 STRATEGY |
| INTERVIEW
OF MR MEG PILLAY CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF MAURITIUS TELECOM |
18th NOVEMBER 1998.
Q. Mauritius Telecom was established in 1992, now completely a leading company in
Mauritius, what have been the main points of that development ?
A. The most important point is that of a modern telecom infrastructure to support the
economic and social development of this country and this have been largely achieved if you
look at our figures – the statistics on telecommunications you would find that
we can boast today of being the most densely penetrated telecommunications country
of the whole of Africa , we have 22 telephones per 100 inhabitants which puts us at a very
high level of development given the fact that the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita
in this country is still below
4000 USD , so the number of telephones is really for a country that would have been
that would have been three times richer if we go by the co-relations curve that are
established by the ITU. In terms of value added services despite the fact that this is a
relatively small country we have been able to introduce services that are offered to the
business community and to the resedential community and we have nothing to envy to what is
obtained in the developed economies and this despite the fact that the market size is
relatively small and that it is difficult to build the critical mass that would
economically justify the introduction and the operations of certain services. This has
been possible due to the fact that we developed good business strategies that we have been
able to implement successfully.
Q. Mauritius Telecom is also wide in terms of profit as number one, what are your
expectations for this year ?
A. We should try to keep the number one position despite the fact that there has been
no changes in our tariffs, the tariffs for domestic telephony remained unchanged since
January 1990 even though the rupee has depreciated considerably over that period of time
and that there has been an erosion in the purchasing power due to inflation, we have
maintained the basic cost of one rupee per call which is a three minutes to an eight
minutes call depending on where it lands. As far as international telephony is concerned
we have made substantial reductions in our tariffs – we have introduced innovative
tarrifing like per second billing. With all these factors we have been able to maintain
our profit level due to the fact that we have expanded our network and that we have
generated greater volumes of traffic, so that we have achieved economies of scale and the
successful introduction of new technologies have allowed us to produce at lesser costs. On
top of that we have been able to exploit a booming tourist industry and we have
diversified a lot the possibilities of international connectivity where we are one of the
few countries in Africa that has different satelites from a variety of earth stations
which enables us to transit international traffic destined for third party countries in
Mauritius. This has created a lot of gross-subsidy for the benefit of our customers so as
to subsidise domestic tariff and the introduction of value added services and to keep
access cost as low as possible for both resedential and business customers in Mauritius.
Q. Mauritius is a member of both regional and international organisations, how would
you include Mauritius Telecom in these development projects ?
A. Telecommunications being an international industry where globalisation trends
are far more significant in this industry than in any other we therefore cannot operate in
vaccum since, we are members of various organisations as you have pointed out. We are the
first among African countries to be a member of Intel Sat and Inmar Sat where we are
active investors as well , we have also invested in ICO which is the next generation of
mobile telephony. We have also signed an agreement with Iridium and we form part of SATA (
Southern African Telecommunications Association ) where we have an important role, we are
very active in the regional organisations of the Indian Ocean countries. We have acquired
strategic alliances with large operators like France Telecom where the joint venture has
been a pretty successful one which exploits certain sectors of the industry not only on
the local market but with a view to expand regional markets as well. We are also in joint
venture with Singapore Telecom, Telecom South Africa and Telecom Malaysia for
international projects like safe summary cable project which is a mega project of wider
dimension where we are an initial party and a major investor.This will be built forever
and the project will be commissioned in the second part of the year 2000. This will not
only connect South Africa and Malaysia, this connection will be made up of separate cables
systems that will go around the world thus creating a diversity of routes. Until today the
connection available is carried mainly by an axis that goes from North America to Western
Europe through the Mediterenean and still up North, around India an then to the Far East .
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Q. It not just a bridge between Asia and Africa – it is a crossroad ?
A. It is more than a crossroad because today all the traffic goes along that route
with sensitive route as the cable is made over land in the Middle East where it goes into
very busy seas thus giving rise to a lot of breakdown and exposed also to severe war
conditions. The system we are trying to implement is a connection that goes from the
Southern Hemisphere down to the Indian Ocean round South Africa an up north to the
mid-Atlantic. This is a diversity of routes for carrying traffic not destined in this area
but that could be trafficed from the States to Japan for instance.As a matter fact a lot
of other operators are buying capacity in this cable system as they are going to use it
even though they are not directly concerned.This is mega project involving the
participation of many countries on which it is going to land but it also involves
countries which are very distant from it as they will be using the system once it is
installed.
Q. Mauritius Telecom will be privatised, when will it be the time frame for this
privatisation ?
A. This is essentially a political question, according to the statements made by
the government in the publication of its White Paper, the government wants to
progressively reduce interest in this company and introduce a stategic partner which is
likely to place eigthteen months from now on.
Q. Have there already been some contact with your ‘strategic
partner’ ?
A. No, not yet as at this stage it is too early as this would be a long process.
The first step of this process will be the appointment of financial advisers and we are at
this stage right now and the financial advisers will in turn work closely with the
government and the Mauritius Telecom. At this stage, I can only state that many operators
have already idenfied their interest in the privatisation of Mauritius Telecom namely
France Telecom, Telecom South Africa, SPC of the States, British Telecom and Cable and
Wireless among others.
Q. Qualcomm won a tender to install fifty thousand lines using CDMA technology is there
a new US partnership on the way ?
A. This is not really a partnership, this an important project in which we always
look at manufacturers and vendors of system with which we operate as partners in many ways
this being lifelong relationships that we build . In the telecommunications world, there
are four important factors namely a good operator, a good vendor, a good supplier and a
good financial agency. These are the key ingredients to set up and operate networks since
we have a vision of operating elsewhere as we are located in an area that is quite
deprived of basic telecommunications services, this therefore represents a big market
potential as well given the priority that this is today on the agenda of various
governments. This relationship can give way to other possibilities once the contract is
signed if this turns out to be to be a successful partnership.
Q. Mauritius Telecom’s vision ‘is to be perceived by customers and other
interest groups as providing a world class telecommunications service’ – you get
to meet a lot of business people from abroad , would they agree with this statement ?
A. This is very clear today from the kind of interest that we generate and a lot
people have approached us to be their partners in their ventures. Our accomplishments are
known worldwide and this was published by the ITU in an article on World Telecommuncations
Development Report revealed clearly that the magnitude of progress achieved by us as
operator.
Q. What is the secret of your style of management ?
A. First of all Telecommunications operating companies have evloved as national
monopolies almost everywhere including the United States.We are operating in conditions
where we do have exclusivities, we have competitors for mobile and paging services as
well, but yet we are in a fairly monopolistic situation but we are trying to make our
working force aware that we still need to remain competitive to maintain a certain level
of service and at the same time innovate and upgrade our present network according to
worldwide telecommunications changes. We still have to go a long way since the focus of
the Mauritius Telecom changed from that of technology geared company to a commercial and
service oriented company. We have also had past difficult relationship with people working
in this industry, but we can say that both parties are now into a win-win situation. Our
objective of reaching high customer satisfaction is being achieved and the most important
vision of the government is to make Mauritius an information based economy.
Q. As a final message, Mr Pillay, what would you say to our readers ?
A. We at the Mauritius Telecom wish to bring out Mauritius as a centre for
telecommunication despite the fact that we are a small island. |
