Tag Archives: Telecom

04.30.13
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9474

Article posted in Cloud961 issue Cloud #0 May 2103 http://www.cloud961.com & @cloud961mag

June 1st 2013 is a new date for the Lebanese telecommunication sector, on that day a decree number 9474 by the government restricts the access to both national GSM operators on all handsets by authorized IMEI numbers only will be executed.

The above sentence might be gibberish for non-technical reader that is why this article won’t be a technical review; it won’t be a political stand and not even an opinion. After reading several articles, the official decree itself and listening to what Minister Sehnaoui had to say on the announcement day I have compiled a series of questions and thoughts hoping to get answers from Minister Sehnaoui himself, who’s personal message to me whiling to meet and discuss them all yet it was never scheduled.

Before sharing my thoughts on that decision I will explain some technical words and definitions to make it easy on all of us:

IMEI: international mobile station equipment identity, just like a car VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) it’s a hard to fake serial number unique for each mobile device, phone or tablet. You can always find out your IMEI by pressing *#06#.

Gray Market: it will define the status of a mobile device “smuggled” into Lebanon through the legal harbors and channels, has a clean import manifest but the “smugglers” managed to skip paying Customs fees and VAT as per the law.

Brands: opposed to gray market, are the authorized dealers and distributors for the international mobile manufacturers in the Lebanese market and import their products through the legal harbors and channels, pay Customs fees and VAT.

National Operators: Alfa and touch operating the notional mobile network.

Personal: will be used to describe any device bought and brought from abroad on a personal level and for personal use oppose to mass import for business use.

The road map for this decree execution is 2 month, after June 1st all Brands should declare their imported IMEI handset numbers through a legal document, those numbers will be added to the official IMEI database managed by the Ministry of Telecom, Personal devices should be also declared by registering them, only declared and registered IMEIs will be allowed to access the national mobile network, excluded all IMEIs active on roaming numbers. (Full process will be published soon on national operators’ websites) to make it simpler, if your phone bought after June 1st doesn’t get a network signal it means it’s a gray market product, you can’t use it in Lebanon.

My thought as following, sharing them and still hoping to get clear answer:

1. What guarantees will assure a proper application of the Personal registration process, knowing that 3G phase and most telecom related projects are a mess in execution and results?

2. The gray market devices are getting in the country through the legal government controlled harbors, why not stop them there and avoid unnecessary time consuming procedures to the end users by declaring and registering their products?

3. If gray market “smugglers” are that well protected, untouchable and capable, what are the guarantees that they won’t “smuggle” their IMEIs numbers into the national database?

4. Do the Lebanese consumers deserve because of this decree at least a 20% rise in prices, in the absence of other alternatives such as buying contract phones?

5. Mobile phone testers, bloggers, technical people will have a certain “free pass” to be able to test unlimited number of units or also restrictions applies here?

6. What are the measures to protect the national database, who as access to it?

7. Is the limitation to the Personal imported devices (3 per user every 6 month) applied on politicians, deputies and diplomats?

I will settle with these thoughts for now, until we receive the proper answers, the application of the decree and the mess it’s going to create in the telecom sector is yet to be witnessed after June 1st and with every law in this country come exceptions and sometimes the exception might eliminate the whole law, seen it before and will see it in the future with the absence of a transparent implementation.

Amer Tabsh

12.03.09
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Nokia sets key financial targets, Devices, Services for 2010

Helsinki, Finland – Today, at its annual Capital Markets Day event, Nokia set key targets and forecasts for the company and its industry for 2010. Senior company executives outlined how Nokia’s focus on execution combined with its core competitive advantages, position the company to achieve and sustain broad-based success in the mobile devices market. At the event, Nokia also demonstrated significant improvements to its forthcoming version of the Symbian user interface.
Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, highlighted Nokia’s focus on user experience, stating: “In 2010, we will drive user experience improvements, and the progress we make will take the Symbian user interface to a new level. As an operating system, Symbian has reach and flexibility like no other platform, and we have measures in place to push smartphones down to new price points globally, while growing margins. I see great opportunity for Nokia to capture new growth in our industry, by creating what we expect to be the world’s biggest platform for services on the mobile.”
Nokia CFO, Timo Ihamuotila, described Nokia’s view of the industry and competitive environment: “Going into 2010, the overall mobile devices market is stabilizing and it is growing more in the areas where Nokia has competitive advantages. We believe that by executing on the operational priorities we have set, Nokia will be competitive in both mobile phones and smartphones and will improve its value share.”
Targets and forecasts for Nokia and the mobile device industry
– Nokia expects industry mobile device volumes to be up approximately 10% in 2010, compared to 2009.
– Nokia targets its mobile device volume market share to be flat in 2010, compared to 2009.
– Nokia targets lower average selling price (ASP) erosion of its mobile devices in 2010, compared to recent years.
– Nokia targets to increase its mobile device value market share slightly in 2010, compared to 2009.
– Nokia targets non-IFRS* operating expenses in Devices & Services of approximately EUR 5.7 billion in 2010.
– Nokia targets bringing Devices & Services non-IFRS* research and development expenses below 10% of net sales in 2010.
– Nokia targets Devices & Services non-IFRS* operating margin of 12% to 14% in 2010.
– Nokia continues to target Services net sales of EUR 2 billion or more in 2011.
– Nokia continues to target to have 300 million active users for its services by the end of 2011.
Targets and forecasts for Nokia Siemens Networks and the mobile and fixed infrastructure and related services market
– Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks expect a flat market in euro terms for the mobile and fixed infrastructure and related services market in 2010, compared to 2009.
– Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks target for Nokia Siemens Networks to grow faster than the market in 2010.
– Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks continue to target Nokia Siemens Networks to reduce its non-IFRS* annualized operating expenses and production overheads by EUR 500 million by the end of 2011, compared to the end of 2009.
– Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks target Nokia Siemens Networks non- IFRS* operating margin of breakeven to 2% in 2010.
Additional financial targets
– Nokia and NAVTEQ target NAVTEQ operating margin to be higher than Devices & Services operating margin in 2010, on a non-IFRS* basis.
– Nokia targets its financial income and expense to be approximately EUR 250 million expense in 2010.
Nokia Devices & Services operational priorities
In addition to providing its key financial targets, Nokia also outlined key Devices & Services operational priorities for 2010. These are:
– Improve our user experience;
– Re-engineer our Symbian user interface; deliver a major product milestone before mid-year 2010, and another major product milestone before the end of 2010;
– Deliver our first Maemo 6-powered mobile computer, with an iconic user experience, in the second half of 2010;
– Significantly increase the proportion of touch and/or QWERTY devices in our smartphone portfolio;
– Scale up our Services business by expanding geographically and in partnership with more operators;
– Provide third party developers with better tools to create applications and content for our Ovi ecosystem;
– Further optimize the industry’s lowest cost end-to-end business model in Mobile Phones; and
– Continue to build on our affordable and localized services offerings for emerging market consumers.

11.02.09
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The 9th Global Symposium for Telecom Regulators. The Program

The “9th Global Symposium for Regulators” (GSR) conference taking place for the first time in Lebanon. Scheduled from Nov 9th to 12th 2009 with allot of important guests and speakers coming from all over the world.

Attached is the program and more information about the guests speakers, panels and moderators.

If anyone is interested to attend and blog from there please let me know.

Download Program: GSR Program or here.

10.28.09
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The 9th Global Symposium for Telecom Regulators in Beirut for the first time.

A press conference was held today at the Habtoor Grand Hotel (Hamra Room) in the presence of local, regional and international media to announce the hosting the “9th Global Symposium for Regulators” (GSR) conference in Lebanon. Scheduled from Nov 9th to 12th 2009, this event will not only help Lebanon reclaim a leadership position on the international telecommunications scene, but it will also attract investor interest in Lebanon and help unleash the potential of telecommunications as a driver of growth and competitiveness of the Lebanese economy. GSR will be held under the High Patronage of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Lebanon, General Michel Sleiman. It is jointly organized by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Lebanon (TRA). GSR is an international conference that will bring together heads of national regulatory authorities from both developed and developing countries to share views and experiences and discuss key strategic topics facing the telecommunications sector in this global venue.

According to Dr. Shehadi, Chairman and CEO of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), telecommunications can become Lebanon’s engine for economic growth, job-creation, and a driver of productivity and competitiveness for Lebanese businesses. Accordingly, this conference comes at a very critical time as TRA, an independent authority established in 2007, strives to meet these goals and pave the way for a regulatory environment that fosters a competitive telecommunications market to deliver state-of-the-art services at affordable prices to the broadest spectrum of the Lebanese population.

In the last two years, TRA has made the fastest progress in a very short time span through the liberalizing of the telecommunications market and is poised to launch a large scale liberalization of mobile and broadband services in 2010. During 2008 and 2009, the Authority had carried out more than 21 public consultations on new regulations, policies, and decisions, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Economy and Trade on February the 11th, 2009 to promote consumer protection, and built an innovative broadband roadmap to liberalize the market for key telecommunications services, namely mobile, broadband, and international.

The GSR event, in parallel with TRA’s mission in promoting growth in the telecommunications sector, will highlight the new challenges that regulators should overcome, while focusing on the impact of the financial crisis on regulation. In addition, it will shed light on the importance of consumer protection and analyze key issues such as interconnection, mobile regulation and VOIP- all of which are factors that will provide Lebanon with an opportunity to leap-frog and reclaim its leading position in telecommunications in the region.

This event provides an opportunity for all regulators to work closely together and learn from one another to overcome challenges which are global in nature such as harmonization of radio frequencies, Green ICT, or universal service … among others.

The GSR event titled “Hands-on or Hands-off? Stimulating growth through effective ICT regulation” will be held at the Habtoor Grand Hotel Convention Center in Beirut.

In addition, the 2nd Global Industry Leaders Forum ( GILF) chaired by Dr. Saad Al Barrak, Zain’s CEO, will take place on the very first day of the event (November 9th ). GILF has been designed to complement and reinforce the GSR and aims at facilitating the dialogue between industry and policy makers and regulators on pertinent issues that currently prevent or slower down ICT and telecommunication investment in developing and least developed countries. All participants in the GILF are invited to attend the first day of the GSR.

The two events come in response to Resolution 29 of The World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-06) in Doha, which stipulates ITU Telecommunication Development Sector initiatives on sector member issues, and in accordance to the recommendations of the ITU Telecommunication Development Advisory Group (TDAG ’07) meeting held in Geneva. These two conferences are organized by ITU to bring together ITU members – regulators and sector members (private sector operators)- and is not an ITU statutory conference (i.e., required by the ITU Convention) where binding decisions are taken and where governments members of ITU are expected to represent their country and vote.

for more information check www.tra.gov.lb