Ooredoo Kuwait concludes 2019 with success

Market share increased to 2.6 million customers

KUWAIT: Ooredoo Kuwait, the first to launch innovated digital services in Kuwait concluded a year full of successful, focusing on embracing digitalization and supporting youth in Kuwait. The highlights of Ooredoo’s achievements in 2019 include an increase of 13 percent of its market share to 2.6 million customers in the first nine months of 2019. Ooredoo Kuwait also witnessed the launch of Kuwait’s first digital service; ANA and the launch events of the incredible iPhone 11 and Samsung Galaxy S10 devices. 2019 also witnessed the company’s organization of the Business to Digital Event in its second year in addition to enabling youth and giving back to society through the Ooredoo Volunteer Program.

Commenting on the conclusion of a successful year, Ooredoo Kuwait’s Corporate Communications Senior Director Mijbil Alayoub said, “We owe this success to the loyalty and commitment of our customer base, whose belief in what Ooredoo stands for is the main drive behind our ongoing commitment to achieving excellence.”

He added: “Ooredoo Kuwait is fortunate to have a passionate and dedicated team of employees with an array of expertise, and who are guided by the vision and support of Ooredoo Kuwait’s CEO, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Thani, who is a forward-thinking and visionary leader believing in the vital role of embracing the newest and most advanced trends in technology, to enrich the experience of Ooredoo customers.”

Visionary leadership

Over the past five years and to this day, Ooredoo Kuwait’s top management has been able to achieve continuous development and steady progress, led by its ambitious CEO Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Thani who - and since assuming responsibility in June 2014 - managed with his talented team, in combination with the efforts of employees. It also goes a long way in the company’s remarkable progress, and maintaining its development, innovation, and leadership position in the Kuwait market.

Continuous achievements

A number of achievements are the main reason for Ooredoo Kuwait’s steady strides towards success during 2019. The year began with Ooredoo Kuwait’s official re-certification with the Payment Card Industry (PCI)-Data Security Standards (DSS) 3.2.1 Compliance International Certification and ISO 27001:2013, making it the only Ooredoo OpCo and the first telecom provider in Kuwait to be certified with the latest version of the certification for the third year in a row. The company also obtained the latest ISO 9001:2015 Re-certification. Ooredoo Kuwait was the first Mobile Telecommunications Company in Kuwait to successfully complete and implement the newest International Quality Standards back in 2016, the certification audit of this international standard was conducted by Bureau Veritas Kuwait. The re-certification was successfully completed in September 2019. As a result of Ooredoo Kuwait’s management and staff’s professional commitment, the overall achievement and effort in maintaining and achieving such Quality Standards ensures continual improvement within the company’s processes.

5G

To add to its portfolio of successes during 2019, Ooredoo Kuwait launched the 5G network commercially that supports 5th generation of cellular network technology. The 5G network is a major upgrade in Ooredoo’s portfolio that offers customers superfast mobile broadband Internet to deliver incredible download speeds; bringing our mobile broadband experience to unparalleled new heights and allows customers to have ultra-low latency times meaning easier and more stable gaming and streaming. Ooredoo also made the first trial International 5G call in the region between Ooredoo Kuwait and Ooredoo Qatar, demonstrating the phenomenal capabilities of its 5G networks in Qatar and Kuwait.

The 5G commercial launch embodies the company’s core values of caring, connecting, and challenging, and demonstrates its commitment to enriching people’s digital lives and comes in tandem with its strategy of digital transformation and adopting future technologies. He added, “Over the years, we have worked tirelessly to deliver the best in-class services to our esteemed customers, no matter their needs. Through this, we are exercising our role as a private sector entity in the New Kuwait Vision 2035, and we aspire to deliver comprehensive telecom services with international standards in the Kuwaiti market under one roof, which comes in tandem with our digital transformation strategy.”

ANA

In a testament to Ooredoo’s leadership in keeping up with the competitive telecommunications sector, the company launched ANA, which makes Ooredoo the first operator to provide personalized mobile plans to enrich customers’ digital lives in partnership with Matrixx Software, a Silicon Valley-based company that specializes in advanced mobile software, to digitally transform the mobile experience for mobile customers in Kuwait. ‘ANA’ specializes in helping mobile customers buy, manage, share and pay for digital services. Ooredoo is the first operator in the Kuwait market to launch such a service, which provides an all-digital, individually customized mobile product that gives customers complete control of their mobile plans and digital worlds, and makes it easier to buy, use and pay for Ooredoo services directly from their mobile phones.

Embracing digitalization

As for the company’s app, MyOoredoo, it is still considered the most used by customers and is considered the best among ten free applications in Kuwait. Customers can also obtain the membership of Kuwait’s largest rewards program, “Nojoom”, which today has more than than half a million subscribers. Ooredoo was also proud to announce its partnership with Kuwait Airways, which enables Nojoom members to exchange their points for free miles from Kuwait Airways’ Oasis Club.

From the beginning of the year until now, Ooredoo Business has witnessed steady growth, excellence, excellence and leadership in providing the best digital solutions and exclusive packages for B2B companies and small and medium enterprises.

Ooredoo’s partnership with the world’s leading smart device makers including Samsung and Huawei continues, with both celebrating the launch of the latest smart devices for its customers with competitive and premium packages. In March, the company launched the latest Samsung S10 devices, and last July, launched the first Huawei device in Kuwait running on the 5G network. Last September, the company launched iPhone 11 devices with the strongest offer in Kuwait. Ooredoo Kuwait also launched Ooredoo Carrier Billing for its customers to pay for purchases in the App Store and iCloud directly from their mobile account.

Proximity to its customers

Through its network of branches in Kuwait and its authorized distributors, Ooredoo continues to provide the best and access to all of its customers wherever they are, and in continuation of its partnership with Gait Apple Premium Reseller store at the Avenues, the company presented exclusive offers to its customers. It will continue to provide the best and expand its network of branches in the new areas of Kuwait. It also continues to provide exclusive products and services tailored to its Noukhba customers for whom the company pays special attention.

Also, since its acquisition of FastTelco, the leading internet provider in Kuwait, it has been striving to provide the best in fibre services in Kuwait. In April, the company, in cooperation with Blink, organized the largest competition for electronic games lovers in its main building, attended by thousands of participants over two days. The company also launched a ProPing package that is of interest to gaming enthusiasts in Kuwait.

Business to digital

In tandem with Ooredoo’s strategy of being a leader in the market in terms of Digital Transformation, the company organized the “Business to Digital” conference in its second year which also witnessed a special event with the launch of the Kuwait App Market in its second year. The one-day event took place at the Al-Raya Hall, attended by the country’s most prominent guests and attendees from the leading IoT/ICT companies such as Huawei, Hewlett Packard, Fortinet, Dell EMC, Cisco, and Ericsson.. The “Business to Digital” conference discussed ICT and Security solutions and offered a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and expertise about the latest business technologies under one roof.

The market embraced the creativity of a large number of young Kuwaiti’s who have designed unique, successful applications which included the most prominent local applications such as TAPCOM, Daresni, Alhesba, Careem, Mashkor, Paydo, Collab, Sakan and Hesabi Pay.

Ooredoo signed a number of agreements during the conference with international companies such as Fortiniet and Cisco. Ooedoo selected Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions to deliver the region’s first secure SD-WAN managed service which allows Ooredoo’s existing and new enterprise customers achieve accelerated connectivity, transport mode independence, and increased application performance while benefiting from tightly knit SD-WAN and advanced security features. Ooredoo Kuwait itself is deploying Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN across its retail branches and will serve as a reference for customers wishing to follow suit.

Ooredoo also announced the launch of Cisco SD-WAN Powered by Meraki. This new offer expands Ooredoo Kuwait’s Cisco Meraki solutions, providing Ooredoo’s customers with a smooth transition from their current wide area network (WAN) and security infrastructure to a more agile and simplified model for managing their

WAN. The new SD-WAN service enables medium and large enterprise customers who value simplicity to accelerate their digital transformation, adopt an agile cloud strategy, and respond faster to their market and customer dynamics.

Sponsorships and CSR

In line with its pioneering role in volunteer work and its annual Ramadan initiatives, Ooredoo launched in Ramadan a program full of humanitarian and charitable activities throughout the holy month “Ramadan brings us closer and good brings us together.” This coincided with the launch of the Ooredoo Volunteer Program in its fifth year which succeeded in attracting a large number of young men and women over the past years. The company’s efforts continued this year and was portrayed through its sponsorship of an array of events that reflected the company’s strategy aimed at supporting projects, youth, sports, entertainment and others. The company sponsored many events and conferences during the year such as the market promoter and the second Gulf business leadership forum, Hana Eleven Women’s Exhibition, Kuwait Financial Technology Conference and Exhibition, Flying Start Triathlon and RoadRush, Digitalizing Strategic Communication for Confronting Public Relations Crises Conference, Gulf West Marathon and the Broadway show ‘Thriller’.

Awards

Ooredoo is proud to have received a number of prestigious awards during the year. Ooredoo was able to secure the award for Best Digital Service for ANA, the first operator to provide personalized mobile plans to enrich customers’ digital lives in partnership with Matrixx Software, a Silicon Valley-based company that specializes in advanced mobile software, to digitally transform the mobile experience for mobile customers in Kuwait. ‘ANA’ specializes in helping mobile customers buy, manage, share and pay for digital services.

The company won two awards at the seventh Creative

Competition 2019 held by the Arab Media Forum in the categories of Best Public Relations Personality of the Year for Ooredoo Kuwait’s Senior Director of Corporate Communications, Mijbil Al-Ayoub and Advertising Creativity Award for Best National Day TVC. The awards shed light on Ooredoo’s great efforts to engage with the local community in creative and innovative ways and in areas and matters of their interest. Ooredoo Kuwait also won the award for Best Voluntary Initiative Award for the Ooredoo Volunteer Program. The award recognizes volunteer and humanitarian efforts by youth in the Arab region. The event took place at the Sheikh Jaber AlAhmad Cultural Centre and was organized in partnership with the Arab Media Forum. More than 120 projects from the Arab world participated in the event, which is judged by a panel that includes a number of leaders in philanthropy in the region. A large number of projects from abroad were invited to Kuwait to showcase their projects. The sponsorship of this event comes in tandem with Ooredoo’s core values of caring, connecting and challenging.

Investing internally

Aligning with the company’s core values of caring, connecting, and challening, Ooredoo held several key events around the year to connect with its staff. Events included the annual Ghabqa, a traditional Ramadan banquet where staff can meet to socialize and enjoy the Ramadan spirit, and the annual town hall meeting where executive management discuss the key achievements, challenges and goals ahead with all members of the staff to align all efforts, working towards unanimous success and efforts.

Ooredoo also held awareness campaigns for staff such as the blood donation campaign, in addition to festive Happy Thursdays at the company’s head office, where staff enjoyed their lunch in the outdoors area in a picnic setup.

Ooredoo Kuwait also concluded the fifth edition of its annual football tournament “The Ooredoo Cup 2019”, which was held at Dasman Bilingual School in Sharq in coordination with ‘Li3ib’ platform for reserving and organizing sports activities. This is the fifth year in a row where Ooreodo holds this event which aims to further engage with employees from different departments and divisions. The event aims to gather employees in a casual friendly atmosphere, outside of the office premises and working hours. This comes in alignment with Ooredoo’s core values of caring, connecting and challenging, and the company’s philosophy of investing in its employees who are the cornerstone of the establishment.