Wataniya Telecom continues to make technological inroads in Kuwait.
Click here for the Wataniya-Cisco article.
Cisco Systems, today announced that Wataniya Telecom, Kuwait’s first privately owned mobile operator, has adopted a pioneering communications network to enhance network capacity and improve management efficiency. The ‘All IP Network’ is a revolutionary vision that will transform Wataniya’s core mobile network from the radio sites through the core network riding all on IP, solving congestion problems, reducing operational costs and enabling Wataniya to roll out more services much faster.
I am an MTC subscriber not a Wataniya one but I can’t help but be impressed with their local ambitions to improve their own networks and services.
MTC strikes me more old-school, more interested in extending their Telephony monopoly beyond Kuwait, bidding for Arab and African companies and sectors than in truly improving its services in Kuwait and offering benefits to the customers.
Of course I may be wrong. If you bought MTC shares at 1KD and watched them soar to 4Kd and beyond, I am sure you’re happy.
But for a billion dollar mobile phone company that charges you for every single service (messages, tones, long-distant line etc) and does not have the ability to send out electronic or print itemized bills, I remain unimpressed with lack of pace in keeping up with the latest technology nor their customer support. They are not hungry anymore, they’re fat with cash and #1 in Kuwait, they have become comfortable. And that is always deadly for a company of that calibre.
Having said that, MTC has one wiz kid: Saad Al Barrak, Managing Director and Vice Chairman; he has done a masterful job of building the company. The man is a prodigy. If anyone can keep Wataniya‘s wolves at bay it is Barrak but he needs to focus inward and improve products and services here in Kuwait.
After all, charity begins at home.
We hear a lot of things like this…that they are upgrading upgrading and upgrading…I think they should stop announcement and continue to deliver…Kuwait is way behind communication and mobile services. We need to do a lot…i simply dont know why we are not doing it in Kuwait…a lot of technologies that are implemented in other places way back are still not in kuwait…we put that in place when the heat is over…
agree, i think mtc is not efficience (it is like govt ministry), only intersted make money and monopolies – wataniya more serioes about upgradeeng and think more of customer , better services-
That press release is misleading. You do not get a more efficient less congested network if your backbone is IP based.
The bottleneck for a mobile network is the radio sites and how much calls they can carry, not the transmision between them.
i think that mtc is doing great job is bringing the latest technologies of telecom into its customer, they are doing great jon too toward explaining these new technologies and launched products. you should read more thier press releases and website . i think this is more fair toward what i was reading upper
Thanks for the comment Fadhel.
I think MTC – marketing-wise – has failed at letting the average person *know* exactly what products and services they are offering.
You are right, MTC may have more in the ‘bag’ than Wataniya but Wataniya is much more efffective at conveying to people what the new products are and how much they will cost.
If I see an MTC ad with 8 babies or some guy playing the guitar how am I supposed to know exactly what new services they are offering?
A lot of MTC services (EDGE, 3G etc, internet) are hidden – most people don’t have the time and energy to look it up.