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INTERVIEW WITH MR. ORKUNT YOZGAT, THE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND SALES GROUPS, AND DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL OF ALBTELECOM AND EAGLE MOBILE
THE JOURNALIST: The telecommunication sector in Albania, as in most of developed countries in the world, moves ahead in technology, services variety and competition between operators.
The Director of Marketing and Sales Groups, also Deputy Director General of Albtelecom And Eagle Mobile, Mr. Orkunt Yozgat, tells us about some of the most important developments in the Albanian telecommunication market and the developments that occurred in this market in recent years.
MR. YOZGAT: If you look at the telecommunications sector in Albania, you see a big development and an increasing industry. Eagle Mobile has been present as the third operator in the market since 2008, and in 2010 another operator came into the market. So, in the Albanian mobile industry now there are four operators. On the other hand, we have another operator, a fixed one, which is well-known in the whole Albania, ALBtelecom. This year we are also celebrating the 100th anniversary of ALBtelecom. So, with ALBtelecom and Eagle Mobile together we become the key players of the telecommunications industry in Albania.
The telecommunications industry in Albania, according to the figures of AKEP in 2011, reaches 500 million USD. Beginning from 2008 there has been a decline of this industry. So, the market is shrinking and getting 20% smaller since 2008. Of course, this phenomenon has got some reasons. The main reason is the economic situation in Europe. The global crisis and its effects in Europe, especially in Greece and Italy, have had a bad impact on Albania.
But even so, the Albanian customers are highly interested in knowing innovative technologies and new technological products, and this is something very positive. As a mobile company, we are situated as an innovative company compared to other companies in the market. We are the ones who brought innovations to the Albanian market with regard to the mobile part, and this approach of ours was very welcomed from all the Albanian subscribers.
In this phase, there have been some new changes in our company. Since we have a mobile company, Eagle Mobile and a giant fixed company, ALBtelecom, we are trying to merge them and bring them together, which is a very big and important event for the Albanian telecommunications industry. When these two companies are merged, we will be able to provide all the necessary services to our customers. It means that, if a customer has got mobile services from this company, he will also be able to get fixed services or faster internet services from the same company if he wants. So, all the telecom services needed can be provided by the same company. And this is very important for us. That is the reason why whatever we do in Eagle Mobile and ALBtelecom, we try to put the customer in the center of everything, in the heart of every operation, and by merging these operations, our customers will be happier, will have more products in their hands, and all these services will no longer be separated - mobile services from one company and ADSL and fixed services from another company, but they will be all provided by one company.
Of course, it is not something easy to treat for us, because it needs so many investments and the most important thing we are trying to do is to improve the service quality and at the same time we are making many investments. So, we are changing the whole infrastructure, the technical branch and have spent more than 50 million Euros on these changes. We are changing the TDM networking into an NGN system, which is the new generation system and all the customers will be able to have better services for internet and voice calls.
THE JOURNALIST: Regarding the market competition, Mr. Yozgat explains that innovations are the strong point that a company should have in order to better serve to the customer.
MR. YOZGAT: Of course telecom market is a very difficult and challenging market, because all the competitors are trying to do new things. And furthermore, when there is competition in the market the customer is more demanding, wants more new things. That’s the reason why we are in both sides, Eagle Mobile and ALBtelecom, and we are trying to give more new things. For example, our existing offer in ALBtelecom is something very new. We tell the customers who do not have internet connection: “Use free ADSL internet for two months and if you are happy, keep it, if you are not, do not buy it.” So, this is something very simple to understand, but very new, since nobody has dared to do it so far. That is a big potential and demand from the customer.
Many people still don’t know what the internet is and it has to do with the penetration rate, which is very low in Albania interestingly. In Albania, the young generation is high but the internet use is not that high. On the other hand, the usage of mobile phone is very high, while the penetration rate is 150% of the population. Everybody has two mobile phones and everybody talks on the phone. But as for the internet part, there are so many things to do and we are investing to provide all those things. That’s why our new initiative is very good and we are trying to do new things. For example, in Eagle Mobile we are promoting all the new campaigns, because people need innovations.
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THE JOURNALIST: Orkunt Yozgat also explains that the business should undertake social priorities to better serve to everyone. What it gets from the customer it tries to give it back to him.
MR. YOZGAT: Regarding our Corporate Social Responsibility, this year we have made some very interesting things. This year, Albania is celebrating its 100th anniversary of independence. So, we took all the Albanian patriotic songs and put them in our mobile services (as ringtones), so that people could download all these songs belonging to Albania, which the young generation is forgetting and they have to listen to them, and this is a very good thing.
We have some responsibility for Albania and the Albanian people. We are a Telecommunications Company and we have to reach everywhere. This means being in every pocket, in every house and street, and we have to do lots of things. One of the important things we have to do is our Corporate Social Responsibility projects. Every year we have got new items or new topics to discuss. In 2009 we had the orphan children, in 2010 we had the environment care, in 2011 it was about education and this year it is about technology. So, we have a priority every year, and what we take from the Albanians, we try to give it back in the regions in need. For example, we chose 20 orphan students and provided scholarships for their education; for two years in a row, we enabled other orphan children to have touristic visits to Istanbul for June 1st. I told them: “when you are graduated, you are going to work here”.
Regarding the social responsibility projects again, every year we are increasing our scope and we are trying to reach more people. When it was about the environment, our people, our managers, even me, we went to clean some cities because it is something important. People must understand that Albania is a wonderful country, but people are still throwing things and garbage down. They have to change their habits, because Albania really is a wonderful country. Every year we are trying to do new things. For example, we have been sponsoring TOB in Tirana (Opera & Ballet Theater) for two years now, which is very important, because art and culture is also very important to us and we want the people to know this, share this and see this. What we are offering to people is not just a SIM Card, or a cable, but we are offering them a lifestyle. Lifestyle covers lots of areas and we must be present in all the areas it covers. If young people like to go to nice places, we are sponsoring there, if people like to go to the opera, we are sponsoring there, if people need some education, we are there. We are trying to do our best with the merge of these two companies to really satisfy all the Albanian people and customers. On top of it, I should repeat it again, is the customer’s satisfaction. It is our main issue, our main thing, and we are trying to improve it every day.
THE JOURNALIST: What benefits will the customers or end-users get from the merge from two companies, the giant fixed telephony company ALBtelecom and the mobile company Eagle Mobile
MR. YOZGAT: When we are talking about this merge, of course, for the company it is very important, because on one side, we are reaching some mobile customers, and on the other side we are reaching some fixed customers, but the fixed customers are not always our mobile customers and the vice versa, our mobile customers are not always our fixed customers. So, as a strategy of our company, first of all we want to bring all these fixed and mobile customers together and increase even this number. So, if one customer is an Eagle customer but not an ALBtelecom customer, first thing we want to do is bring him to ALBtelecom as well, and the vice versa. Then, certainly, we want to offer the customer the whole package of services, so that the customer does not need to search another operator and in this way we can keep the customer in our company, because in the telecom industry, the most difficult and challenging thing is keeping the customer. Our strategy is enlarging the portfolio of the products by giving more products in more competitive prices and very good quality, of course, and being able to cover all the customers in the company and keeping them.
The trend we are bringing, I think, is something very new even in Europe. Everybody wants to do it, but I think, it is not an easy thing to do, because you have to unify the entire infrastructure, all the networks and the billing systems. Everything must be unified. It must come like one. We are also trying to be one even with regard to our shops. Now we have different shops for Eagle and different shops for ALBtelecom. We will unify them as well, and we will have one standard shop. We will have one Customer Care, one Call Center, one Marketing, and one Sales Department. So, we will have one company and when we do it, when we converge all the services, the customer will be very happy. Maybe he will have only one invoice coming from our company, showing all the products he needs. I think, it is a very important challenge for Albania and even for us.
This year is the Year of technology and we are trying to support some schools and students. So far, we have donated some computers, like 25 computers to some successful students. At the same time, relating to technology, we are holding some conferences in different universities. We intend to reach the students, because it is too important. I was at Tirana University, trying to explain how we are using technology, because if you don’t use technology in a good way, it makes no sense. You can have a wonderful technology, but if you don’t use it in the proper way, it doesn’t mean anything. That is the reason why having technology and using it for people’s needs is very important. This is why we are trying to explain this, and also, because this is the year of technology, we are trying to invest some information where needed, some knowhow, which is very important for people’s needs.
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