ALKHOBAR, 21 November 2006 — It has been almost a year and a half since Bravo launched its specialized communications services to the business community in Saudi Arabia. Those services were first offered to businesses in Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah, then to companies in the Eastern Province and now to the business community in the Central Region.
The average consumer in the Kingdom still doesn’t quite know what Bravo is all about, and that’s okay, because the company doesn’t market its services to individual users. However, businesses who are still in the dark about the concept that “Bravo powers groups” and the company’s catch phrase “Push to Do,” need to become better informed about what this business communications network provider is offering.
Bravo is the brand name of the Public Telecommunications Company (PTC). Owned by shareholders Nasco, Wataniya International, Ali A. Tamimi Co. and Sultan Najr Al-Otaibi, PTC’s aim is to set up a specialized Kingdom-wide communications solution for the Saudi Arabian business community through a 15-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement with Saudi Telecom Company. Wataniya International is managing Bravo’s network, which is built on Motorola’s integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) platform.
Bravo’s services work through the use of Motorola’s specialized iDEN enabled handsets. These handsets look like mobile phones and in fact do offer digital cellular services through numbers that begin with 051. But the handsets also have a functionality that is similar to walkie-talkies. It is the walkie-talkie functionality that is part of Bravo’s Push to Do services.
Every Bravo handset comes with a cellular number and a dispatch number. The cellular number works in the standard way to allow such services as voice and SMS. But to communicate using Bravo’s Push to Do services, which include Push to Talk, the dispatch number is needed. Push to Talk allows Bravo subscribers to communicate instantly with one person (one to one) or groups of people (one to many) by entering the required dispatch number(s) and pushing a button on the iDEN-enabled handsets. Another Bravo service, Push to View allows users to take pictures and send them instantly — to one or many users.
“The iDEN handsets are equipped with GPS, too,” said Bravo’s CEO Ziad Shatara. “This allows companies to track and locate their people, who are carrying the Bravo handset. The handset also does packet data transfer with a speed of 20Kbps, which we are now upgrading it to go to 80Kbps. Any data that can be captured through the handset can be transferred to an application where it can be interpreted in extremely useful ways. For example, with the GPS built in the phone, it is possible to capture the coordinates of a vehicle that has the handset inside. That data can be transferred over the Bravo network into an application that extrapolates those location coordinates to a map and allows the exact location of the vehicle to be seen. Such information is quite valuable to when managing a fleet of delivery trucks.”
Bravo is offering its services to organizations with as few as five employees. Companies select the services they require and are then offered a fixed monthly rate for Bravo’s comprehensive services, rather that paying a fee every time the network is used.
It should be noted that if a Bravo subscriber travels outside Bravo’s network coverage areas, to cities such as Abha, for example, neither the Bravo handset’s dispatch number nor the cellular number would be functional. Shatara stated that after building their network across the highways from the Eastern Province to the Western Province, a process that is about 70 percent complete, Bravo plans to further expand its network to cover all the main cities in the Kingdom. That expansion work should be finished by the end of the first quarter of 2007.
Keeping monthly communications costs in check was what initially attracted many Saudi companies to consider Bravo’s services, but now, as there is a better understanding of iDEN functionalities, increasing numbers of companies are using Bravo to help control operational costs as well.
“For example, if a company has 10 trucks that deliver various food products, it is easier to coordinate the deliveries due to the tracking, locating and communications services offered through Bravo. Companies are finding that they can be more efficient in handling delivery and service requests because they know exactly where their vehicles are at all times and they can stay in regular contact with the drivers,” Shatara explained. “These efficiencies have enabled companies to distribute their goods to more locations without increasing the number of vehicles in their delivery fleets. Companies like the fact that there is no technological investment required from their side to set up the tracking. All they have to do is subscribe to Bravo and the service is there.”
Bravo’s communications services aren’t being adopted in every type of business vertical where they could add value, simply due to the way certain companies operate in the Kingdom. For example, since most owners of taxi companies do little more than purchase vehicles that are then essentially leased for a set daily amount by taxi drivers, they have no incentive to invest in a service such as Bravo. If operators of taxi fleets would provide their drivers with Bravo handsets, then the drivers could be sent out based on the requirement of customers calling into a central dispatch number. This would mean that taxis would no longer aimlessly drive around town in search of passengers. Shatara remarked that while some Saudi limousine companies have enquired about Bravo’s services, as of yet there has been no move by these transport agencies toward using the technology.
On the other hand, Bravo’s communications services have been adopted in the local construction industry, by mission critical service providers for hospitals, inside petrochemical facilities and some factories and by aviation services. Haj service providers have also enthusiastically signed up with Bravo. With the pilgrimage season fast approaching, Bravo is ensuring that its network in the Western Region is at top readiness.
“Due to the extremely high pressure on other communication networks during Haj, the fact that Bravo’s network doesn’t have inbound roamers, makes it extremely attractive to Haj service providers,” said Shatara. “Bravo’s network is closed to the millions of pilgrims and visitors that come to the Western Region during the Haj season. This means that those companies who arrange and look after various services during Haj and subscribe to Bravo for communications, have access to a stable network that allows them to talk at any moment. We hope that better communications will allow the Haj service providers to offer optimized service in areas from catering to transport and that this will lead to enhanced comfort and safety of the pilgrims in their performance of the holy rituals.”
Bravo has also encountered some unusual service requests since setting up in the Kingdom. While the company is targeted toward companies of all sizes, some large Saudi families have signed up for Bravo’s services. Bravo is especially popular with large families that depend on drivers to transport children to school and women to work and various appointments. Shatara emphasized that Bravo hadn’t envisioned this before coming into the market. It was simply something that Saudi families themselves had embraced as a way of keeping communications costs under control while managing transportation and scheduling issues.
With its network nearing completion, Bravo’s management is turning its attention from getting basic services up and running, to expanding the services being offered.
“We know that our customers want to have more products offered through our network,” said Shatara. “We are already in talks with third-party providers to make that happen. We are planning to offer ‘Push to Scan.’ With this service a barcode scanner would be integrated with the iDEN device. Then a barcode on an item could be scanned and with one button push, that data would be transferred to a server where it would be entered into an inventory or asset management application. ‘Push to Swipe’ is also on the horizon. This is an application that would integrate a card scanner into the phone and with one push, that data would be transferred to applications for e-commerce and security. There are many applications that have been developed in the United States where this technology has flourished. We are currently filtering them and in the next year we hope to bring what fits with the needs of this market.”
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