“I am pleased to announce Etisalat is the winner of Capacity magazine’s ‘Best Middle Eastern wholesale offering’ award for 2009. Etisalat has demonstrated thought leadership in the development and implementation of its wholesale strategy, which continues to put Etisalat at the forefront of telecommunications in the Middle East,” said Matthew Whalley, Editor, Capacity magazine.

2009 saw Etisalat’s Carrier & Wholesale Service group establish a plethora of services for regional ISPs, mobile operators and telecoms companies. These include global transit services for voice, data, MPLSs as well as many value added mobile and internet services. effectively providing outsourciing services for other operators.

“Winning an award of this status is a great achievement – but to do so twice in consecutive years is phenomenal. There is always the danger that when someone names you the best, that your edge may slip, however I am more than delighted that the team is continuing to drive the boundaries ever further forward in their aim to delight our customers,” Ali Amiri, Executive Vice President, Carrier and Wholesale Services at Etisalat said.

2009 also saw the completion of the part-Etisalat funded TEAMS cable project between Kenya and the UAE. This cable will provide much-needed access to broadband connectivity via the Emirates Internet Exchange (EMIX). The TEAMS cable is one of many regional and global infrastructure projects that have been completed because of Etisalat’s participation and leadership.

For further information please visit www.etisalat.ae.

Dubai, 9 December 2009 – Zed Communications, the Dubai based integrated communications company, galloped away from the UAE Web Awards with a clutch of awards including eight Gold, six Silver, six Bronze Awards and the much-coveted ‘Web Agency of the Year Award.’

Zed’s work for the Executive Affairs Authority in Abu Dhabi was awarded with a Special Strategic Award for Governmental Work in what was a glittering award ceremony at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel on Saturday night. The event, organized by the Pan Arab Web Awards Academy, in association with AYNA, Microsoft, BSA and MSN, is widely regarded as the premier United Arab Emirates platform to showcase, share and inspire excellence in website design and software development.

Commenting on Zed’s runaway success, Managing Director Robert Mitchell, said: “We are proud to be Web Agency of the Year. Online is an integral part of our business in building clients’ brands. We are always looking at ways to turn websites from lagging assets to driving assets. In the past, websites used to be just a record of who a company was, like an online brochure. At Zed, we make the web an active asset to drive growth in our customers’ brands and increase return on investment. That means developing holistic online strategies that go way beyond traditional websites.”

The Awards, now in their fifth year, provide the perfect opportunity to network and gain market recognition in what is an increasingly powerful digital medium. Each web award entry is judged by a team of experts across key criteria such as design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, functionality, navigation and ease of use.

This year Zed Communications ran away with eight Gold Awards in eight categories: Health; Financial; Services; Art and Design; Education; Industries; Corporate; and Governmental. Six Silver Awards were won in: Sports; Hotels, NGOs; Transportation; Web Companies and Advertising, while six Bronze Awards were received for Banks; Fashion; Directories; Financial Services; NGOs and Services.

Mitchell underscored the value and growing importance of web in the United Arab Emirates: “The UAE is now part of an elite group of countries with world-class levels of web penetration. The UAE’s place in the world’s top-thirty for broadband connectivity sets it on the same level as traditionally tech-savvy markets like the United States, Japan and Sweden. Furthermore, the UAE is a young country, with half the population aged under twenty.”

He added: “We are seeing many people leapfrogging the PC age, straight to mobile broadband. Mobile devices are now the key for information, entertainment and communication. Over the next few years you’ll see many groundbreaking developments in web technology, right here in the UAE — driven by local companies like Zed. “

December 7, 2009

Escalating IT support costs and tighter competition have driven demand for IT managed services within Middle East and Africa enterprises, according to market intelligence firm IDC’s analysis of 2008 business environments. The continuity of this trend in 2009 and beyond will be extensively discussed during the Abu Dhabi leg of the IDC Storage, Virtualization and Managed Services Roadshow 2009 to be held on December 7, 2009 at the local Shangri La Hotel.

The IDC Roadshow will visit seven key cities in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey to explore the concepts of Virtualization, Consolidation, Managed Services, Information Life-Cycle Management, and the Green Datacentre. Injazat will join the latest show as Gold Sponsor, with Head of Product Development and Solutioning Michael Collins to deliver a presentation titled ‘Managed Services as a Strategic Tool – How You Can Maximize Your Investments’ on how outsourcing can help companies transform their business and concentrate on their core functions.

“Given the extension of the global crisis, flexibility and economy have become critical targets for the region’s businesses. At the same time, information and communications technology (ICT) has emerged as a critical growth driver, and so organizations need to come up with
strategies to optimize their technology investments without compromising their sustainability. This is why we’re witnessing a rising demand in approaches such as outsourcing and managed services, which allow companies to continue with their ICT-enabled growth plans,” said Ali Al Neaimi, Executive Director of Client Care at Injazat Data Systems.

IT outsourcing’s numerous operational benefits include 24/7 monitoring, reduced ownership costs, a single contact point to resolve network issues, and elimination of management and reporting system expenses. The segment formed a substantial part of the UAE’s IT services revenues in 2008, which at AED3.74 billion accounted represented a 29.1 per cent increase over 2007 despite the prevalence of the economic downturn.

Injazat Data Systems, a joint venture between Mubadala Development Co. and HP, holds more than 50 per cent of the UAE’s IT outsourcing market. The company owns and operates the first Tier IV design certified Data centre in the region and the only one of its kind outside of North America.

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About d1g.com
d1g is the fastest growing Web 2.0 integrated online community that has become the leading Arabic portal for rich digital media such as online Arabic clips and pictures. d1g is a venue where Arab users can create and join online communities, publish their favorite music, share videos, create their own web identity and evolve into web publishers. d1g suite of services include a range of Arabic Web 2.0 service and new models of online social networking to capitalize on the enormous growth in internet penetration and digital media in the Middle East. d1g is continuously offering new online service concepts for the Arab online communities that address a gap in the current online content and services addressing the emerging needs of Arab users.

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About Yahoo!
Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most trafficked Internet destinations and a world-class online media company. Yahoo!’s vision is to be the center of people’s online lives by delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit http://pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (http://yodel.yahoo.com).

For more information, please call
d1g.com / Tel: 0096265854866 – Fax: 0096265854898
Email: info@d1gcorp.com – Web: www.d1gcorp.com

MenaITech Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Bashar Hawamdeh said, “In support of national initiatives, we are glad to have JFA on our reference list as we strive to cater for multiple sectors across the Arab region. To know that our software will facilitate salary calculation and personnel issues for Jordan’s top of the line football players is an achievement and pride for our organization.”

JFA Secretary General Mr. Khalil Al Salem said, “MenaITech presented us with the best functionality amongst the HRMS vendors in the market due to its user-friendly, web-based and comprehensive features. We took such an initiative to invest in an HR system in order to achieve optimum internal functionality, on which HR processes as the core of the organization will be reflected on the association as a whole.”

It should be noted that MenaITech, a leading HRMS vendor in the region, has deployed its system in a number of governmental and non-governmental entities in Jordan such as King Hussein Foundation, Tkiyet Um Ali, Jordan River Foundation, Save the Children, Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, Tamweelcom, Jordan Investment Board, King Abdulla Design & Development Bureau, Ministry of Planning & International Cooperation and the Jordan Customs Department.

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The warning was addressed to delegates attending the closing ceremony of the 4th IGF meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday 18 November, by Herbert Heitmann, Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) Commission on E-Business, IT and Telecoms, and Chief Communications Officer at SAP.

It comes ahead of next year’s five-year review of the IGF, which was set up as an open platform for businesses, governments, civil society and technical experts to discuss Internet policy issues such as privacy, security and access costs.

Convened under the aegis of the UN Secretary General, the IGF is the only forum where all entities – including business, governments, civil society and the technical community – can discuss the future of the Internet on an equal footing. This establishes an environment of open exchange, critical to informed policy-making that takes the views of all Internet users into consideration.

“The lack of multistakeholder involvement has often led to ill-informed decision making, resistance in society and suspicions among the different players,” said Heitmann.

“The Internet Governance Forum, as we know it today has fortunately prevented these shortfalls so far. It has helped to make the Internet a universally applauded, appreciated and heavily utilized medium globally. Business wants the IGF to be continued and strongly opposes changes to its founding principles.”

The IGF should continue to have the flexibility to continue to evolve to address the needs of all stakeholders, but it should do so respecting the founding principles.” he told the conference of over 1,000 people from around the world, who had spent the previous four days discussing a range of Internet issues, with a focus on boosting Internet inclusivity, especially for those in developing countries.

The importance of the IGF as a key driver for informed policy at local level was further backed by the findings of a Diplo Foundation survey of over 200 IGF participants, from 81 countries, commissioned by AT&T and distributed during the meet.

Results reveal that almost half (47.28 percent) of respondents found the knowledge gathered through the IGF to be practical enough for them to make a good start on policy development and implementation in their respective communities, while a further 15.48 percent found it to be immediately applicable.

Further data shows that 54 percent of responders claimed they communicated relevant knowledge from the IGF to members of their local community, and 23 percent communicated with representatives to their local administrations.

Dorothy Attwood, Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Chief Privacy Officer at AT&T said: “By bringing together different stakeholder sectors, the IGF provides an appropriate, effective forum for addressing Internet governance issues. The IGF has an important role in the future of the Internet.”

The creation of regional and national IGF events and initiatives is also testament to the forum’s success at stimulating pro-competitive policy, while enabling the free flow of information, data protection, and security, added Art Reilly, Senior Director of Strategic Technology Policy at Cisco Systems.

“This one-of-a-kind environment of multistakeholder exchange helps us to find new understandings, common interests and opportunities. Because our focus has been on substantively exchanging experiences and views instead of negotiating text our time here has been put to good and practical use that can inform participant’s actions in the aftermath of the IGF,” he said.

BASIS brings business expertise to and encourages business participation in the IGF. Under the umbrella of BASIS, business engages with all stakeholders with the aim of spreading the benefits of the information society more widely across the world.

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The Arab company foresees that this best selling interactive whiteboard in the region would make a quality shift in the concept of modern education, especially since it exhibits unique features that meet the needs of class environment and enrich the learning atmosphere with more interactivity by the stimulation of the student’s five senses.

KETAB Engage Interactive™ system comprises, among other components, KETAB Board ™ and KETAB Sheets ™, which are ultra wireless interactive sheet surfaces that allow teachers to facilitate lessons and control both the computer and interactive board with absolute convenience without being restricted to one place, thus allowing even the students to interact and participate from their desks. To add more value content to the class, students can use the side tool box for additional applications such as drawing, writing and projection of still and animated graphics.

KETAB Technologies’ CEO Khaled Kalaldeh stated: “Unlike products offered in the market, KETAB Engage Interactive™ does not need additional infrastructure installations especially since the system is entirely ultra-wireless and has no electrical devices; this gives it a longer life, higher durability, and less frequent need for maintenance, which usually exhausts the budgets of educational institutions”.

Another major component of the new issue of KETAB Engage Interactive™ is KETAB Studio ™ 2.0, which allows writing and shape recognition so that when these are projected on the board, they will be clear and easier to identify, not to mention the possibility to reduce & enlarge the size of any object easily through the drag and drop command.

In addition, the system allows the screening of several films at the same time, with commentary, and offers geometry drawing instruments like the protractor, ruler and compass, with the possibility of controlling the density of light shed on the board to focus the attention of the audience on certain spots with a spotlight option.

Kalaldeh explained that these features and others have secured the company entry into new Arab and Western markets and have been the factor directly behind a growth of sales by more than 75% in the third quarter 2009, compared to the same period last year.

In addition to the convenience and user-friendliness boasted by KETAB Engage Interactive™, the system enjoys other high-tech features that ensure instructors smooth delivery of the educational content to students with high flexibility that adheres to the principles of modern education, unlike traditional methods that normally entail spoon feeding without proper absorption of the fundamentals of the subject.

Kalaldeh added: “We have deployed our long and extensive experience in the industry to serve the academic sector and help it break free from the rigidity that has and is still hindering smooth communicating of information to students into a natural usage model”, adding that interaction between students and the educational curriculum is the answer to this obstacle.

Using KETAB Engage Interactive™ is not restricted to a certain subject or academic level. The board and sheets involved in the system ensure a tediousness-free atmosphere whether the audience is a university or an elementary school class.
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About KETAB Technologies
KETAB Technologies Ltd. was founded in Jordan in 2002 as a creator of high-tech products designed the serve customers in all educational sectors, based on knowledge-exchange and human-computer interaction technologies. KETAB is considered today a pioneer & leader in developing high-tech products and technologies including its signature: Ketab Engage Interactive™. Headquartered in Amman, the company has a network of branches and distributors all over the Arab region, deployed to meet the increasing global demand and communicate with customer and provide them with the necessary know-how and technical support towards optimal utilization of technology. www.ketabtech.com
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For more information, please call
PR Launchers / Tel: 0096265691861 – Fax: 0096265691863
Email: info@PRLaunchers.com – Web: www.PRLaunchers.com

e-junior crew will surprise school kids inside their school buses with fun and informative trivia questions and winners will be walking away with free goodies. The questions will range from science, math, geography in addition to general information and other informative questions.

Al Khaleej National School, Al-Shorouq Private School and Our Own English School are the three schools participating with e-junior in this campaign. These surprise visits will be filmed and telecasted on the e-junior channel.

According to Fatiha Bensalem, Channel Manager/ e-junior, “We expect the Catch the Bus Campaign to be very well received by school kids. We have conceived the campaign to be an exciting yet meaningful initiative which will encourage kids to learn more in line with their current school curriculum. This latest initiative will further cement our reputation as the exclusive channel on E-Vision and the most watched kids TV channel in the U.A.E.”

Winners will receive exciting gifts from “Magrudy”, “Toys R Us”, “Dubai Dolphinarium”, “Ski Dubai” and “e-junior” goody bags.

E-Vision is the leading regional source to offer over 300 TV channels, in 21 different languages, ranging from sports to movies, from documentaries to music and kid’s channels. E-Vision’s product line-up includes 15 premium packages from all the major TV providers like Showtime, Orbit, ART, Pehla, Firstnet, TFC, Pinoy Plus and many more, in addition to the E-Vision Basic package.

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Mr. Khalifa Al Shamsi, Sr. vice president Marketing said: “Etisalat is committed to providing the best services and the greatest value to its customers, particularly during the Hajj period. Our free incoming roaming service and the initial roaming deposit waiver will help keep our subscribers connected to their families and friends”

This offer is available for GSM post-paid and Wasel pre-paid customers between 15 to 30 November.

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