Nawras CEO speaks at SAMENA Telecommunications Council in Egypt

10 May 2009

Ross Cormack (left) at SAMENA

Nawras CEO, Ross Cormack, recently joined many of the region’s top industry experts participating in SAMENA’s ‘Beyond Connectivity’ conference in Egypt. SAMENA is the industry body bringing together telecom operators, manufacturers, regulatory authorities and academia in the South Asia, Middle East and North Africa region.

The event provided a platform to address various important issues in these more difficult times. Nawras joined many other leading companies such as Etisalat, Motorola, Qualcomm and Credit Suisse, to explore the changing dynamics of the sector and formulate new strategies for the telecommunications industry in the region.

Thomas Wilson, CEO, founder and executive managing director, SAMENA, said, “The main highlight at the conference was the live session for leaders and CEOs,” referring to the session in which Ross Cormack debated some of the industry’s hottest topics with Michael Ghossein, CEO Orange Jordan; Hamood Al-Qaseer, VP Regulatory Affairs STC Saudi Arabia; Alex Shalaby, Chairman Mobinil Egypt and others.

Cormack also moderated the panel discussing ‘Financing and Refinancing – how to access capital from the international markets when it is needed’. Speakers included Michael Katounas, director CS Investment Banking, Alex Exarchos, managing director Middle East Investment Banking and Ihab Ghattas, assistant president, Huawei Technologies.

The panel debated how operators can keep on expanding their footprint and what financial tactics they would need to follow in order to do so, as well as whether telecommunications can be made a recession-resistant business.

On his return to Oman, Cormack said, “Nawras is delighted to be part of the Samena group and has participated both on the platform and in private discussions, where much interest is shown in the Nawras way of doing business. “

Pleasingly different Nawras innovations have recently included new price capped Internet plans ensuring that customers never pay more than they sign up for and value added options like ‘favourite International number’ giving a 10% discount on every call made to two chosen international countries for a minimal monthly fee of just RO1.

Later this month, Cormack is due to speak at the Leaders in Telecom event in Abu Dhabi on the topic of establishing successful business models of the future.

Nawras currently covers 96% of the population with its world-class EDGE network and over 40% with its trusted 3G+ network.