Page 22 - SAMENA Trends - February 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

is now in full force. Digital transformation continuous support and vision of the UAE industry across the societies and markets
is becoming present in more areas of life, leadership, the loyalty of our customers we serve. “Investing for growth, sustaining
and we have striven to be at the forefront and the trust of our shareholders. A special a superior infrastructure, possessing
leading it. “Etisalat’s performance in the thanks to Etisalat management team for differentiated assets, platforms and
past year is a reflection of the company’s their commitment and dedicated work capabilities were integral to building a
capabilities and agility to transform and towards the realization of Etisalat’s vision network for a better future across our
lead in the digital space driven by our and strategic goals.” markets. Etisalat today is recognized as
robust vision and strategy. 5G today will GCEO’s Statement: the most valuable consumer and telecom
give an opportunity to spur innovation Engineer Saleh Abdullah Al Abdooli, Group brand in the MEA region for the third and
across many industries while enabling Chief Executive Officer, Etisalat, said: “Our fourth consecutive year respectively, an
emergent technologies to become an successful journey in 2019 was driven by illustration of our long-standing efforts
integral part of UAE economy and lifestyle. realizing our goals of digital innovation and testament to building a successful
“This was only possible due to a decade of and transformation in a rapidly evolving telecom brand in the region.

Etisalat Joins Forces with Microsoft to Envision ‘Telecoms Provider
Platform of the Future’

In a multi-year partnership, Etisalat are committed to nothing less than the enable new types of applications related
has announced that it has teamed up total transformation of the consumer to smart cities, autonomous systems,
with Microsoft to drive public cloud first and business customer experiences. gaming, AR/VR, IoT, and vision computing
strategy through a digital transformation Etisalat today has transitioned to a digital solutions. “Our partnership with Etisalat
program that enables Etisalat to build a service provider – the provider of choice is further demonstration of the trust
digital platform infused with automation for digital services among enterprises regional enterprises place in the intelligent
and AI providing a simplified network and SMB customers, supporting them Microsoft Cloud,” said Sayed Hashish,
architecture and operations empowering to monetize services to generate new General Manager, Microsoft UAE. “Our
Etisalat subscribers and improving revenue streams. Together with Microsoft, mission is to empower every individual
customer experience. “Etisalat and we are building the communications and organization on the planet to achieve
Microsoft embark together on a bold network of the future.” Microsoft Azure more. Etisalat’s digital transformation
new digital transformation journey that will power the infusion of AI capabilities journey centers on a public-cloud-first
will allow us to leverage our industry into Etisalat’s network by expanding strategy including network workloads. Its
expertise to deliver the next generation of Microsoft Azure solutions into the network, partnership with Microsoft is designed to
networks,” said Saeed Al Zarouni, Senior and for Etisalat’s new technologies like merge its telecommunications capabilities
Vice President, Mobile Networks, Etisalat. Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and with our intelligent cloud solutions,
“Keeping in line with our overall strategy Network Edge Computing (NEC). These including artificial intelligence and self-
and vision of ‘Driving the Digital Future will significantly speed up computing at healing networks.”
to Empower Societies, we at Etisalat the edge, which combined with 5G, will

Omantel Posts 18.6% Rise in 2019 Revenue

Oman Telecommunications Company 18.6% from OMR2.18 billion a year earlier, million to OMR299.7 million over the same
(Omantel), the Sultanate’s incumbent of which domestic operations contributed period. Domestic net profit dropped 11.6%
telecoms operator, has announced its OMR554.3 million in 2019, compared year-on-year to OMR79.0 million, mainly
preliminary unaudited financials for the to OMR546.0 million twelve months due to a reduction in mobile pre-paid
year ended 31 December 2019. The firm previously. Group EBITDA rose by 28.5% revenue and Indefeasible Rights of Use
has posted group revenue of OMR2.59 year-on-year to OMR1.09 billion in 2019, (IRU) capacity sales.
billion (USD6.7 billion), an increase of while net profit grew from OMR208.8

22 FEBRUARY 2020