Nawras presents another first in MENA Mobile Forum 2006

Nawras, the Sultanate’s customer-friendly communications provider, recently participated in the MENA Mobile Forum 2006 held in Jumeirah Emirates Towers, Dubai. The forum discussed the massive increase the MENA region is experiencing in GSM customers. In recent years, the Middle East and Gulf have come to represent an enormous and increasingly important market for the mobile telecommunications industry through the combined effects of liberalisation, privatisation and the significant growth in mobile and Internet use.

Keynote speeches were delivered by Dr. Marwan Al Ahmadi, Chief Strategy officer MTC Vodafone, on “3G and Beyond”, Mr. Ross Cormack, CEO Nawras, on “The Set-Up of the Mobile Office Alliance”, and Mr. Harri Koponen, General Manager and CEO Wataniya Telecom, on “Identifying Fundamental Factors for Growth”.

Other senior regional presenters included Mr. Abdulaziz Al Tamami, COO Mobily, who presented on “Opportunities for Emerging Mobile Operator to Increase ARPU” and Mr. Ali Al Dahwi, CEO MTC Atheer, who presented on “Creating a Mobile Telecom Service in Iraq.”

Mr. Cormack’s presentation focused on Nawras initiative to set-up the ‘Mobile Office Alliance’. The set-up of the ‘Mobile Office Alliance’ by Nawras with its strategic partners Microsoft® and i-mate™ brings the latest in wireless mobile business solutions to the Omani market. The Mobile Office alliance offers Nawras customers in the Sultanate advanced mobile solutions giving users access to Microsoft applications such as Outlook e-mail, calendar and address book regardless of whether they use a PC or a mobile device.

He added “Nawras recently announced the introduction of Nawras Mobile Email, a solution which brings emails to mobile phones and PDAs. In addition, with GPRS roaming business customers can remain in touch with their office emails and agendas while on business trips abroad in all GCC countries, UK and other international destination, a total of 9 destinations today.” Nawras has selected and recommended three mobile phones from i-mate™ to be used for the service. The three mobile phones are the K-Jam, JAMin and SP5. They are all characterised by supporting EDGE, the mobile technology which allows high speed data access on Nawras' mobile broadband network. Nawras is the only mobile operator in the Sultanate that supports this high speed state-of-art mobile data access technology all across its mobile broadband network.

Nawras Mobile Email is based on the well known Windows platform that most customers use at work or at home. This gives users a service which is easy to use as most of the features on Nawras Mobile Email are the same as on the normal PC. The mobile handsets used for Nawras Mobile Email even come with special versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, that allows users to review and edit their documents on their mobile phone while they are on the move.

During the presentation Cormack also highlighted how Nawras had within just over one year of operation already achieved many successes including delivering best service, best value and best quality mobile services to the people of Oman. That success is reflected in the fact that Nawras currently has around 23% of the mobile market.

As part of winning the competition for the 2nd mobile operator in Oman in 2004, Nawras was awarded a licence to operate existing GSM services as well as future 3G services. As the first licenced operator in the Sultanate to activate 3G services, Nawras will be responsible for bringing the next phase of Mobile Broadband communications to Oman over the next few years.

The introduction of 3G will further strengthen Nawras position as the clear leader in the local Mobile Broadband market. Nawras is already the only mobile operator to offer Mobile Broadband services to all its customers based on EDGE technology which gives customers ISDN speed internet service while on the move. According to forum organisers Marcus Evans, mobile telephone customers in the Middle East and North Africa are set to reach 66.5 million by 2006, and 120 million as early as 2008. The arrival of competition has proven to be the key to delivering a host of new and innovative mobile services-especially here in Oman.

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