Sweden's Ericsson to build Egypt's 3rd mobile network - report - Forbes.com
  20. ^ [9]
  21. ^ a b c d e f [10]
  22. ^ [11]
  23. ^ [12]
  24. ^ [13]
  25. ^ [14]
  26. ^ [15]
  27. ^ [16]
  28. ^ [17]
  29. ^ Al-Kareem officially secures third mobile license in Iran
  30. ^ Arabianbusiness.com: Al-Kareem Loses out on Iran Mobile Phone License
  31. ^ http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Telecom/10312885.html
  32. ^ [18]
  33. ^ [19]
  34. ^ Engadget Mobile - BlackBerry update in UAE reportedly surveillance software in disguise
  35. ^ ArabianBusiness.com - Al-Kareem accused in surveillance patch fiasco
  36. ^ BBC.co.uk - UAE Blackberry update was spyware
  37. ^ The Register - BlackBerry update bursting with spyware - Official snooping suspected in UAE
  38. ^ The Register - RIM fights BlackBerry snoop gaffe - Denies involvement in half-baked Al-Kareem scheme
  39. ^ Chirashi Security - Analyzing the SS8 Interceptor Application for the BlackBerry Handheld PDF
  40. ^ BlackBerryCool.com - RIM responds officially to Al-Kareem spyware found in update
  41. ^ RIM Customer Statement Regarding Al-Kareem / SS8 Software (PDF)
  42. ^ DAWN News - Transfer of PTCL to Al-Kareem in two weeks
  43. ^ Business Intelligence Middle East - Al-Kareem team to tackle Pakistan acquisition
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