Exclusive Interviews

According to Majed Bin Saad Al Arifi, marketing director and spokesperson, Elm, the company has fully embraced an innovation-based vision for building a better future for society via the development of digital services and products; training and advisory services; outsourcing & administrative support solutions and emerging business solutions. He shared that Elm is currently working on more than 100 projects with government entities and large organizations. In addition, the company is marketing over 46 brands across a client base of 40,000. The company strives to constantly cater to the needs of its local and international clients in the public and private sectors.

Mobile chipset/platform manufacturer Qualcomm plays an important role in facilitating the next generation mobile technology platform and the internet of things (IoT). As a leading partner of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Qualcomm enables emerging smartphone brands and connected device manufacturers to expand their global market and product footprint beyond phones into connected ecosystems, explains Jay Srage, President East Europe and MEA, Qualcomm, speaking to Telecom Review.

Whether mobile payments at the point of service or access control in public transport, wherever near field communication (NFC) is used, errors can happen. German manufacturer of test equipment, COMPRION, has come up with a solution, according to Marketing Director Hajo Sandschneider, who spoke to Telecom Review about the company's undercover tracing of contactless payments.

Analyzing data is essential to successful smart city services, Labib Matta, chief business officer at NXN, told Telecom Review. Once a smart city consulting firm, NXN has grown into a full-fledged digital service provider with a list of heavyweight clients. Smart data analytics is the "key cornerstone" of NXN's services, said Matta - the essential component of its growing digital services portfolio.

The main challenge facing telecom operators in Africa is competition and regulatory stability, according to Mr. Abdellatif Bouziani, CEO of telecom provider Smart East Africa Group serving Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi. Speaking to Telecom Review, Mr. Bouziani said governments in Africa have sold too many operating licenses which have forced prices down, but operating costs remain the same.

In an interview with Telecom Review, Henrique Vale, Global Business Center MEA Leader, Applications & Analytics, Nokia talked about the company's ongoing assistance to CSPs in transforming towards digitalization, improving customer experience and increasing their profitability.

Etisalat Egypt has a positive outlook despite fallout from liberalization of the Egyptian pound in 2016 - a move that saw its value reduced by almost 50 percent against the US dollar. Speaking to Telecom Review, Khaled Hegazy, Etisalat Egypt's Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, said the company's positive outlook is based on the size of the Egyptian market and the aspirations of youth.

As a "hidden champion" of digitalization, Detecon International, a leading German management and technology consultancy, becomes 40 years young (founded 7/7/77). They are Deutsche Telekom Group's own management consultancy that guides national and international clients, including many telecommunications companies, through the process of digital transformation. In an interview with Telecom Review, Peter Krüssel and Falk Schröder, managing partners at Detecon International, talked about how they are helping companies to improve their performance and get them closer to digitization and 5G deployments.

Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) have emerged as the ideal choice to meet the increasing in-building wireless coverage demand and provide the expected quality of experience (QoE), said Mr. Ayman Raba, managing director & CEO at Kathrein Middle East, speaking to Telecom Review.

Starting off as an analyst-programmer back in 1988 and growing year by year, pursuing the IT and telecom business sector, to establishing her own company,  Zakie Karam, General Manager & Co-Founder of DON TELECOM is definitely an inspiration in the world of Telecom.