Motorola and MTC Kuwait highlight new telecoms trends for 2005

The roundtable included lively commentary around the concept of seamless mobility and the timeline for convergence between fixed and mobile telephony as well as industry forecasts from telecoms analyst group Pyramid Research.

"Consumers in Kuwait and elsewhere in the region ultimately want a continued communications experience that enables them to take their information and means of communication with them everywhere. Operators including MTC are considering technologies that enable their subscribers to travel between home, office, and automobile, remaining seamlessly connected to their chosen content while mobile," stated Jonas Lindblad, a regional telecoms analyst for Pyramid Research.

"These types of converged services enhance customer loyalty and help garner marketshare, which are key considerations in the Middle East's increasingly competitive telecoms landscape," he continued.

In addition to the market trends overview provided by Pyramid Research, the MTC and Motorola roundtable featured an in-depth case study from Khaled Al-Hajeri, the MTC Group's CTO and deputy director-general. During his presentation, Al-Hajeri outlined the competitive advantage and service offerings that the organization's Motorola-based network enables MTC to deliver.

"MTC has consistently maintained that it doesn't deploy new technologies simply for the sake of having the latest and greatest solutions, but to differentiate its network by having the resources to meet customer demands and requirements," Al-Hajeri noted.

"With the emergence of 3G as well as increasing interest in fixed/mobile convergence and the benefits that it would offer our subscribers, MTC is keen to continue engaging with providers like Motorola to discuss industry trends and how technology can ultimately improve our customer service and market reach," he added.

The Kuwait roundtable also featured commentary from Ali Amer, Motorola's regional director of sales for its Networks business, Ricky Watts, solutions marketing director for Motorola Networks across the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, and Harout Bedrossian, product marketing manager for Motorola Mobile Devices in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

"With an almost 30 percent growth in its Kuwait customer base in 2004 and ambitious plans for 2005, MTC Kuwait provides a sterling example to the wider Middle East market in its aspirations of growing from a regional to an international telecoms operator through strategic technology deployments and a customer-centric culture," stated Amer.

"MTC Kuwait now has another leadership opportunity around fixed/mobile convergence, as the pace of this trend in the Middle East is surpassing other regions. Once Kuwaiti subscribers fully understand the benefits of seamless mobility, demand is likely to increase exponentially," added Watts.

During the Kuwait event, Motorola also highlighted lessons learned from its other networks customers in the region, including MTC-Vodafone in Kuwait and Fastlink in Jordan. MTC has been a Motorola networks customer for more than 10 years.