MTC Group wins four major awards at
CommsMEA 2006 First Annual Telecom Award
Ceremony
Awards include Best Middle East Mobile Operator of the Year, Best Telecom
Deal of the Year and Best New Non-Voice Service, while Dr. Mo Ibrahim,
Chairman of MTC subsidiary Celtel in Africa, wins Lifetime Achievement
Award.
September 12th 2006: MTC Group, the fastest growing global wireless communications
service provider, won four prestigious industry awards including Best Middle East Mobile
Operator of the Year, Best Telecom Deal of the Year and Best New Non-Voice Service at the
first annual CommsMEA telecom awards last night.
Dr. Mo Ibrahim, Chairman of MTC
subsidiary Celtel in Africa, was also honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Hosted by CommsMEA, the leading telecommunications magazine for the Middle East and
Africa, at the Fairmont Hotel, Dubai, the judging panel comprised international telecom
professionals and regional industry peers.
The citation for MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Company) winning “Best Middle East
mobile operator of the year” said that the award was recognition of the company not only
being the leading Middle Eastern mobile operator but also a technology leader with a strong
focus on customer service.
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The award also recognizes MTC’s rapid transition from a mobile operator in Kuwait with
600,000 customers in 2003 to a major telecom conglomerate in the Middle East and Africa
serving 23 million customers in 20 countries. In doing so, MTC has become the world’s 5th
largest mobile operator in terms of geographic presence.
The second award, “Best Telecom Deal for 2005”, was in recognition of the acquisition by
MTC of Celtel International in May 2005. Celtel International, a pan-African mobile operator
was acquired for a total consideration of $3.4 billion. At that time, it was the single largest
telecom acquisition on the African continent as well as the largest foreign direct investment
into Africa by a company based in the Middle East.
MTC subsidiary Fastlink, which operates in the Jordanian market, won the third award for
“Best new non-voice service” for its novel Fastlink BLOG! service. This provides an online
interactive community where users can set up their own Blog and publish articles and
thoughts by using web, MMS and SMS.
The fourth and most prestigious award was granted to the founder and Chairman of Celtel
International, Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim. His life-long dedication to the telecoms industry and to
Africa has made him one of the most respected African business leaders who understood the
importance of the telecoms for the people of Africa before any one else.
Dr. Ibrahim built a mobile telecoms company in sub-Saharan Africa bringing the benefits of
ICT to Africans many of whom had never previously had access to telecommunications. As
an industry icon the jury awarded him the “Lifetime Achievement award”.
Today Dr.
Ibrahim serves as a model for people everywhere striving to achieve business success in
developing countries in a manner that is both ethical and genuinely beneficial to the
communities it serves.
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Dr Ibrahim’s story is that of a man of singular energy and determination. A frequently
repeated anecdote of Dr Ibrahim is that of a taxi ride in Geneva when, as a young man, he was
curious how the driver could speak to his company HQ on the radio without any line of sight.
It was this incident that piqued the curiosity of his intellect, enough for him to dedicate years
of study - and eventually a career - to developing the potential of mobile technology and
bringing the benefits of this technology to a continent in dire need of communications: Africa.
He then joined British Telecom’s mobile company, Cellnet, as Technical Director, where he
designed and launched one of the world’s first cellular networks.
Mr. Mo Ibrahim
commented: “I am very honoured to be granted this award and I am even more honoured at
the thought that I might inspire others to do great things in the mobile telecommunications
business in their own countries. My passion for the telecoms industry has allowed me help
people in Africa make their lives better.”
Dr. Saad Al Barrak, Chief Executive Officer, MTC Group, a multiple award winner in his
own right from several institutions, stated: “The awards we have received tonight are a
testimony to our company’s achievements and our even greater aspirations.
I am very
grateful to all MTC employees whose dedication has allowed us to achieve what we have
done in less than four years.
“I would like to thank the organizers as well as the esteemed panel of judges for their
recognition of MTC and I hope that we will continue to excel in the mobile
telecommunications field. We will continue to focus on satisfying our customers throughout
the Middle East and Africa bringing the best possible services to our 23 million subscribers. I
would like to congratulate my dear friend and esteemed colleague Mo Ibrahim for a well
deserved recognition.”
The MTC Group has also been short listed for “Best Regional Operator” at the World
Communications Awards 2006, organized by Total Telecom that will be held in London on
November 9th 2006.
About MTC
MTC is the pioneer of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and now a major player on the
African continent. We began life in 1983 in Kuwait as the region’s first mobile operator, and since the
initiation of our “3x3x3” expansion strategy in 2002, we have expanded rapidly.
As a leading mobile and data services operator in 6 Middle Eastern and 14 sub-Saharan African
countries with 11,000 employees, we
provide a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data
services to over 23 million individual and business customers.
We operate in Kuwait and Bahrain as mtc-vodafone, in Jordan as Fastlink, in Iraq as mtc atheer, in
Lebanon as mtc touch, in Sudan as Mobitel and in 14 sub-Saharan countries in Africa as Celtel:
Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya,
Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria.
Listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Code; Tele), MTC’s market capitalization exceeded US$12.5
billion as of September 11, 2006. For more information, visit: www.mtctelecom.com
For further information:
Lara Abdul Malak
Media Relations
+9659006935
l.abdulmalak@mtc.com.kw
Ibrahim Adel
Investor Relations Director
+9659006779
i.adel@mtc.com.kw