Volume 07, June-July, 2016 SAMENA TRENDS EXCLUSIVELY FOR SAMENA TELECOMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL'S MEMBERS BUILDING DIGITAL ECONOMIES A SAMENA Telecommunications Council Newsletter Articles Delivering Smarter SaaS Performance and Security with the Hybrid Network Page 67 SIM Boxes and Internet of Things Pose Rising Fraud Threats in The Middle East and Africa Page 80 Mr. Ahmad Farroukh CEO Mobily Page 04 Promoting market access and end-user participation in the age of digitization www.samenacouncil.org SAMENA CONTENTS VOLUME 07, June-july, 2016 TRENDS The SAMENA TRENDS newsletter is wholly owned and operated by The SAMENA Telecommunications Council FZ, LLC REGIONAL (SAMENA Council). Information in the newsletter is not intended as professional & MEMBERS services advice, and SAMENA Council UPDATES disclaims any liability for use of specific 06. Members News information or results thereof. Articles and information contained in this 17. 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BA Contributing Editors Izhar Ahmad Javaid Akhtar Malik 04. Contributing Members Orange Business Services Syniverse EXCLUSIVE Publisher SAMENA Telecommunications Council INTERVIEW Mr. Ahmad Farroukh CEO Subscriptions Mobily [email protected] Advertising [email protected] Legal Issues or Concerns [email protected] SAMENA TRENDS [email protected] Tel: +971.4.364.2700 © 2016 - All rights reserved. SAMENA TRENDS is a trademark of SAMENA Telecommunications Council. EDITORIAL SAMENA TRENDS JUNE-JULY 2016 Promoting market access and end-user participation in the age of digitization The availability of telecoms infrastructure and A government policy mindset that, for instance, digital access technologies not only promotes would encourage investments by telecom intra-sectoral development and market entry operators, provide level-playing field for all and access by players directly involved in digital players within the telecoms and the digital value communications and ICT development, but also chain, provide incentives for intra and inter-sector assists entities from other sectors to enter and participation across all economic sectors, promote participate in the global marketplace. services that require the citizen to participate in and benefit from digital platforms such as Granted it all, fundamentally, is a game of e-government m-education platforms, etc., is the investment and business sustainability that telecom same that would would make the economy open operators carry out and require, respectively, to international trade. policymakers and regulators have to set the right visions and create the best possible environments Digitization, in all its forms and with its ability to to operate in. Ultimately, the goal for every market, impact the speed at which economies progress for every country, is to be integrated into the forward in creating a better future for their world economy, which is now being defined as citizens, is among the greatest imperatives of digital economy. This global economic integration, the modern world. It is so important that it can over the years, has been made possible by the create solutions to many of the problems that our telecommunications industry, upon to investment societies and our environment face. To accelerate efforts of which advancements and progress of digitization, however, measures to support market various other industries and economic sectors access and to encourage investment and cross- function. sectoral participation have to be set forth. Every smart, digitally-driven developing society has such Economic participation and integration, whether fundamental requirements to be fulfilled by its within a given market or across the borders, are government visionaries. directly responsible for elevating standards of living for billions of end-users across the planet who are increasingly participating in digital service adoption. Most of the developed nations and many of the developing ones are increasingly sharing in the prosperity brought forth by socio-economic integration, driven by accelerated digitization. This, as the Word Trade Organization maintains, has become important to world trade and to the opening up of markets across the borders for foreign market players. Thus when telecom operators speak of the need to frame new regulatory frameworks that support their business needs and government policies that foster digital development, they indeed are speaking of the much larger need to making an economy open to international trade and investment, so that economic participation and integration are carried out at a faster pace. This openness, which is much easier today to achieve due to digitization and much more important given the globalized nature of the collective human endeavor, is crucial to achieving economic success. Yours truly, Bocar A. BA Chief Executive Officer SAMENA Telecommunications Council 3 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW SAMENA TRENDS JUNE-JULY 2016 Mr. Farroukh began his career in 1983 as the Finance Manager for Mediterranean Investor Group. By the early 1990s he focused on audit roles, first as an Audit Supervisor for KPMG, New York and then for Deloitte Touché, Saudi Arabia. In Mr. Ahmad Farroukh 1996 he joined Investcom Holding Group as its Group Finance Controller. CEO He then moved to Africa joining Scancom (Investcom Holding Group) in Ghana Mobily as Managing Director and Regional Manager for its West Africa operations. Following Investcom’s acquisition by MTN Group, he was appointed as CEO MTN Nigeria, which, under his leadership, grew to 40 million subscribers with EBIDTA margins of 62%. This success propelled him to the role of Vice President West and Central Africa and later Group COO at MTN. In 2014 he was appointed as CEO for MTN South Africa. Mr. Farroukh started his role in Mobily in July 2015, and he is still managing the executives of company which has about 20 million customers. 4 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW SAMENA TRENDS JUNE-JULY 2016 Q: What are Mobily’s latest initiatives that are Q: Under what ideal conditions would a promoting digital service adoption among telecom operator be willing to promote users? market access for non-ICT players entering the ICT market? A: There are several initiatives under Saudi 2030 vision to support digitalization, and definitely we are part of A: Facilities and regulations for non-ICT players, along it by supporting our digital services. We are working with telecom operator enablers can be used altogether on special design concepts and methodologies that to encourage promotion of market access for non-ICT encourage user adoption. For digital services, Simplicity, players. Self-care and convenient payment methods will help to encourage in adoption of digital. Meanwhile, our App will be a platform for allowing services. Q: How do you avail of the planned devel- opments of 2030 vision? Q: How can digital services such as mhealth, A: Definitely these developments have a direct impact mfinance, and others be promoted through on our sector. We are involved in several megaprojects existing telecommunications programs? in the petrochemical sector for instance with national companies, providing connectivity, disaster recoveries A: Telecom operators play a core role in promoting and all sorts of ICT services. We are ready to capitalize on mhealth in the society, and we definitely offer mhealth these opportunities and are proud to be involved in these services that meet the domestic demand. Recently, kinds of projects. Our staff base, which is 78% Saudi, is Mobily unveiled “TransforME” App for Fitness and knowledgeable and I consider they are the future of our Health, which provides intelligent diet program with an company, they are ready to meet the demands of the integrated training and exercise program at the same market. time, which