Page 18 - SAMENA Trends - May 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

help the company deal with the challenges requests, a key function especially after the framework of its social responsibility,
posed by COVID-19, especially those the closure of Omantel outlets. Omantel Omantel has endeavored to benefit
related to social distancing and reducing call center has been provided with from its accumulated experience and
the number of employees in the various state-of-the-art facilities and devices technical capabilities in providing support
sites of the company as per the directives including computers, mobile phones to a number of government institutions
issued by the Supreme Committee. As and required software enabling the Call working in the front lines to confront the
a result, Omantel’s call center has been Centre team to work remotely from home pandemic, the most important of which
receiving an increasing number of calls without compromise on the quality of the are the Ministry of Health and Muscat
since COVID-19 started to impact the service provided to customers. The early Municipality. Omantel's call center has
country, which exceeded 35,000 calls a day. preparations have enabled the call center been equipped to serve as a parallel call
Omantel empowered the largest number of to handle 1,507,211 calls over the past 42 center for the Ministry of Health main
its employees to work remotely from home, days; this includes all the calls that have call center working hand by hand with
ensuring their safety while maintaining the been received through the automated- the main call center. In addition, Omantel
services rendered to customers. The new reply system for self-service and to call state-of-the-art solutions enabled Muscat
approach included call center employees center employees. In addition, the number Municipality staff to work remotely from
whose nature of work requires immediate of hours worked from home exceeded home.
response to customers’ inquiries and 9,684 hours per week. Moreover, within

Orange Jordan CEO Emphasizes Roles of
Technology, Telecom Sector in Equipping

Kingdom for Crisis

consumption, as the company's networks have witnessed a 60
per cent increase in traffic. Telecom companies have reinforced
their networks to deal with this sharp increase. Marigny pointed
out that the Kingdom has also witnessed a 'significant increase'
in Internet usage due to the lockdown. Telecom companies have
been 'the first contributors to the success of the government's
decision to digitize learning:' by offering free browsing of the
Ministry of Education's e-learning platform 'Darsak' for school
students, in addition to offering special bundles for university
students and additional internet bundles at affordable prices,
he said in the statement. The strength of these networks has,
as well, contributed to the success of the specialized medical
and supply digital platforms, on which demand have increased
during the self-quarantine, Marigny said. Orange Jordan's
technical and engineering teams have been ready to address
and fix any malfunction or interruption in a timely manner, while
The coronavirus crisis has shown the concept of cooperation in the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) has
the local telecommunication sector, demonstrated the importance granted companies additional frequencies, thereby providing
of the Internet and technology and significantly changed citizens' greater capacities for network operators, he said. The huge surge
digital habits, said Orange Jordan CEO Thierry Marigny. In a press in data usage during the lockdown was expected, as shown by
statement shared with The Jordan Times, Marigny asserted TRC's technical reports. The daily data traffic on mobile fourth-
that 'since day one of the crisis', the company 'has proactively generation networks alone increased by 31 per cent, which is equal
declared' the state of alert and prepared its networks to deal to 1,260 terabytes, he noted. Download speeds improved by 36
with the expected increase in traffic, especially as people were per cent to 73 per cent among mobile companies, considering that
asked to stay home and decisions of continuing study and work the Internet networks have proven their resilience to endure any
remotely were announced. The company has adopted financial emergency, which 'demonstrates the sector's strong infrastructure
and social initiatives to support governmental efforts to overcome and ability to maintain sustainability in all circumstances, despite
the crisis, Marigny said, noting that Orange Jordan's support the immense pressure', the CEO said. Providing more insights,
provided to combat the pandemic amounts to around $2 million, Marigny noted that, parallel to the 'unprecedented' increase in
which reflects the company's social responsibility and values, Internet usage, the Kingdom witnessed an increase in the use of
according to the statement. He added that telecom operators social media applications, for instance, usage of WhatsApp and
have taken the initiative to deal with the massive increase in data Instagram increased by 40 per cent, while watching videos via

18 MAY 2020