Abdulaziz Yacoub Al-Babtain

TBY talks to Abdulaziz Yacoub Al-Babtain, CEO of Ooredoo Kuwait, about new initiatives and growth.

What major initiatives did Ooredoo Kuwait carry out in the past year?

In terms of innovations, we are working on 5.5G, which is the next generation of 5G that will carry more data. Which represent the next technology era. We are bringing 5.5G sooner than any other country—Kuwait will be the first country after South Korea and Qatar to launch 5.5G. We were the pioneers in launching 5G, and we expect the same to be true for 5.5G given the size of the country.

Ooredoo Kuwait has reported a significant YoY growth in net profit. To what do you attribute this strong financial performance?

Driven by our corporate strategy, which aims to expand our presence in the consumer and enterprise sector, offering a wider range of ICT solutions. These strategic acquisitions have assisted us in diversifying our revenue streams beyond traditional telecom services. Moreover, the impressive performance of our top-tier operations in recent years underscores our commitment to surpassing customer expectations and generating value for our shareholders. By refining our business model, we have effectively expanded our presence worldwide, playing a pivotal role in driving digital transformation. This consolidation solidifies our standing as a frontrunner in both local and international telecommunications markets. We are positioning Ooredoo as the market leader in integrated connectivity and advanced IT services. We have also invested in a customer-centric approach and worked on the customer experience to differentiate ourselves in the market. Rather than focusing solely on physical upgrades, our investment in personnel and customer service has yielded positive outcomes. In enterprises, we have implemented more solutions and signed different partnerships. Additionally, we are proactively expanding and integrating digital extensions into our core portfolio, ensuring our customers have access to a comprehensive range of digital solutions. Along with our strategic strategy, Ooredoo has successfully gained the exclusive rights of the Kuwait TV production which contains 70-plus years production, the richest in the gulf nations, which will be available for the new OTT platform under the name “51.” This successful step was based on a strong foundation toward the new vision. In addition, the platform will establish new digitalization era toward the government sector and will provide new ways toward newer ways of digital communications.