Ooredoo Maldives Mobile changes tourism

As of 2013, Ooredoo Maldives, the second largest operator in the country, covered 182 islands with 3G+ services and launched the country’s first commercial 4G service. The operator’s CEO, Haroon Shahul Hameed, believes that the data network that they are building will completely transform how tourists experience their vacations.

As Hameed explained, “In the past, sharing was one-on-one. You would write a post card, or you would speak to your close friend to explain the experience after you went back. Today, we share one-to-many. Via a simple SNS click, you share with as many people as you want.” Sharing has quickly evolved from offline to semi-online to online, thanks to the evolution of mobile broadband and smart terminals. In the past, scuba diving centers used to charge tourists big bucks for pictures of their underwater adventures. However, according to Hameed, “These days, people go diving or snorkeling with good smartphones and underwater cameras, and then upload the videos and pictures to social network immediately when they back to the resorts. I see people using cameras with SIM cards to share their moments in real time.”

By Joyce Fan

From one-on-one to one-to-many, from offline to semi-online to online, mobile communication has changed the way tourists prepare for and enjoy their journey. Ooredoo Maldives CEO, Haroon Shahul Hameed is in the business of satisfying high expectations in spite of challenging geography.

Sharing: One-to-many & online

As of 2013, Ooredoo Maldives, the second largest operator in the country, covered 182 islands with 3G+ services and launched the country’s first commercial 4G service. The operator’s CEO, Haroon Shahul Hameed, believes that the data network that they are building will completely transform how tourists experience their vacations.

Enjoying the beaches, reefs, resorts, and water activities, there are plenty of moments that tourists want to share with their family, friends and colleagues. As Hameed explained, “In the past, sharing was one-on-one. You would write a post card, or you would speak to your close friend to explain the experience after you went back. Today, we share one-to-many. Via a simple SNS click, you share with as many people as you want.” Sharing has quickly evolved from offline to semi-online to online, thanks to the evolution of mobile broadband and smart terminals. In the past, scuba diving centers used to charge tourists big bucks for pictures of their underwater adventures. However, according to Hameed, “These days, people go diving or snorkeling with good smartphones and underwater cameras, and then upload the videos and pictures to social network immediately when they back to the resorts. I see people using cameras with SIM cards to share their moments in real time.”

Hameed believes that more and more content will flow to telco’s networks in the future. People will enjoy their vocation, and at the same time, they will also enjoy the sharing experience. Ooredoo is accelerating the sharing.

Trip preparation: Do it yourself

With 1192 beautiful coral islands, the Republic of the Maldives is one of the world’s premium tourism destinations. In fact, more than half of the country’s 200 inhabited islands host a resort. On average, tourists spend about USD13,000 during a visit which typically lasts from 7-10 days. The expense is significant, so it’s all the more important that visitors choose to visit the islands that offer the desired features.

Ten years ago, people went to a travel agency and received one-stop service – air tickets, resorts reservation, activities, and everything. However, the information available was never comprehensive and choices were limited. Thanks to the reviews, pictures and videos shared by other tourist, people now have abundant direct information about the islands and the resorts, and what special offers might be available. Tourists are increasingly acting as their own travel agents. They can directly contact local resorts as well as local transportation services who provide transportation between the islands.

For the local travel service providers, mobile broadband is a business enabler. Hameed explained how broadband services are helping to promote the Maldives as a tourism destination, “When the tourists are coming and sharing their beautiful moments with the world, they are promoting our country.” He also noted that currently Ooredoo Maldives has covered 84% of the country with 3G services and close to 50% of the handsets on their network are smartphones, which has actually helped many entrepreneurs to become travel agents and travel advisers. Such agents and advisors don’t need much capital to start their small businesses and promote tourism in the Maldives.

Premium telecom services: Not an easy job

Hameed believes that people spending large amount of money in the Maldives expect a high quality experience in whatever they do, and today, telecom is an important part of almost every experience. He also shared several statistics on how his company is helping tourists to enjoy their experience – Ooredoo Maldives now covers 99% of the Maldives with 2G networks, and 84% are covered with 3G+ networks. More than 1/3 of the population have access to 4G networks. With 1192 islands spread across 90,000 square kilometers of sea, in the Maldives, achieving these levels of coverage isn’t easy.

The extreme majority of operators in the world build their networks for the local customers. They do not invest anything special for roaming customers, but do extract some revenue from them. With only 320,000 citizens, the Maldives is an exceptional case. Hameed told us that Ooredoo deploys their networks case by case, “In the Maldives, we have inhabited islands with certain needs, and we have resorts that have a completely different set of needs. We actually set up customized telecommunication infrastructure specifically for the resorts, the tourists and the roamers.

“The number one requirement of the resorts is to have a fantastic high end data experience. However, the towers we deploy determine the coverage area, and those have to be harmonious with the environment – extremely beautiful and not higher than the trees on the island. Even in smaller resorts, we had to deploy more than one cell site to cover the entire resort. It’s already done and it was expensive.”

But this is not the end of the story. The Maldives is a haven for pampered tourists who enjoy a top-notch experience when they go diving, snorkeling, fishing and travelling throughout the resorts; it’s no surprise that they expect a similarly high-quality communication experience. As Hameed put it, “It’s not only the lands have to be covered, we need to cover every area where tourists go so they can capture all their moments. Of course the service and operational costs are very high and our teams need to travel 200 kilometers by speedboat to keep these sites running, but we want the tourists to go back home with beautiful memories of the Maldives, so we invest quite heavily in creating this state of art telecom network.”

Not only tourism

While tourism contributes about 30% of the Maldives GDP, fishing is also a major part of the economy. Therefore, in addition to the core telecommunication services for the tourists, Ooredoo developed special services for the fishing boats, which roam around the islands.

Hameed talked about the system his company deployed for the local fishermen, “We created devices that provide tracking and emergency signaling features to support people when they are on the water. Fisherman can carry the tracking device so that the operational center always knows where they and their boats are. All these tracking devices have an emergency button, so if they face an emergency when diving or fishing, they can always press the button. Distress signals go directly to our operational center and are immediately forwarded to the offices of the ministry, coast guard, and so on, so that emergency personnel can be sent out to support these people.”

Ooredoo also created a service called Geo-fencing. If a fishing boat ventures beyond the Maldives’ territorial waters, the crew will receive an SMS followed by a call to inform them. “These are some of the services that we have developed to support Maldivian fisherman, and we continue to provide quality networks and differentiated services to the entire country and its visitors.” Hameed concluded.

Milestones of Ooredoo Maldives

2013

• Launched the Maldives’ first LTE network for fixed and mobile broadband in cooperation with Huawei
• Rebranded Wataniya into Ooredoo Maldives while boosting both the customer base and data consumption

2009

• Launched the Maldives’ first 3G network

2005

• Launched the first data service in the Maldives using GPRS and EDGE technologies
• Launched 2G voice services under the brand of Wataniya (as the market challenger)