World Report

With 3.5 million customers, the Kuwaiti mobile operator is expanding throughout the region

MTC started its expansion strategy in 2002. Today, with revenues topping US$1 billion (£543 million), it is a benchmark of Kuwait’s entrepreneurial drive.

he Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC), Kuwait’s leading wireless services provider, is one of the country’s star ventures. Driven by a startling clear vision to be global by 2011, the company managed to quadruple its customer base in Kuwait (where market penetration is as high as 80%) between 2002 and 2004, as well as launch operations in four other countries in the region, raising its number of customers to 3.5 million. This year, MTC entered Africa with the acquisition of Celtel, Sub-Sahara’s leading mobile operator. This ups the company’s customer base to nearly ten million from just 250,000 five years ago. Revenues topped US$1 billion (£543 million) in 2004, up from US$250 million (£136 million) in 2003, and term-on-term growth is consistently registering over 20%.

Not surprisingly, MTC has surpassed investors’ expectations, much to the pleasant surprise of its shareholders, and has earned a solid reputation for high-level business successes. Publicly listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, MTC began its present expansion in 2002. In September of that year, the company signed a groundbreaking agreement with Vodafone, resulting in the launch of MTC-Vodafone in Kuwait. The Partner Network Agreement allowed MTC access to the Vodafone brand name, as well as its range of innovative services, and provides seamless access to Vodafone’s international services for Vodafone and Partner customers while in Kuwait.

A few months later, in early 2003, MTC bought Fastlink, Jordan’s mobile operator, a move that represented the company’s first step towards regional expansion. In April of that year, MTC-Vodafone was awarded Bahrain’s second GSM license, as well as the rights to offer third generation services in the country. In October, MTC was awarded management control of Atheer Telecoms to deploy the network and mobile services for Southern Iraq and became a significant equity owner in the company. And in mid-2004, MTC signed a four-year management contract with the government of Lebanon for the country’s primary mobile provider, Libancell, which is now known as MTC Touch. This placed MTC at the top of the mobile telecommunications markets in five Middle Eastern countries within the space of two years. However, in March of this year, MTC pulled off its greatest coup to date – the purchase of Celtel International BV.

One of Africa’s most well-known names, Celtel covers a population area of over 250 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa and currently has more than five million managed customers. The leading operator in 13 countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, Celtel is also co-manager of Mobitel, Sudan’s main mobile network.

With this astonishing track record, MTC’s successful results must be surprising even to the creator of its expansion strategy, Managing Director and Vice-Chairman Saad Al-Barrak, who, back in 2002, devised the 3x3x3 master plan to transform the company into a leading global operator within nine years and the first-ever Middle-Eastern global telecommunications giant. The strategy was based on the progressive development from regional to international to global telecom player in successive three-year periods with the ultimate objective of expanding total customer base to 15 million by 2011. The acquisition of Celtel takes MTC both into the second phase of this plan and within five million customers of its target – well ahead of schedule.