By Peter Alagos

Business Reporter

 

Ooredoo’s newly-launched 4G+ and world record high-speed Internet are essential tools that could help reshape the landscape of Qatar’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) sector, an industry expert told Gulf Times.

Tom Craig, Group executive director B2B, made the statement during the launch of Ooredoo’s new business services yesterday at ITU Telecom World 2014 held from December 7 to 10 at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC).

He explained that there are three phenomena that could help drive the transition to mobile information technology (IT): low-cost devices coming into the market, proliferation of high-speed mobile data networks, and simple utility code applications.

“Suddenly, if you live in the shadow of a 4G network as a small business, you fundamentally re-think how you are going to service the communications and IT needs of your business,” Craig said.

Also, businesses that do not utilise 4G or the services of high-speed networks will go through a generation of mobile IT on new devices, which, according to Craig, represent a huge opportunity for business.

“Mobile IT gives entrepreneurs a way to look at small business needs and how they should cater to basic office automation, cloud payroll, and cloud finance. You can do things in a fundamentally different way,” Craig stressed.

According to Craig, Ooredoo Group revenues for 2013 amounted to $9.3bn with a $1.1bn turnover from its back-to-business (B2B) segment.

For 2014, Craig said market opportunity across Ooredoo Group footprint on value added services amounted to $7.5bn and is expected to reach $11bn by 2019.

Also, fixed voice and data reached $3.9bn for the same period and is expected to climb to $4.4bn in 2019. For mobile voice and data, Ooredoo recorded $4.8bn in 2014 and is expected to increase to $6.5bn in 2019.

Ooredoo Group CEO Dr Nasser Marafih said the company’s strong base of fixed mobile assets has the potential to further grow its share of the $10bn B2B market.

“Our Group strategy is built upon putting the needs of our customers and operations first and it is clear that an enhanced focus on business services is currently and will continue to deliver strong results for both,” Marafih said.

He added: “Our portfolio ranges from connectivity to cloud and hosting solutions, through to innovative new areas like machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. We believe that Ooredoo can take a leadership position across our footprint in the B2B market and our continued investment in business will further accelerate our performance.”

Ooredoo Business is also currently implementing a cloud-based M2M platform, which will be launched in a number of its markets in the next quarter and will be rolled-out to all countries by the end of 2015.

Marafih said the M2M services provide automated tools to Ooredoo customers to enhance productivity and efficiency in their business processes.

“The innovative new cloud platform will enable Ooredoo to substantially reduce the time-to-market and provide a group-wide capability to build industry specific solutions across a wide range of sectors enabling all of its B2B customers to benefit from innovative solutions in the ‘Internet of things’ market place,” he added.