New playing fields?
Mazoon Mobile and Samatel are the latest mobile resellers to enter the telecom sector. Visvas Paul D Karra does a status check of their prospects in a saturated market

Nearly a year and a half after five Class II mobile licences were awarded by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of Oman, two more companies have got into the act. Mazoon Mobile and Samatel are resellers who finally inked pacts with Nawras to utilise the latter’s network to provide mobile services to customers throughout the Sultanate. Friendi Mobile (Arabia Connect) and Renna (Majan Telecommunications) were the first ones off the block, with an agreement to ride on Oman Mobile’s network infrastructure. That was exactly a year ago. Then, there was no news about the other three licence holders, namely Injaz International, Kalam Telecommunications, and Mazoon Mobile. After this, word came that the Bahrain-based Kalam Telecommunications had backed out and its licence was granted to an Omani company Samatel.

With three companies in waiting, curiosity grew about the network provider that these resellers would choose. The anticipation ended, when two of the three, namely Samatel and Mazoon Mobile, signed up with Nawras giving mobile users an additional choice (once they roll out operations). Mazoon Mobile is an Omani licensed mobile services reseller formed by a joint venture between METCO (Middle East Telecom Company), a subsidiary of WJ Towell Group and Etisalcom, Bahrain. Samatel, in contrast is a 100 per cent Omani company with Sheikh Khalid Al Matani as its sole promoter.

Present market conditions
Although both Samatel and Mazoon Mobile are upbeat about their impending launch, market watchers feel that it will not be easy going for these players as there are already four players operating in the mobile telephony market. While Friendi Mobile has been shrewd enough to concentrate on its target segment – expatriates from the Indian subcontinent. Renna, is on Friendi’s heels trying to get a share of the same customer base. The ensuing competition triggered a price war, forcing all the mobile operators to slash their international call rates, for fear of losing the lucrative and large expatriate population living in the country.

Not to be outdone, Friendi Mobile went one step further and tied up with Idea, a mobile company operating in the southern Indian State of Kerala offering a call price that is lower than the existing call rates to calls originating and terminating with Idea. This is a strategic move for Friendi because out of the 600,000 Indians living in Oman, atleast half hail from Kerala. Arabia Connect, the parent company of Friendi, launched Halafoni, a separate brand targeting the youth of Oman directly taking on the Shababiah brand of Nawras.

In this liberalised scenario, it would be interesting to see how the new mobile resellers are going to position themselves and whether they can make inroads into new segments or erode the market share of the existing players.

Spadework in place
Dr Wael Taher, CEO of Samatel, informs that they have a two-pronged business strategy. Not only will the company be launching a pre-paid mobile service but it will also set up a contact centre which will attract outsourcing businesses like managing services, consultancy etc. Samatel’s building in Ghala will house a 140-seat contact centre as well as its mobile operations. Another contact centre will be established in Mawaleh with a capacity of 600-700 seats.

To help them get the contact centre up and running, Samatel has tied up with Teleperformers -- the biggest outsourcing company in the world. Teleperformers has 75,000-plus seats in over 15 countries. For the mobile operations, Samatel has entered into an agreement with Effortel from Belgium, an MVNE (mobile virtual network enabler), which facilitates the entry of companies into the mobile reselling business.

Mazoon Mobile, on its part, has partnered with major system suppliers to provide its operating platform besides the agreement with Nawras to use its infrastructure to deliver
its services.

Quality differentiator
Jamil Ali Sultan, Chairman of Mazoon Mobile, commenting about the signing of an agreement with Nawras, says that this was a moment they all had been keenly awaiting. “Although, there were a few hiccups and delays in the past year with regards to the choice of partnership, we finally signed with Nawras and we are very excited about this,” he says.

As far as competition is concerned, Sultan admits that the competition is tough and only players who provide quality service and real value to end users will survive. Talking about their roadmap, he hints that Mazoon Mobile’s products will spell class, “We are not going to do magic and we will not get into a price war. We will distinguish ourselves with value added services with a stress on quality. Our approach will be different. My message to the end users is to look for quality even if it means paying a little extra money. However, there will something for everyone to enjoy, he added”

In its pursuit of providing class to the masses, Mazoon Mobile is not looking at short-term gains. Being a part of the W J Towell Group the service provider can rest assured about financial support from its parent to establish the brand in the long run. Building on Sultan’s comments, Mohammed Alhashili, CEO, adds that Mazoon Mobile aims to be a model mobile reseller in the Middle East by addressing customer lifestyle needs and delivering value with unique experience to the Omani mobile market, as well as to build an organisation with the right talent and opportunities for growth.

Creating a value
“We are designing our products in such a way that mobile users will cherish our SIM cards as valuable commodity, like an ATM card, instead of throwing it away after using up the currency in it as it is happening with the present mobile companies,” says Alhashili, while talking about their strategy to take on the competition. A lot of SIM cards ‘donated’ by the current resellers as part of their promotional offers, reportedly, have been discarded by users after using up the inbuilt free currency.

In this regard, Alhashili message to the mobile operators is, “let us all work on creating longterm value to the end user rather short term price promotions. “when we create a service as a voucher it does not help at all.” The reason is because, every time a SIM card is discarded, there is a customer acquisition cost, which ultimately will prove detrimental to the service provider if there is a huge turnaround in mobile users. Efficiency in activating new connections and product packaging with attractive tariffs and added values are going to be some of the unique features, which will draw customers to Mazoon Mobile, adds Alhashili.

Telecom culture
Samatel is promising to give a new definition to the market in Oman by introducing a whole new telecommunications culture. The company will not only be providing the basic mobile phone services but it will also be integrating itself into the social fabric of the country with a whole lot of services such as the contact centre, a telecom academy etc. “We will be generating a slew of economic activities which will generate a number of employment opportunities. For example, our two contact centres will be employing around 1000 people straightaway. This is discounting our mobile phone operations which will generate more jobs,” says Taher, who previously worked with Oman Mobile as contact centre manager. He then went to Dubai and worked as senior manager, sales and retention, customer care, at Etisalat before returning to Oman to head the Samatel operations.

Samatel will launch its mobile services in February 2010 by which time the whole infrastructure will be ready, informs Taher, the youngest CEO of a mobile company in Oman.

“We will be offering more benefits for the same price and value added services that are not present in Oman. This could be in the form of web-based services, loyalty programmes or offering a choice of products in one bundle,” says Taher when asked about Samatel’s USP to attract customers. Offering customised solutions to a number of niche segments is an option, which Samatel may explore to target new customers. Examples of such audience are the small and medium enterprises and the media. With a tangible shift of strategy from just wooing voice-driven customers to providing value to their SIM cards, we hope that Mazoon Mobile and Samatel will be the game changers in the mobile telephony market of Oman.

Top^