(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Ooredoo Group generated more than $1bn revenue from B2B services in 2014, with 9-month year-on-year growth close to 10%, the company said yesterday.
Ooredoo will showcase some of its remarkable achievements in 2014 at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
In Iraq, Ooredoo affiliate Asiacell significantly expanded its B2B sales force and won new customers by offering new solutions, such as customised Closed User Groups.
In Indonesia, Indosat is building dedicated channels to meet the unique needs of business customers. For a country that has about 55mn small, medium and micro businesses, the segmented direct, indirect and retail channel experience is critical to address all types of businesses
Ooredoo Group is set to launch a cloud-based machine-to-machine (M2M) platform in 2015, which will enable the company to reduce the time-to-market when building industry-specific 'Internet of things' solutions.
The company is also working with partners to develop a host of so-called "smart services," including smart infrastructure, smart entertainment, connected cars, next generation education, health and workplace solutions, and "smart city" municipality services management, intelligent transport and smart stadiums.
A number of these solutions will be on display at the Ooredoo pavilion during Mobile World Congress, Ooredoo said.
Year 2014 was ground-breaking for Ooredoo, with more operations across its footprint adopting the new brand (which was originally launched at the Mobile World Congress 2013), a major focus on data and digital services, and the company working hard to live up to its vision of enriching people's lives.
In particular, the company has emerged as a leader in data and digital lifestyle services over the past year. Data reached more than 20% of total Ooredoo revenue in Q3 2014, and revenue from mobile content increased by 19% in the same period. In all, some 25% of Ooredoo customers are now using mobile content.
Commenting on the progress made over the past year, Ooredoo Group CEO Dr Nasser Marafih said, "Ooredoo is a leader in digital services in emerging markets, and we believe that our services are transforming people's lives. More than a quarter of our customers now use smartphones, reflecting the transformation that has taken place in lifestyles in the Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region and Southeast Asia in recent years.
"We are going to build on our number one position in markets like Qatar, Algeria and Iraq to bring in the next generation of data services and make these available for everyone."
To ensure the best quality of connection and mobile surfing speeds for its customers, Ooredoo launched several new network enhancements in 2014, including a state-of-the-art 4G+ network in Qatar, making Ooredoo's home country one of a handful of nations in the world to have the fastest mobile Internet service available.
Ooredoo's Indosat launched Indonesia's fastest 4G-LTE service in 2014. Ooredoo also enhanced 4G services in Kuwait, Maldives and Oman during the year.
The company also saw significant success with 3G services, reaching the milestone of 3.5mn 3G customers in Algeria within the first year of its 3G launch, and also seeing Asiacell offering 3G services in January 2015 within one month of receiving its licence.
In Myanmar, Ooredoo commercially launched 3G services in a world-first, and saw unprecedented demand, reaching its millionth customer in under three weeks from launch. In all, 80% of Ooredoo customers in Myanmar use smartphones € a record for smartphone penetration in an emerging market.
Ooredoo was also successful in rolling out the Ooredoo brand in 2014. With the launch of the brand in Kuwait in April and Oman in November 2014, the global brand of Ooredoo is now present in seven markets: Qatar, Algeria, the Maldives, Tunisia, Myanmar, Kuwait and Oman.
The Ooredoo Pavilion will be located in Hall 2 at Mobile World Congress. The event runs until March 5.
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