Ready to Ring In
Mazoon Mobile, one of the five Class II license operators in Oman, has quietly worked behind the scenes for its final launch. Mohammed Alhashili, CEO, speaks to Visvas Paul D Karra in his first media interview

In October 2008, Mazoon National Telecommunications Company (Mazoon Mobile) had announced a strategic tie-up with ZTE (Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Company Limited) of China, for the supply of intelligent network platform for its mobile services. At that time, perhaps, one would have been led to believe that Mazoon Mobile, which is one of the five mobile resellers to get a Class II telecom license in Oman, would be first to launch a service. However, that was not to be as two other mobile resellers (Majan and FRiENDi) promptly went to town saying that they are all set to roll out their services.

Slowly and surely
But Mazoon Mobile is unfazed by these developments. Mohammed Alhashili, CEO of Mazoon Mobile, firmly believes that by not grabbing the first mover advantage, they stand to gain a lot. “But that does not necessarily mean we will not launch our operations soon. We are ready with our launch preparations as equally as the others who have announced their intentions to begin their services in the first quarter of 2009,” Alhashili pointed out. Mazoon Mobile, apparently, has not waited to sign an agreement with a host operator in order to begin their planning for a launch. In fact, Omani employees have already been deputed to China for training and a swank new office has been taken up in the Shatti area.

“The fact that we have sent our employees for training to China indicates how seriously we are working on the launch of our operations. The agreement with a host operator will eventually happen, by which time we would be ready with all other preparations,” says Alhashili, when asked to reveal the status of their company.

Sitting in his office overlooking the azure Gulf of Oman Sea near Grand Hyatt, Alhashili just sweeps his hand across his office and says, “Look at our office and our equipment. Everything is ready. Our branding campaign is in place, our SIM cards and recharge vouchers are there, our website is up and running, our brand ambassador is also waiting in the wings. So for all you know, we could launch our services in the same period as our competitors.”

Mazoon Mobile is a joint venture between Middle East Telecommunications Company (METCO), a Towell group company; and Bahrain’s Etisalcom, with each holding 51 per cent and 49 per cent stake respectively. Between them, the board of directors of Mazoon Mobile, the management and employees have a combined telecommunications experience of more than 200 years having worked in top telecom companies like Batelco, Zain, Omantel, Oman Mobile, Sprints PCS, Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, Huawei, Nawras etc.

Mazoon Mobile is also taking care that its Omanisation programme is on schedule. Presently, around 70 per cent of its staff is Omani while the rest of them are a blend of different nationalities having vast experiences in the telecom field. As mobile resellers require a partnership with one of two existing host operators, Mazoon Mobile is negotiating with both Oman Mobile and Nawras and discussions are in the final stages. Mazoon will be announcing these details once the agreement is finalised.

Latest technology
Mazoon Mobile, which is targeting a major role for itself in the Sultanate’s liberalised mobile telecom sector, has entered into a partnership with ZTE in order to obtain state-of-the-art technological supremacy in the telecom field. The company has also set up a fully equipped network and operations centre in the same place as their corporate office and believes that this location will help them to connect quickly to the host operator for a variety of reasons. In its bid to be a model mobile reseller in the Middle East, Mazoon Mobile wants to address the customer lifestyle needs and deliver value with differentiating services. In this regard, the company has been deliberately keeping a low profile so as not to give the consumers and market a wrong picture.

With five mobile resellers in the market, the most obvious question is how each company is going to tap the market. According to Alhashili, the Omani mobile market is at 100 per cent penetration. One may think this is a saturation level. However, and contrary to this, other markets in Gulf countries have reached penetration levels of more than 150 per cent. This surely indicates the potential for growth in the Sultanate’s market. Alhashili, praised the TRA for the bold and distinguished efforts to liberalize the telecom market and creating opportunity for fair competition. He added, “As a mobile reseller, we need to be different from our competitors in order to survive. We will launch different programmes and create a brand which Omanis will find easy to identify with,” says Alhashili.

Proving their worth
According to him, mobile resellers, combined, will be able to tap around 30 per cent of the existing mobile customers. Since there are going to be five players in the Omani market, each of them will be vying for a share out of this. But only those who can prove themselves will remain in the market, opines Alhashili. Explaining further, Alhashili says that in order to capture the market share, mobile resellers (also known as MVNOs in other markets) have options of providing value added services in their voice and data services. “I can give you an example. But I am not saying we will be doing this. A mobile reseller can provide a value addition to the ubiquitous pager which hangs on the trouser belt of a doctor. How can this be done? Simply by providing him access to SMS and other similar features like voicemail,” Alhashili says.

Similarly there are other segments like women who would like to read and know about things like fashion. These are likely groups that can be served by mobile resellers, he says. Mazoon Mobile would be providing both voice and data services appropriate to fit the addressed niches and segments.
 

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