ALKHOBAR, 9 November 2004 — Effective Nov. 1, Saudi Aramco has revised its General Instruction No. 6.030 — “Traffic and Vehicles Safety” — to prohibit the use of mobile phones and other portable electronic devices while driving during normal or routine conditions. This instruction applies to any electronic device that could distract a driver while driving. The revised GI requires that operators of Saudi Aramco owned or leased vehicles Kingdomwide and operators of contractor vehicles driving on Saudi Aramco property, must not undertake any task that could distract their attention from driving, for example using a mobile phone or two-way radio.
According to a memorandum from A.M. Al-Ghamdi, executive director, Saudi Aramco Safety and Industrial Security, any driver observed using a device that could distract his attention while driving will be cited for “unsafe driving practice.” The memo states: “Drivers must stop their vehicles in a safe place whenever they wish to use a mobile phone, two-way radio or other portable electronic device.” The policy also has the objective of minimizing the use of such devices even in private vehicles. Hands-free devices are included in the ban.
The memo cites recent research in the “Journal of Safety Research” and several other international journals, which have found that use of a mobile phone while driving, even a hands-free device, increases a driver’s mental workload and impairs driving performance, particularly by slowing response times. This leads to an increased risk of accidents. Therefore, Saudi Aramco has decided to prohibit the use of mobile phones or other electronic devices in company and contractor vehicles in order to enhance safe vehicle operation.
Such a policy might sound draconian in light of current trends for drivers to talk on the mobile phone constantly while in their vehicles, but casual observation on the Kingdom’s streets for a week or so will prove the soundness of this measure. Follow any vehicle weaving in traffic, straying into nearby lanes or responding poorly to signs and signals and there’s a good chance you’ll discover that the driver of that car is engaged in a phone conversation. With the horrible number of accidents annually in the Kingdom it seems reasonable to implement any practical policy to improve road safety and Saudi Aramco should be applauded for their new ban on mobile communications within company and contractor vehicles. Let’s hope other Saudi companies follow suit.
In other local handset news, Al-Watan Arabic daily wrote that although it is illegal to buy, sell, resell, or use a mobile phone equipped with a digital camera in Saudi Arabia, some community colleges and training centers are offering courses on how to use the technologies in these phones. For SR175 it is possible to register for a three-day course in one of Jeddah’s training centers and learn all you need to know about the Nokia mobile phone Model 6600, locally nicknamed the “Panda Phone.”
Local mobile trends underpin future development and profitability in the regional telecommunications sector. With that in mind Pyramid Research has just published their “Africa/Middle East Mobile Benchmarks Report 2004.” In their report Pyramid pointed out that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an extremely diverse region and its mobile market is not an exception, ranging from poor, emerging markets such as Iran and Egypt, to wealthy and highly developed countries such as Qatar and the UAE. However, according to the researchers these immense differences on the demand side are often overlooked when assessing individual operators. The Pyramid report seeks to evaluate operator performance relative to market potential.
According to Pyramid, MENA’s mobile market has undergone a dramatic transformation during the past three to four years, from the overwhelming dominance of state-owned monopoly operators to a substantially more competitive and complex marketplace.
“The introduction of competition has severely disrupted the previous comfortable monopoly business model and put pressure on operators to develop new tools in order to retain existing customers and expand market share,” Pyramid wrote. “MENA will maintain its position as the most lucrative mobile market in the world for some time. However, competition will inevitably push the region toward the global average. This is not only because of the rapid growth of the prepaid low-end segment, but also because competition gives operators little scope to sustain subscriber growth through mere infrastructure deployment. Long-term survival in MENA’s mobile markets requires an increased focus on previously overlooked issues such as customer segmentation, marketing, attractive value added services and data services.”
Pyramid’s analyses found that subscriber growth in MENA will remain strong for at least another four to five years. They estimate that MENA’s addressable market for mobile service is around 115 million of which only 40 percent is currently being served. The largest potential for subscriber growth will be in the region’s low-income markets, such as Iran and Algeria, as connection fees decline and operators adopt the concept of prepaid handset subsidization.
Pyramid has found that the cheapest operators in terms of initial subscriber startup tend to capture the highest numbers of subscribers even though those operators may be quite expensive in terms of airtime. Many MENA operators have also boasted extremely low operating expenses (OPEX) considering their subscriber base. This is often in monopoly markets where minimum expenditure is put forth on marketing, customer relations management, and, to some extent, network maintenance. With competition, those expenses necessarily increase, potentially driving down profits.
Pyramid does expect that capital expenditures by mobile operators in MENA will remain strong. This is in part because existing operators are improving coverage and capacity to compete and new mobile providers are making the initial investments needed to become operational. Additionally, in some markets such as the GCC, an increasing number of operators are experiencing a slowdown in subscriber growth and are more likely to invest in technology upgrades (EDGE, GPRS and 3G) to sustain revenues, improve margins, and, where applicable, increase their competitiveness.
Even with the additional expenditure, Pyramid found that the MENA mobile business is extremely profitable. “Few other operators in the world can match MENA’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margins, averaging 55 percent to 60 percent, with some operations in the region of 75 percent to 80 percent,” the report noted. “As an example, STC’s mobile EBITDA margin and volume are both more than twice the size of those of Orange UK.”
Over the long term though, the researchers do expect competition to push EBITDA margins closer to the global average. That could be bad news for the stock prices of those publicly held operators, since higher EBITDA would mean lower profitability. Lower EBITDA margins are probably good news though for telecom subscribers because this should imply greater market competition, lower prices, more services and possibly greater investment in technology.
Now, while you’ve been reading this column, chances are that someone else has been able to take a peek at your newspaper or video monitor. You’re probably not offended in the least by the surveillance. How would you feel though if someone could listen in on your mobile telephone conversations? The fact is that telecommunication networks worldwide are subject to routine call interception. The use of wiretapping has become so widespread, simple, inexpensive and uncontrolled that everyone should assume that their telephone calls are being intercepted especially if those calls concern business issues.
That’s why a new handset just introduced to the Middle East market by the security firm Advanced German Technology (AGT) is of great interest to anyone with secrets to keep. The GSMK CryptoPhone 200 is a secure tri-band GSM phone which also comes in a version designed for use with Thuraya satellite phone calls. The GSMK manufactured CryptoPhones are the first end-to-end encrypted phones that are based on published source code. This means that the source code is available for independent review ensuring that there is neither weak encryption nor backdoors in the device. Showing off the new CryptoPhone in the region, Dr. Bjorn Rupp, CEO, GSMK, explained some of the phone’s technology.
“What we are offering here is a mobile phone that gives you trustworthy voice encryption and the emphasis here is really on trustworthy,” said Rupp. “We offer strong encryption so you can conduct your phone calls with peace of mind because from end to end you know the call is secure — no one can listen to your call. We say our phone is trustworthy because we publish our source code. You don’t have to trust us. You can have your own expert verify that we have done what we say. In the past there have been lots of suppliers who offered voice encryption but what they offered you essentially was a black box, stating that users simply had to trust their code or algorithms. History has shown that it’s not wise to place your trust in people who might have interests that are incompatible with yours.”
Rupp said the GSMK CryptoPhone 200 is the only encrypted handset that works on any GSM network. The device is very simple to operate. Essentially the user just inserts his mobile operator’s SIM card into the CryptoPhone, switches on the handset, and it’s ready to make calls. There’s no configuration needed. The interface for the phone is a touch screen with large keys and an easy to read display. An included professional quality headset enables hands-free operation as required.
“Even more useful is the fact that the GSMK CryptoPhone 200 hardware is based on a standard GSM-equipped PDA phone,” Rupp said. “This means that accessories can be bought on the open market at normal prices from normal retail channels. And, as the CryptoPhone is not distinguishable from the ‘normal’ hardware it is based on, you will not get suspicious looks as the airport or border control. Our distributor, AGT, has made CryptoPhone products available in the Kingdom.”
GSMK manufactures landline, mobile and satellite CryptoPhone products. There is also free GSMK CryptoPhone for Windows software to enable secure communication with those who don’t own a CryptoPhone device. To download the free software, the full source code of the GSMK CryptoPhone solutions or to watch a video of the CryptoPhone in action click to www.cryptophone.de. While you’re online, you also might want to look into purchasing a trench coat and X-ray glasses for the ultimate 007 experience.
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