An award for innovation and several key partnerships formed at a major gathering of the telecommunications industry in Mobile World Congress in Spain will boost Etisalat Group’s operations, building on the organisation’s vision to become one of the most admirable telecommunication companies in the world.
One deal that received international attention was the renewal of a four-year partnership with FC Barcelona that makes Etisalat the footballing giant’s official partner in nine countries throughout the Middle East and Africa. Etisalat hosted over 300 sportsmen and telecoms industry leaders at a show in the team’s stadium, Camp Nou, to celebrate the new deal.
Etisalat Group also signed a partnership with Mahindra Comviva, a leading provider of mobile financial solutions. The alliance will give millions of customers with basic mobile phones in Africa & Asia access to online services such as emailing, instant messaging, and social networking.
Another partnership with international significance was a global consultancy agreement with Huawei. This includes cooperation on key Etisalat projects, such as recent investments in 4G LTE – lightning fast fourth-generation mobile connectivity – networks and over-the-top (OTT) media offerings such as its popular e-Plus packages.
Etisalat also announced that it was one of 17 key organisations in the industry committed to Mozilla’s Firefox OS open web device initiative and began a partnership with iMENA Holdings, a company focused on supporting the development of online consumer businesses the in the region. Another deal was signed with Alcatel-Lucent to expand its 4G LTE coverage across its operations including a new partnership in Sri Lanka.
Etisalat’s participation in the MWC was not limited to forming new partnerships. One of its products, Etisalat Commerce Programme – Flous, an application for conducting a variety of financial transactions with mobile devices, scored a remarkable victory when it was named best mobile money product in the Global Mobile Awards 2013.
In a sign that Etisalat is looking to the future with more innovation in mind, it announced membership of the M2M (machine-to-machine) Multi-Operator Alliance, an organisation dedicated to bringing M2M technology – a term for the exchange of data between machines and IT infrastructure – to the market.
“Yet another successful trip to this major international congress has proved that Etisalat is a dynamic organisation that is looking to the future and implementing new ideas,” said Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, the Chief Executive officer of the UAE-based operator.
