Under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister ofTelecommunications, Alfa honors the media and the press duringits annual Iftar
Sehnaoui: We continue to spare no efforts to improve service and qualityWe should be patient until the end of August
Hayek: Number of data subscribers exceeds 450 thousand on ALFA network,daily surveys carried out on all Lebanon roads of to follow up and resolve problems& new offer in August
Beirut, on August 2 / August 2012 - Under the auspices and in presence of His Excellencythe Minister of Telecommunications Nicolas Sehnaoui, Alfa, managed by Orascom Telecom,organized its annual Media Iftar in the of honor the press and media on Tuesday, on July31st at Amareddine restaurant in Achrafieh. A bunch of Lebanese figures from the pressand audiovisual media attended this Iftar as well as managers and advisers in the Ministryof Telecommunications along with the administrative body in Alfa.
HayekAfter having expressed his best wishes for the holy month of Ramadan, Engineer MarwanHayek, Chairman and CEO of Alfa spoke about the most important stages achieved by Alfathis year starting with the increase in Alfa subscribers that have reached 1.8 million activesubscribers to date, and in parallel, the number of data subscribers (2G + 3G) has exceeded450 thousands subscribers, pointing out that " so far more than 700 3G+ technical stationshave been installed, including 70 stations only last week."
Hayek also spoke about the steps taken by the company to strengthen the transmissionand network coverage "through the construction of new 158 transmission stations,distributed as follows: Mount Lebanon (60 stations), the South (38 stations), the North (27stations), Beirut (16 stations), and the Bekaa (17 stations). Hayek also mentioned some ofthe problems the company faces with some of the municipalities and citizens regarding theinstallation of additional stations.
In addition, Hayek revealed that 50 legal repeaters were installed to replace the illegaldevices which should enhance the quality of mobile voice services.
He also noted that Alfa has changed 125 old 2G stations while increasing the capacityof most of existing 2G stations, stressing that the technical teams are carrying out dailysurveys on all the roads in Lebanon to monitor and solve problems.
Hayek drew attention to the fact that reality has three times exceeded expectations for thethird-generation (3G +) project after studies have shown that 40% of our mobile phones aresmart devices, compared to a global average of 15%, revealing at the same time that Alfahas installed the backbone network that links Beirut to the North and South and the Bekaa,which will allow us to meet more effectively subscribers requirements in terms of data andvoice services.
On the other hand, Hayek said and given the importance of mobile applications nowadaysfor mobile users, Alfa was a pioneer in launching the first mobile application in thetelecommunications sector in Lebanon -the Alfa MOBILE APPLICATION- last June forBlackBerry and Android-equipped devices. Hayek announced that this application will beavailable very soon for the iPhone and other smart devices. He also pointed out that thecustomers service center is keeping pace with the developments occurring at Alfa, "as wehave increased the number of seats by 28%, going from 77 seats to 99, and we are workingto increase this number to 130 seats, noting that the capacity of each seat is 3 employees."
Regarding the services launched by the company this year, Hayek spoke about theU-Chat package designed exclusively for young people with rate reductions up to 72%, ofwhich to date more than 130 thousand subscribers have benefited, not to mention thesignificant reductions on the Blackberry service, in full coordination with the Ministry ofTelecommunications, a service which is now available for Alfa subscribers starting $1.9 perweek. Hayek also noted that the company is technically ready for the launch of the "MobileInternet Service Provider" service. As for the National Roaming service launched by Alfarecently, Hayek said that 6000 postpaid subscribers have benefited from this service in thefirst stage in the regions covered by this service, declaring that Alfa is ready to launch thesecond phase of the project, "which will include prepaid subscribers as well."
Regarding the next stage, Hayek announced the launch of new offers, with the first onebeing launched in August, in addition to working on completing expansion and coverageprojects by increasing the number of stations to 850 3G+ stations and 200 new 2G stations,pointing out that all this movement, projects and developments in the sector havecontributed in the creation of more than 500 job opportunities in the telecommunicationssector, highlighting the fact that all of this progress would not have been achieved withoutthe daily follow-up by the Ministry of Telecommunications and personally by H.E. theMinister of Telecommunications, in addition to the full support provided by the ministry,especially in terms of securing the necessary investments.
On the occasion of the holy month, Hayek also spoke about Alfa Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) program "Alfa for Life," which continues to provide support to theassociations that take care of children with special needs in communication, mentioningthat this program represents and expresses the values that Alfa believes in as a company.He also thanked the media in Lebanon for the support it provides to Alfa, paying tribute to
the sacrifices made by the media and the press in Lebanon in order to deliver the rightnews especially as sometimes they sacrifice their lives in the name of the noble messageof journalism. As this Iftar coincided with the Lebanese Army Holiday on August 1, Hayekconcluded his speech wishing the best for the Lebanese Army and Lebanon.
Minister SehnaouiIn his speech, HE Minister Sehnaoui spoke about the Quality of Service, pointing out thatin all countries worldwide there is a specific acceptable rate for the quality of service. "InLebanon, we have made great efforts to improve the service and we have made someprogress although we have not yet reached this rate. For that reason, we continue alongwith the two mobile companies in Lebanon to spare no efforts to improve the service andquality in order to let it reach the average conventional level worldwide and to make it theservice we all aspire to. We are still working on this aspect and we have to be patient untilthe end of August."
He added: After this date we need to put in an inventory of all our achieved projects, orthat we are in the process of implementing, and explain these to the Lebanese citizens,noting that the work that is being done one by one is a source of appreciation and pride.
