Shameless self-promotion...

Not our usual content today, but a bit of light relief.  We hope you'll enjoy viewing it as a respite from your day and give you a flavour of our world-beating telecoms, media & ICT events in action... Show-casing our unique offering of peerless networking, incisive and interactive agendas and our dazzling event experiences ...

Informa Telecoms & Media - why choose us ... from Louisa Rogers on Vimeo.

The annual EurasiaCom event closed today on a high note with lively debates, great discussions and insightful opportunities

The annual EurasiaCom event closed today in Istanbul after two days of lively debates on the future of the telecoms and digital sector in the region.

After a first day focused on operator strategies, LTE and the Internet of Things, the second day looked at cost-efficiency, how to monetise content & apps services and mobile money opportunities. The discussions gave a very insightful overview of the major opportunities and challenges faced by operators in the region: growing profitability while investing in more powerful networks and facing renewed competition from OTT providers.

The event was hosted by operator Turkcell and sponsored by Mahindra Comviva. The speaker line-up gave a broad representation of the region's most dynamic companies, from large operators in developed markets to smaller players in emerging ones. Companies represented on the programme included operators Turk Telekom, MTS, Bakcell, Azqtel, TTNET, Azerfon, Mobitel, Deutsche Telekom, Mynet, Play Mobile, as well as regulators and vendors.

"EurasiaCom provides a great opportunity for very different operators and service providers to network, to share experiences,  and ultimately deliver better services to the end-users" says Julie Rey, Research Director at organisers Informa Telecoms & Media.

EurasiaCom is part of the Com World Series, delivering high-level strategic events to key emerging markets. The next event, East Africa Com will take place in Kenya in May. 


Have a look at what a few people had to say about EurasiaCom 2014:

“Professionally organized, effective usage of time, highly international audience, efficient networking possibilities. The sessions were very informative, with a great range of speakers."

Murad Onol

Protel and TUYAD

“Great speed networking sessions at EurasiaCom! Perfect way to meet and discuss our products with Turkish and CIS Mobile Operators. Thanks Aleksandra!”

Erik Van Thielen

VP Business Development

“Fantastic way to network with operators in short timeslots. Would love to engage in it AGAIN!”

M. Dimitrova

Anritsu

“The great speed networking event enabled me to meet many operators I would normally have a hard time hunting down in an event”

Lars Isaksson

Sales Director

Netadmin Systems

“Definitely an effective event to network in the region. We especially liked the “speed networking”; it helps to get to know regional players quite efficiently! Thank you!”

Ramin Ramezani

MoveEuropa Service

“Thank you so much for EurasiaCom. It was very interesting and well organized event. We will definitely come back again!”

SkyTel Mongolia

Visit the website to find out what else happened at EurasiaCom 2014.

Lively debate characterised 1st day of operator talking-shop EurasiaCom

The annual EurasiaCom conference opened today in Istanbul with great debates on operator strategies in a data-led market. Over 200 people from across the region’s leading telecoms companies gathered to hear inspiring presentations and join discussions with colleagues from across the market.

Murat Erkan, CEO of SuperOnline, opened the conference on behalf of host operator Turkcell. He said: "EurasiaCom 2014 is the only event of its kind covering the dynamic markets of Russia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the CIS and Turkey. The topics this year are highly attractive [including] the latest subjects which not only the region but also for the world works on, explores and tries to provide solutions for. EurasiaCom 2014 proves that each player in the region is a global player indeed."

The morning’s presentations and a panel discussion covered the topics of data-led networks and services.  Turk Telekom’s Fetullah Aykut Erdinc, Bakcell’s Marc Zirka, MTS’s Sergey Nichiporuk and Informa Telecoms & Media’s Alla Shabernikova shared their views on the challenges for operators to take advantage of the new data world: balancing between investment and profitability, LTE networks and services, threat and opportunities from OTT players, data pricing, and new revenue streams. The discussion around OTT players was particularly lively; it created a thought-provoking debate on how operators should react to the loss of revenue from OTT competition. In the afternoon, conference sessions covered  Wi-Fi, mobile number portability, digital marketing, cloud and M2M.

Eurasiacom is also a great opportunity for networking. The coffee breaks and lunch gave a chance to continue the debates in a more informal setting and to check the stands of the event’s sponsors and partners: Mahindra Comviva, Jinny Software, ND Satcom, TUYAD. The event also included a Speed Networking session where VIP guests from operators met some of the event’s key partners and a networking drinks reception will wrap-up the day.

“EurasiaCom is always a great event to discuss major trends in the market” says Julie Rey, Research Director at organisers Informa Telecoms & Media; “This year more than ever, operators are re-thinking their strategies; this creates very interesting debates in the conference and outside. We are proud to provide a platform for the region’s players to examine these key issues”.

The second day of EurasiaCom will continue addressing key strategic topics for the region: cost-efficiency and profitability, content services, mobile money and apps. Visit eurasia.comworldseries.com to find out more information.

Mahindra Comviva's perspective on the drivers for mobile financial services and the future of the industry ...

Vidya Chandy
VP MFS - Product Management
Mahindra Comviva

In advance of the 10th Annual Eurasia Com event taking place next week Com World Series benefits from the experience and wisdom of one of the speakers at the event - Vidya Chandy - of Mahindra Comviva - who offers her opinion here on the evolution of this complex and dynamic market...

Q1. How is your company positioned in the regional market and how do you expect it to evolve over the next couple of years?

Mahindra Comviva’s Mobile Financial Services (MFS) business unit  is a recognized leader with unrivalled experience in the mobile financial technology space, enabling service providers including Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and financial institutions, globally, to meet the needs of customers in both developed and emerging markets.  Its comprehensive suite of products includes digital wallets, mobile money for the unbanked/under-banked, mobile banking, mPOS, international remittance hub and electronic prepaid recharge solutions. It is among the top 3 mobile financial technology providers, with over 120 deployments of mobiquity® money (mobile money for the unbanked/under-banked) and PreTUPS™ (electronic prepaid recharge ), processing over 20 billion USD in payment flows, handling millions of transactions every day and serving 700+ million consumers globally.

We have currently partnered with telecom operators and banks in some countries in the region including Romania, Kyrgystan and Moldova. Our products power mobile financial services in about 26 African countries and we are targeting to establish market leadership in this region as well. We see tremendous potential and diverse demand for mobile financial services in the region (though that tends to vary between countries), and we expect to grow our presence considerably in the next few years in response to high interest in this domain from service providers.

Q2. What is driving adoption and growth of mobile financial services and what are the remaining challenges?

Adoption and growth drivers depend on the type of mobile financial service being offered. An essential pre-requisite is for each market to be assessed individually to understand its potential and environment - and the service must then be tailored to address that. A service which has been successful in one market may struggle to realize adoption and growth in others unless there is a conducive environment and compelling consumer need in those markets as well. Areas to be evaluated include regulations, social-economic-political factors, partnership possibilities, telecom network capabilities & mobile penetration, banking penetration & accessibility, payment infrastructure and maturity, cash circulation & the shadow economy, and addressable size of the target consumer segment(s). 

Mobile money services (for the unbanked and under-banked) which are typically offered by telecom operators require a) significant marketing investment to build trust and awareness amongst consumers, and to address financial and technological literacy b) an engaged and efficient agent network scaling to the last mile. In a nascent market, the service provider must first focus on the core unmet need of consumers before expanding the service: while Kenyans required an affordable, accessible and safe domestic remittance service, the Zimbabwe market required a solution to manage demand for cash balances due to dollarization. Mature markets are seeing success with innovative pricing, expanding the service to more avenues for making and receiving payments, aggressive merchant acquisition and agent incentives, and with opening up the system to partners, especially banks, who can offer savings and deposit products.  Challenges remain with lack of inter-operability and creating universal rather than market-specific services.

Mobile or digital wallets for the banked and card-owning segment have generated huge interest levels amongst banks, card schemes, retailers, telecom operators and OTT players amongst others. But the sweet spot for widespread consumer adoption is still elusive barring a few success stories such as Starbucks, Smart Wallet and Moca in South Korea. Studies demonstrate that consumers are willing to migrate towards use of the mobile for payments and commerce transactions. Digital wallets are well placed in breaking down the barriers to card usage online as they address concerns of security and ease of checkout, and solve the problem of shopping cart abandonment.

Wallet providers need to keep the consumer in mind and solve for them rather than the technology. A friction-less and intuitive experience covering the path to purchase is crucial for adoption – microseconds will begin to matter. Merchants need to be engaged with a multi-channel experience, ease of integration, and efficient delivery and redemption of coupons. Digital wallets involve a complex ecosystem and many stakeholders need to work together to agree on data sharing, customer ownership, ROI on technology enablement, POS infrastructure build-out and investments, and a business model that works for everyone. Currently, there are challenges on all these fronts.

Mobile banking is well established as an alternative and low-cost channel for connecting with customers and financial institutions need to differentiate on experience and accessibility to deepen their brand and customer engagement through this channel.

Q3. How do the various stakeholders work together at the moment and how will this need to change in order for mobile money to become mainstream in the region?

Customer retention and churn abatement are key concerns for telecom operators, hence there is very little incentive for them to collaborate over services that are offered to the unbanked and under-banked. They are partnering instead with financial institutions to offer more sophisticated financial products to help move consumers up the economic value chain. Eventually, transaction volume growth will require interoperability in markets where there is no single operator with a majority share, and this will benefit the domain similar to the way SMS interoperability resulted in increased transactions and operator revenue. Some regulators in other regions have already mandated or plan to mandate interoperability. Converting the opportunity of international remittance into the region will also help make this offering mainstream.

In the context of digital wallets, an example from Asia is worth mentioning: Japan, Korea, China, are innovating, collaborating and building scale. All successful deployments for digital wallets specially those utilizing NFC have built out extensive partnerships between telecom operators, banks, merchants, card networks and are driving awareness and economies of scale, with clear roles and responsibilities between all. KT, China Mobile and Docomo are co-operating strongly towards a joint NFC vision.

In this region, Russia provides a great example of collaboration, where multiple MNO’s have come together to offer a transport payment solution in Kazan, refining the early learnings from NFC launches by individual operators. The region needs more such collaboration to help with customer education, merchant enablement, clear business models for all, and support for more value added services.

Q4. What is still needed in terms of infrastructure, technology and interoperability to further drive MFS adoption across Eurasia?

This needs to be looked at individually for each market as there is wide variability in MFS potential and maturity within the region. Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia demonstrate the most maturity or potential, with Kyrgyz Republic, Romania and Georgia following them.

The issues are intricate when it comes to digital wallets, though with projected rise in mobile data consumption and smart-phone sales, the conditions are ripe for adoption. Markets like Turkey, which have seen several services being launched, could tend to fragment mind-share and consumer and merchant loyalty. Partnerships are needed in order to simplify and move towards interoperability, standardization, and ubiquitous acceptance. Simplification just got a boost through MasterCard and Visa’s support for HCE, as that will solve the complexities inherent today in secure card data storage for NFC-facilitated payments, but handset support and POS upgrades will still take time to get to tipping point.

Q5. Are there any predictions on the mobile money market you’d like to share with the community?

It is difficult to predict the future accurately in the digital wallet space as it is evolving fast, but I expect that a few players will survive and dominate, there will be significant consolidation, dis-intermediation from non-traditional players, the business model will shift to marketing, data and analytics, technology will continue to evolve at a blazing speed challenging the ecosystem, there will be progress on standardization, open platforms to empower developers, and mass-market adoption will be driven by rising network speeds, wide-spread availability and simplification of consumer experiences.

From the perspective of mobile money (for the unbanked and under-banked), I expect shared agent networks and remittance interoperability (domestic and international) to become a reality in mature markets and also in those where there is no dominant market leader; the agent-assisted model serving to bring a wider population into the self-service fold; opening up of platforms to the developer community through API leading to entrepreneurial ICT innovation that will expand mobile money acceptance to high-potential verticals that are currently un-tapped; continued consolidation and standardization.

Q6. What do you hope to get out of participating in EurasiaCom?

I hope to be able to exchange ideas, learnings and experiences with others, be informed about the current dynamics in the region, and understand how service offerings are faring, what are the major concerns and technology-enablement needs for operators and banks, and where can we provide our expertise and assistance.

Eurasia Com takes place next week in Istanbul, Turkey visit here for further information.

Eugene Nyagahene, CEO, Tele10: “Mobile telcos are losing revenue to apps like Skype, Viber and WhatsApp”

Eugene Nyagahene,
CEO,
Tele10

The Com World Series team caught up with Eugene Nyagahene, CEO of Tele10 to discuss burning issues on Profitability, Data and LTE Networks ahead of East Africa Com taking place on the 20-21st of May in Nairobi, Kenya. 

Com World Series: How is your company positioned in the regional market and how do you expect it to evolve over the next couple of years?

Eugene Nyagahene: Satellite broadcasting has been dominating the TV and pay-tv industry for the last 20 years. With digital migration around the corner, the game is about to change: DVB-T2 platforms are mushrooming, 4G/LTE networks and fiber being installed everywhere on the continent. Time has come for game-changers to tap into these new opportunities. Our company will be focused on investing in OTT but more than the network itself, our main investments will be directed to local content production oriented towards mobile viewers requiring a special format for people on the move.

Com World Series: What is most affecting profitability for operators in the region and how are you working to improve it?

Eugene Nyagahene: ARPU for all operators is declining. Facing tough competition from DTT platforms, satellite operators are reducing prices. Mobile telcos are also loosing revenue to apps like Skype, Viber, Whats App etc... Of course premium content such as live sports and movies will still drive sales for satellite operators. But for DTT and OTT, It's clear that the way forward is to bundle internet offer with local content video. Our company is working on it.

Com World Series: How is the demand for data impacting your business and how are you taking advantage of it?

Eugene Nyagahene: So far, the demand for data was for emails, social media and YouTube. The appetite for video content on the move is eroding the fixed screen viewership, especially for the teenagers. Our strategy is to give them more local video content in a structured way that appears as a new TV channel, with possibility to interact.

Com World Series: What is still needed in terms of networks and infrastructure across the region?

Eugene Nyagahene: 3G networks cannot handle the video content needs. More investments in LTE/4G networks and cable are needed. New players such as Korea Telecom are already investing in 4G networks in EAC. This will probably call a positive reaction from the dominant players such as MTN, Airtel etc...

Com World Series: How is LTE changing the market and what is your company’s strategy in regards to this technology?

Eugene Nyagahene: It's just the beginning for LTE networks. Most 3G networks will have to upgrade or disappear. At least in big cities. Our strategy is clear: content will be the king. And we will keep investing in it to improve the quality and the quantity.

Com World Series: What do you hope to get out of participating in East Africa Com?

Eugene Nyagahene: Sharing experience with all the big players in EAC was made possible by East Africa Com. With one stone, we hit many birds. Thanks to East Africa com.


Find out more at East Africa Com - Eugene Nyagahenea will be speaking on Day 2 at 12:10 on “Partnerships in deploying innovative, cost-effective VAS". Register Here

Chidi Okpala, Director of Airtel Money Africa: "Airtel investing to meet the needs of retailers and consumers"

Chidi Okpala
Director
Airtel Money Africa

The Com World Series team caught up with Chidi Okpala, Director of Airtel Money Africa to discuss burning issues on mobile financial services and mobile money ahead of East Africa Com taking place on the 20-21 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Com World Series: How is your company positioned in the regional market and how do you expect it to evolve over the next couple of years?

Chidi Okpala: In East Africa, Airtel Money is available in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. Across all four markets, the business is on a fast growth trajectory, with broadening embrace by consumers and corporates. We are now visibly at the forefront of efforts to create entire cashless payments ecosystems, deepen financial inclusion and reduce transaction costs across East Africa. We are leaders in the provision of integrated payments services for East African governments (all tiers), businesses, NGOs, embassies, religious institutions, schools and other types of institutions in the region. We are uniquely positioned as the only mobile money service across all four markets and over the next couple of years; we plan to leverage this unique positioning to further support the East Africa Community (EAC) economic and cooperation agenda.

Com World Series:  What is driving adoption and growth of mobile financial services and how do you expect the mobile money market to evolve over the coming year?

Chidi Okpala: The key drivers vary across the markets but P2P, Airtime and solutions for corporates has been big for us. In the coming years, mainstream financial services like loans, savings and insurance should be a lot more prominent. Our brand and best in class quality of service and security levels have also been a strong asset for us and made it easier for consumers to enroll and adopt Airtel Money.

Com World Series: How do the various stakeholders work together at the moment and what progress still needs to take place?

Chidi Okpala: The Airtel brand is a well-known and loved brand in Africa we have had the rare privilege of enjoying immense support from banking and communication regulators, governments, communities and other economic actors across our countries of operation. This has helped us lead in customer experience, product innovation and regulatory compliance across Africa. We are currently investing in deepening these engagements to ensure that we create prosperity for a lot more Africans by widening access to financial services. 

Com World Series: What are the remaining challenges in the mobile money area these days and how can they be overcome?

Chidi Okpala: As an industry, we require a lot more cooperation to compete; we believe that what binds us is greater than what separates us. We must see CASH as our sole competitor and hence should collaborate more to reduce cost and increase impact in our communities. We are already leading efforts to interoperate with other operators in Rwanda and this will have immense impact in the welfare of the Rwandese people. We see no reason why the industry should not interoperate across East Africa by end of this year.

Com World Series: What impact do you think mobile money can and will have on the retail sector in East Africa?

Chidi Okpala: The Retail sector is an important space for us and we are investing more in new products and services to ensure we bring solutions that match the needs of retailers and their consumers. Cash is the primary means of payments at retail points today and the cost of cash to both retailers and consumers is significant and unsustainable. There are also health challenges associated with cash handling. We have started implementing solutions that will take away these pains in a convenient and seamless fashion.

Com World Series: What other areas do you think MFS is likely to tap into in the near future?

Chidi Okpala: Mainstream financial services, healthcare, education, public transportation, m-government and Agriculture are just to name a few.

Com World Series: What do you hope to get out of participating in East Africa Com?

Chidi Okpala: Essentially, to learn from colleagues across the industry and engage with stakeholders on how we can collaborate better and deepen our societal impact

 Find out more at East Africa Com - Chidi Okpala will be speaking on Day 1 at 14:30 on “Mobile financial services for operators”. Register Here

Announcing East Africa Com 2014 brand new line-up!

We are pleased to announce that the East Africa com agenda is now ready to download! Be one of the first to see our line-up of speakers, brand new agenda and unique networking opportunities today! 
 
To download the agenda click here: 
http://eaafrica.comworldseries.com/download-brochure/
 
Join us this year at the beautiful Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi on the 20-21st of May, where you will meet and network with all stakeholders in the Telecoms, Media and ICT industries across the East African Region.
 
This year East Africa Com is hosted by Airtel and we have speakers from Orange Kenya, Canar Telecom, Wananchi Group, Google, Roke Telekom, Safaricom, Spinlet, Brudan, Paypal and the Communications Commission of Kenya, among others. 
 
Hot topics include: Operator Strategies, LTE Developments, Connecting East Africa, Mobile Money, Mobile Enterprise Solutions, Digital Marketing & CEM, AppGig and many more…

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  Hear from 40+ industry leading speakers including:

 - Mickael Ghossein, CEO, Orange Kenya
- Hashim Hasabelrasoul Hashim, CTO, Canar Telecom Sudan
- Richard Bell, CEO, Wananchi Group Kenya
- Kai Wulff, Access Field Development Director, Google
- Harbir Singh Nat, Principal Investment Officer Africa, IFC
- Joel Imitira, Assistant Director Market Analysis & Tarifs, CCK
- Chidi Okpala, Director, Airtel Money Africa
- James Byaruhanga, COO, Roke Telekom Uganda
- Rosemary Korir, Cloud Product Manager, Safaricom Kenya
--------------------------------------------------   

Register Today
Click here to register
 
Contact our team to become a sponsor or to book a stand here:
For Sponsorship Enquiries:
Jean-Pierre Bird, Head of Sales, Com World Series:
Email: Jean-Pierre.Bird@informa.com
Tel: +44 (0) 207 017 5823

Yuri Baev, CEO, RURU: “Speed, simplicity and security are the key factors in growing mobile payments”

The Com World Series team caught up with Yuri Baev, CEO of RURU, Russia ahead of the EurasiaCom conference and exhibition, taking place at Conrad Istanbul Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey from 25-26 of March to discuss Mobile Money and e-commerce ahead of the event. 

Yuri Baev,
CEO,
RURU, Russia

Com World Series: How is your company positioned in the regional market and how do you expect it to evolve over the next couple of years?

Yuri Baev: Mobile finance service RURU is extremely handy service for new type of clients – digital clients. These are young, mobile and underbanked people, living an active life, communicating with friends, spending most of their time online. The mobile internet is already part of their lives, they live online. The first thing they do at morning: check e-mail,  read news on their tablets and smartphones. They want simple, fast, but secure and reliable financial service. We talk to digital client in comprehensible digital language and  provide them a simple financial service tuned to the customer. Continuous research and listening to client, analysis of their needs gives us possibility to respond appropriately and to adjust our services.
In the nearest future we expect financial services to develop us in integration with social platforms, further developing of mobile banking and developing of modern direct banking and real-time marketing.

Com World Series: What is driving adoption and growth of mobile financial services and how do you expect the mobile money market to evolve over the coming year?

Yuri Baev: The adoption is being driven by penetration of mobile internet and smartphones and by online commerce as such. Two factors - speed and simplicity - of the service in combination with security of payment from your telephone account, virtual card or linked card drive the adoption both in mobile world and traditional e-commerce.

Com World Series: How do the various stakeholders work together at the moment and how will this need to change in order for mobile money to become mainstream in the region?

Yuri Baev: For the moment it is "co-opetition" between banks and mobile operators. Both parties have great opportunities, as the financial services become more simple and available for mass consumer. However there are limitations as well: the banks tend to secure their access to the sources of money, the operators - their customer basis. What we need to do – to find win-win solution for both^ the banks and the operators.

Com World Series: What do customers stand to gain from your offerings in this area and how are you generating profits?

Yuri Baev: Our mission is to save the customers' time by bringing financial services closer to our customers. Our service is the starting point for users to understand that mobile payments are convenient, easy and safe. Now they don't need to think about how and where to pay for this or that service, in what way - the client chooses when and where he wants to make his daily payments - at home, in the office, on vacation, with credit card, electronic cash, funds on a mobile phone. For payment he only needs one service that always within reach - in his mobile phone, Finance service RURU. We give freedom and save time of our users.

Com World Series: What do you hope to get out of participating in EurasiaCom?

Yuri Baev: Ideas. Partnerships. New market opportunities.



Attend EurasiaCom to hear Yuri Baev give a presentation on “Mobile Money and Commerce – the advent of shopping on the go”, taking place on Day 2 at 15:10. Register Here

Jacek Nieweglowski, Chief Strategy Officer, Play Mobile: "LTE is a technological evolution rather than revolution"

Jacek Nieweglowski,
Chief Strategy Officer,
Play Mobile,
Poland

The Com World Series team caught up with Jacek ahead of the EurasiaCom conference and exhibition, taking place at Conrad Istanbul Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey from 25-26 of March to discuss Profitability, Broadband & LTE ahead of the event.

Com World Series: What is most affecting profitability for operators in the region and how are you working to improve it?

Jacek Nieweglowski: Profitability of the mobile industry in Central and Eastern Europe is affected by mainly by:
-          Level of in-market competition which has increased compared to other markets due to arrival of score of new entrants. Increased level of competition drives prices down in number of market. We can observe back-book re-pricing on part of industry incumbents and convergence of retail pricing within particular national markets and between national markets.

-          Favourable developments in the handset ecosystem with declining barriers to entry in handset / tablet manufacturing.  Increasing intensity of competition in turns keep prices down and allows operators to maintain or even boost their paybacks on subsidies. It is important to note that in markets with low disposable income are often handset subsidies frequently are a single biggest driver of profitability.

-          in Long run flawed retail pricing policies create arbitrage opportunities for OTT providers in cross-network voice and messaging services. Excessive pricing of cross-network,  international or roaming services protect short terms revenues of mobile operators but in long term drive  the usage away from traditional services to OTTs and reducing overall  service revenues. While these “self inflicted wounds” apply only to certain markets and some operators, the problem can largely be mitigated by proper retail pricing strategies such rebalancing of tariffs to connection oriented fees, unlimited cross-network packages, pro-active re-pricing of international roaming services.

-          Development of smartphone usage and mobile broadband is a big driver of margins in the mobile industry in the region due to poor availability (coverage) of fixed broadband networks.

Com World Series: How is the demand for data impacting your business and how are you taking advantage of it?

Jacek Nieweglowski: So far a strong uptake of smartphones has allowed to drive retail ARPU up by up-selling  mobile customers with data packages on top of existing and new contracts. Also CEE markets have seen strong demand for mobile broadband products driven to large extend by a modest coverage of fixed broadband infrastructure, e.g., in Poland only 50% of households enjoy a to fixed broadband connection . [JaNi] Therefore despite high mobile penetration exceeding 140% we still see demand for additional SIM cards in households be it for tablets, laptops and for dedicated substitutive mobile broadband products

Com World Series: What is still needed in terms of networks and infrastructure across the region?

Jacek Nieweglowski: Industry needs a prudent regulatory environment which provides balanced regulatory obligations and very importantly investment friendly roll-out and permitting regulations. Increasingly important is the need to harmonize limits of electromagnetic radiation. Industry also needs and calls for more operator-friendly frequency allocation policies. Also pace of development and quality of networks and services is increasingly dependent on availability of fibre- and IP-based backhaul networks.

Com World Series: How is LTE changing the market and what is your company’s strategy in regards to this technology?

Jacek Nieweglowski: Even though LTE is neither a revolution nor disruption for mobile industry it is important evolutionary step for the industry. LTE gives operators not only more capacity to serve broadband demand but also provides more flexibility to differentiate services by capacity vs. speed vs. coverage trade-offs. Finally LTE further reduces industry’s incremental costs of production of data services (cost per GB of traffic served).

Com World Series: What do you hope to get out of participating in EurasiaCom?

Jacek Nieweglowski: Meet industry insiders, exchange ideas, learn about other operators, draw attention to success of my company.
Attend EurasiaCom to hear Jacek Nieweglowski take part in the Opening Keynote - Panel Discussion on “Affordability and quality for customers & profits for providers: The balancing Act ”, taking place on Day 2 at 09:10.
 Register Here

Marc Zirca, Head of Corporate Strategy, Bakcell: "We think global and act local"

The Com World Series team caught up with Marc ahead of the EurasiaCom conference and exhibition, taking place at Conrad Istanbul Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey from 25-26 of March to discuss Data & LTE ahead of the event.

Marc Zirca
Head of Corporate Strategy
Bakcell

Com World Series: How is your company positioned in the regional market and how do you expect it to evolve over the next couple of years?

Marc Zirca: Bakcell is a wholly Azerbaijani company, we do not have a regional reach however we are being looked at as a leading example in the region. Bakcell steadily and significantly contributed to the Azerbaijani market, which is reflected growth trend of its subscriber base and market share and provided new and interesting services to its customers within a very short period of time.

We were able to do this by keeping a satisfactory level of our financial KPI’s that were set by our board. We are a team who can think global and act local. We are proud of being a 100% Azerbaijani company that is able to compete with big regional players.

Our market is striving for new technologies and for exciting services. Although our market is somehow highly penetrated, we believe that Data services and other non-traditional telecom services will the ones driving the growth in the next couple of years.

Com World Series: What is most affecting profitability for operators in the region and how are you working to improve it?

Marc Zirca: Our region is not different to any other region and general factors which have an impact on profitability remain the same for us. We are trying to manage our cost in an efficient way and make sure that it is well optimized to serve our business.

Com World Series: How is the demand for data impacting your business and how are you taking advantage of it?

Marc Zirca: I would say that Data services are the Star of the telecom industry. With the launch of Bakcell’s 3G Sür@ services in 2011 a new era in the mobile internet started in Azerbaijan. Today, we are proud to say that Bakcell is the leader mobile data services provider in the Azerbaijani market. 

We managed to answer the demand for small and large screens.
Our advantage is that we understand the needs of our subscribers.  We are here to listen to them and to thrive to serve them better. And one of our newest successes is the launch of our branded smartphones (Android) that made a hit in the market.  This is a clear indication that the demand for data will continue to grow.

Moreover, we are committed to constantly upgrade our network, and our new project will be the launch of the LTE services during 2014. LTE is going to provide our subscribers (consumers and corporate) with high data speed capabilities that will allow them to use more data hungry services.

Com World Series: What is still needed in terms of networks and infrastructure across the region?

Marc Zirca: We can say that our region is improving constantly.  We have witnessed the launch of several 3G and LTE networks in several countries.  Almost all the operators are up to the level to provide high quality services.

A possible way for improvement would be the backend infrastructure. Such as more performing and flexible billing systems, better reporting and monitoring tools.  This kind of infrastructure is necessary for us to provide a better customer experience.

We are proud to say that Bakcell started since 2012 investing in such infrastructure and we will be continuing to do so in the future.

Com World Series: How is LTE changing the market and what is your company’s strategy in regards to this technology?

Marc Zirca: LTE is a technology that all operators will be launching in our market.  The imminent need for LTE capabilities are not there yet.  However the role of the mobile operator is to introduce new technologies to its subscribers and help to answer some specific needs.

LTE is still very young in our market, and we cannot say that it was created a shift in the customer behaviour yet.  We believe that it will take few more years before we see the real rush towards LTE and this is mainly due to the availability of reasonably priced LTE handsets and devices.

The faster the OEM’s move on providing good and affordable LTE handsets, the quicker the adoption rate will be. LTE is on our radar and will be launched in 2014.

 
Attend EurasiaCom to hear Marc Zirka’s take part in the Opening Keynote – Panel Discussion on “How have data and technology developments become game-changers for Telcos?”, taking place on Day 1 at 09:30.