Category: Our News

April 3rd, Manama, Bahrain: Kalaam Telecom, the second largest telecommunications provider for corporate services in Bahrain, announced its partnership with Gulf Customer Experience (Gulf CX), the new leader in Digital Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in the GCC.This partnership enables Gulf CX to seamlessly engage with customers across multiple channels, utilizing a cloud contact center infrastructure to provide a seamless customer experience.

Kalaam’s redundant solution ecosystem with The-Next-Generation-Technology provides co-location with multiple datacenters, MPLS links over fiber and microwave connectivity, local and International voice services that support inbound and outbound calls, two way SMS services and business continuity planning (BCP).

Mr. Veer Passi, CEO of Kalaam Telecom stated: “Kalaam intends to play a significant role in meeting the Economic Vision 2030 by facilitating and supporting the growth of emerging industry segments like BPOs in Bahrain. The flexible network deployment allows startups like Gulf CX easy scalability based on business needs and aligns with Kalaam’s product portfolio, offering a one-stop solution to this sector.”

Rami Sweis, CEO of Gulf CX said, “We are pleased to have Kalaam as our strategic telecom partner. Our business requires 24×7 service, flexibility and streamlining of connectivity and voice solutions, and we relied on Kalaam for months to help us reach our target deployment date of March 1, 2016. We appreciate their dedication and contribution toward our current and future operations that extend beyond Bahrain.”

As the first provider of a fully cloud based omni-channel contact center, Gulf CX integrates CRM, social media marketing, ticketing, geo-fencing and analytics solutions.   According to Sweis, “Our clients engage with us for reliable and innovative customer experience solutions, and they have high expectations in terms of business continuity and quality of service. We are committed to deliver on our promises and have offered superior service from day one.”

About Gulf Customer Experience
Our industry-leading customer experience solutions are customized and tailor-made to meet our client’s specific goals and business requirements. We are the preferred service delivery partner for brands who value customer experience as a competitive differentiator. As consulting, training, digital and technology professionals, we operate multi-channel, world-class customer experience centers, delivering a memorable and “wow” experience with every interaction. Our passion for service is embedded in everything we do, and we deliver on this promise.

About Kalaam Telecom
As the first, alternative and fully-licensed telecommunications provider based in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Kalaam Telecom offers advanced voice, internet, data, and value added services to business customers. Having launched operations in March 2005, Kalaam serves both small & medium business customers and large corporations across different industries in Bahrain. Our policy of openness and frankness is central to our management’s philosophy. A key indicator has been the amount of renewed and continuous business awarded to Kalaam over the past ten years.

November 10th, 2015: Kalaam telecom was the first alternative, fully licensed telecom service provider in the Kingdom of Bahrain, having been launched in 2005. Celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year, Kalaam offers managed telecom solutions mainly to the enterprise market. Kalaam’s success was regionally acknowledged, being shortlisted as finalists for “Best Enterprise Service Provider” in MENA region by Telecoms Middle East Awards 2015.

At a recent reception held at the Bahrain National Museum, Kalaam Telecom’s Chairman – Mr. Nezar Al-Saie stated: “The Government of Bahrain has been the most liberal in the region in terms of opening up the telecom sector. This liberalization fostered growth for alternative service providers to offer unique and advanced solutions, playing a key role in developing state-of-the-art telecom infrastructure in the country.

Mr. Al-Saie added that the “Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) played a critical role in providing level playing field to all the telecom operators through even handed regulations, and creating greater competitive market, allowing opportunities to alternate operators like Kalaam in providing end-to-end telecom solutions including Data, Internet, Voice, ICT and Cloud.”

Kalaam is now the 2^nd largest ISP for fixed wired broadband in Bahrain, with many top-ranking companies in different industries, some of which are amongst the Forbes Middle East Top 500. Through strategic partnerships, both local and International, Kalaam is able to offer international reach, with presence in UAE and UK allowing Kalaam to meet the international needs of it’s customers as well.

13^th September, 2014: Kalaam, the 2^nd largest ISP (in fixed broadband services) for businesses in the Kingdom of Bahrain has been selected as finalist for the TWME [Telecoms World Middle East Awards] 2015 in the “Best Enterprise Services Provider” category. The winners will be announced at the Telecoms World Middle East Awards Ceremony on 14 September, 2015, in Dubai.

“We are honored to be short-listed as finalists and be recognized alongside some of the top telecom operators in the MENA region,” said Veer Passi, CEO of Kalaam. “Being selected out of a pool of 250 nominated companies from 37 countries is an achievement in itself as it is indicative of our striving for excellence. The primary factors that led to Kalaam being nominated and selected was to be the first telecom operator in Bahrain to successfully conclude a M&A transaction in the telecom segment (with the acquisition of Lightspeed communication, a subsidiary of Orange Jordan in 2014). Completing ten years as an exclusive enterprise-focused ISP, Kalaam achieved a significant growth of 203% between April 2014 to March 2015. We are pleased that the independent panel of judges at TWME Awards recognized that Kalaam’s growth and continued dedication providing connectivity solutions that demonstrate superior workmanship and a dedication to technical excellence”, Veer Passi added.

Kalaam Telecom was established in March 2005, and now in its 10^th year of operations. In March, 2015 Kalaam  launched a complete range of solutions-ecosystems for various industry segments in, including banking & finance, hospitality & travel, education, manufacturing and retail enterprises.

About the Telecoms World Middle East Awards 2015
The Telecoms World Middle East Awards is an annual recognition ceremony that is held in Dubai at the end of the TWME Conference. Now in its 11^th year, the conference and the awards brings together the leaders of the telecoms industry to celebrate the success and amazing achievement in the telecoms industry in the Middle East over the past year. The Telecoms World Middle East Awards is designed to identify and reward those companies who have demonstrated an unparalleled ability to succeed and have continually set standards of excellence.

About Kalaam Telecom
Kalaam Telecom, the 2nd largest ISP for businesses in the Kingdom of Bahrain provides voice, data, Internet, ICT and cloud services for corporates and SMEs across all industry segment. Now in its 10th year of operations, Kalaam has been named Finalist for TWME Awards 2015 for Best Enterprise Solutions.

21th June, 2015: Kalaam Telecom – the 2nd largest ISP for corporates in the Kingdom of Bahrain partners with Fakhro Restaurants to provide free wireless Internet access at 14 McDonald’s restaurants across the island.
Ahmad Jaser, General Manager at Fakhro Restaurants, the owners of the international franchise stated: “Customers come to McDonald’s for great food in a comfortable environment. At McDonald’s, we make sure customers have exactly what they need: great food, a family-friendly atmosphere, a play place for children, and, now, free wifi connectivity to provide even more convenience when using their digital devices with family and friends. We chose Kalaam Telecom, as our technology partner – as they have been a long-standing telecommunications partner for us and our other associate companies within the group with a proven-track record in reliability and expertise.”

Veer Passi, Chief Executive Officer, Kalaam Telecom said: We are proud to be solution providers for Fakhro Restaurants’ convenience-based decision to provide free wifi to their customers at McDonald’s. Our solution architecture mapped out a customized managed solution that enables branch to branch connectivity and easy wifi connectivity to McDonald’s customers.”

June 6, 2015: Kalaam Telecom, the 2^nd largest ISP for businesses and is in its 10^th year of operations in the Kingdom of Bahrain, has launched a complete range of solution eco-systems specially customized for various industry segments, including Banking & Finance, Hospitality & Travel, Education, Manufacturing and Retail enterprises.

At a recent gala event, held at the Four Seasons, Kalaam Telecom’s CEO Veer Passi, stated: “In a dynamic industry like telecom, where the pace of change is so fast, it is important for us to meet customers emerging requirements for enterprise-level unified communications solutions that integrate connectivity and ICT. Based on results of a survey conducted by our team across various industry segments last year, one thing became clear that businesses are looking for a one-stop-technology-partner that offers end-to-end managed solutions for their communications requirements instead of dealing with multiple vendors.  Acting on this valuable feedback received from our customers, Kalaam has realigned and evolved in two noteworthy areas: one, we take a consultative approach to our customers’ requirements rather than do a ‘product-sell’ and two, we have moved beyond offering standard vanilla-packaged products and services to delivering ‘solutions eco-systems’ that are carefully selected and engineered from a bouquet of Data, Voice, ICT, Internet and Cloud connectivity services. The customized ecosystem provides a convenient plug-and-play model for enterprises that consists of LAN, WAN-local and international, voice- international and local calling, hosting and other ICT services”.Kalaam’s industry-segmented solution-ecosystems are backed by Kalaam’s key-service benefits: a dedicated account manager, 24×7 customer care and network operations centre, Tier 3-standard data center, defined and best-practices SLAs and proactive service monitoring tools.

At the event, Veer Passi also thanked customers for entrusting their business to Kalaam over the past 10 years and continuing to do so. Some of Bahrain’s top-ranking companies, mentioned in the Forbes Middle East Top 500 Companies in the Arab World 2014 List are Kalaam’s customers.

8^th June, 2015: Kalaam Telecom – the 2nd largest ISP for corporates in the Kingdom of Bahrain, has been entrusted to deliver high speed dedicated internet services to the British School of Bahrain, a leading private school in the Kingdom.

At a recent meeting, Head of School, Dr. Charles Wall, said

“We pride ourselves on equipping our students with the best international education there is to offer. In our technological-driven age, high speed internet and up-to-date e-learning programmes are an absolute necessity.
Our students and teachers embrace the appropriate use of technology to enhance our learning both in the classroom and from home. We are rolling out bring your own device amongst our sixth form and seniors school students and are using digital technology across all subjects with all ages of students. Every classroom has an interactive multimedia white board and students have access to personal computers, laptops, tablets and handheld devices as appropriate. None of this works well without good infra-structure to which end we have chosen to entrust our school network connectivity to Kalaam Telecom, who provide us with a brilliant service and excellent value. We look forward to enhancing our relationship further. “

Veer Passi, Chief Executive Officer, Kalaam Telecom expanded on this saying:

“We are proud to be a leading solutions-provider in telecom services in Bahrain. We recently launched solution-ecosystems for various industry segments, with Education being one of them. Supporting and facilitating e-learning in Bahrain by providing Internet & ICT solutions to educational institutions. It is a great honour to be contributing to creating an IT-savvy young generation and we are enthusiastic in playing a small part in our future generation’s education.

As part of our corporate social responsibility we are assisting schools to enable them to use broadband and digital learning tools in a safe and secure environment. We are working on creating an awareness program to educate teachers, students and parents alike on the importance of harnessing the power of the internet in education and whilst bringing awareness of its threats and vulnerabilities. We are creating a solution eco-system for the education segment that will help schools like the British School of Bahrain to harness the power of Internet with cost-effective usage of bandwidth and consistent technical support and advice.”

Dubai, 19 August 2014: Kalaam Telecom, the second largest telecommunications provider for corporate services in Bahrain, announced today that it has signed an agreement with datamena, a carrier-neutral transit and content hub that provides an interconnection platform for international carriers, content and service providers in the Middle East,  to establish a Point of Presence (PoP) that will enable Kalaam to leverage datamena’s strategic location and rich ecosystem and expand Kalaam’s reach into the Middle East, Europe and beyond.

Kalaam is steadily growing to become a one-stop shop for global carriers, and is able to peer directly with other regional and international ISPs through the fast-growing UAE-IX.  By joining datamena’s carrier-neutral platform, Kalaam will carry all SDH, Ethernet and EoSDH traffic from existing carriers at datamena to Bahrain and the rest of GCC and Middle East through its extensive network of NNIs and own PoPs, said Eyad Al Naqi, Head of Wholesale & Carrier Relations, Kalaam Telecom. “Not only will this initiative help Kalaam stretch its footprint in the region, but it will also add more diversified, low-latency options for our enterprise and corporate customers to choose from for their international connectivity needs,” Mr. Al Naqi explained.

Mahesh Jaishankar, Vice President – datamena and broadcast, du, said: “The ideal combination of our geostrategic location and interconnection facilities are the key reasons why datamena is increasingly being preferred by global and regional entities. We are glad to welcome Kalaam Telecom into the datamena family and we consider this as the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.”

About Kalaam Telecom

Launched in 2006, Kalaam Telecom is the leading alternative telecom operator, offering voice and data solutions for corporate businesses in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Kalaam’s inBusiness products and services range include: Business broadband, National Data Connectivity i.e. DIA, P2P & MPLS; International Data Connectivity – GMPLS, IPLC, VSAT, Voice – Business International calling and Toll-free service and ICT solutions like Data Center Hosting, AVPN, etc. All services are backed with strong after-sales-service from a dedicated corporate account managers, online account management portal, 24/7 dedicated customer care, through strong and defined service level agreements and state-of-art platform based on Next Generation Network technology. Kalaam’s inB2B global connectivity services deliver customised communication solutions that effectively meet the requirements of carriers and ISPs in transferring data seamlessly, securely and reliably from anywhere to anywhere. Our wholesale solutions are rooted in our world-class infrastructure; extensive presence in the Middle East which inter-connects with emerging markets of Africa, Asia as well as Europe and the US through strategic alliances and agreements with multiple global Tier-1 carriers.

Kingdom of Bahrain- April 15, 2014: Kalaam Telecom, the first alternative telecommunications provider in Bahrain, today announced that it is acquiring Lightspeed Communications, a subsidiary of Jordan Telecommunications Co. The acquisition makes the company the second-largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) for Fixed Business Broadband in the Kingdom, next to incumbent. Kalaam has strategically increased its Fixed (wired) Business Broadband market share to 17% and now has a cumulative client-base of more than 4,000 customers across all business segments.

The announcement was made by Mr. Nezar Mohammed Al Saie, Chairman of Kalaam Telecom, during a press conference held at Bait Al Tijjar at the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, following approval from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). This is the first Merger and Acquisition (M&A) transaction in Bahrain’s telecom history, with Kalaam leading this consolidation initiative.

Speaking at the Press Conference, Mr. Nezar Mohammed Al Saie said: “This strategic acquisition of Lightspeed Communications is a significant milestone for Kalaam that demonstrates our commitment to the telecom industry. We have taken the lead in the consolidation process in the country’s telecom industry and reiterate our confidence in the future of Bahrain’s economy.

“Accelerating our growth plans is a top priority. With the acquisition, Kalaam’s revenues stand to immediately double and provide significant profitability. This transaction will augment our ability to offer best-in-class products and solutions in the Bahrain and allow Kalaam to embark towards realising our strategic vision to be a leading Internet Service Provider in Bahrain as well as a major player in the region within the next 3 years. By ensuring long-term sustainability, providing excellent services to our customers and strong returns to our shareholders, we look forward to further invest in Bahrain’s telecom sector.”

Veer Passi, Chief Executive Officer at Kalaam Telecom said: “With this acquisition, we believe that Kalaam is on a very successful trajectory. Since 2006, Kalaam has been providing superior service and value to our customers and has created long-standing relationships based on customer satisfaction. This is reflected in the company maintaining a customer retention rate of 98% over the past 8 years. We are confident that by integrating our culture, products and consolidating our operations with the professionally-run and profitable company, such as Lightspeed Communications, we can broaden our customer base across all business segments.”

“Customers of the new combined entity will include some of the largest blue chip financial institutions and banks, private sector companies, government entities, residential customers and SMEs who will have access to both Lightspeed and Kalaam’s product offerings and excellent dedicated personalized customer service. As a result Kalaam will be able to provide potential and existing customers with the most comprehensive suite of best-in-class products to meet their local and international voice and data telecom needs. We look forward to the smooth integration of the combined businesses,” he added.

Despite the dynamic market changes in the local telecom industry, Kalaam has been successful in growing its market share regardless over the past 8 years. This acquisition is another major milestone in line with the company’s long term strategic vision. The company’s portfolio of telecom solutions and services for business customers include: Business broadband, National Data Connectivity – DIA, P2P & MPLS; International Data Connectivity – GMPLS, IPLC, VSAT; Voice – Business International calling and Toll-free service and ICT solutions like Data Center Hosting, AVPN, etc.

Kalaam Telecom enters into a strategic partnership with Bharti Airtel to enhance its global connectivity

Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain: Bahrain-based operator Kalaam Telecom today announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecom service provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Under the agreement, Kalaam Telecom has established a direct interconnection with Bharti Airtel’s PoP in London and has access to Bharti Airtel’s global network infrastructure. This will allow Kalaam Telecom to expand its data services portfolio and extend connectivity to the Middle East and GCC region over a number of optimal, low-latency routes. Through an access to over 20 submarine cables and satellite teleports across the globe, Kalaam Telecom will also be able to provide concrete resiliency features against cable cuts between Europe, Africa and Asia.

Kalaam Telecom’s CEO, Veer Passi, CEO stated: “This announcement marks a significant milestone in extending our connectivity from Bahrain outwards across the region and globally. This coupled with increasing our capacity and our unique access to over 130 operational POPs, through our powerful partner Airtel extends our global network reach. The partnership will allow Kalaam Telecom to offer state-of-the-art products and services to its wholesale customers including, for instance, carrier Ethernet, fully managed MPLS IP-VPNs, SDH and wavelength services and global IP transit that are seamless, strategic and moreover cost-effective. Further, multinational companies with a presence in Bahrain can greatly benefit from our carefully-engineered services to connect to their off-shore offices/headquarters across all continents through our highly-available, low-latency and redundant routes.”

“With the ever-increasing customer demands of low-latency connectivity to Europe, the strategic alliance with Airtel has come to help us better serve our customers. The deal takes into account the major drawbacks carriers face nowadays in terms of availability, service manageability and SLAs. We are glad to enter this partnership with a truly global Telco like Airtel.” Eyad Al- Naqi, Wholesale Products and Service Manager, Kalaam, added. “One of the key reasons why we chose Airtel is because of the deal flexibility in terms optical multiplexing capabilities at speeds of 1G and 10G, as well as the remarkable footprint of Airtel’s increasingly popular Carrier Ethernet,” Mr. Al-Naqi explained.

Manama, Bahrain, 2013: ‘The demand for surging amounts of bandwidth required by the businesses the world over is steadily growing. Research reveals that demand for international bandwidth grew 39% in 2012, and at a compounded annual rate of 53% between 2007 and 2012. While unlimited bandwidth is the norm, corporates in Bahrain are also opting for true bandwidth-on-demand which they can control as and whenever required,’ said Veer Passi, CEO of Kalaam Telecom Bahrain. Kalaam Telecom’s Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) comes with Fixed and Burstable bandwidth – with a unique technology based on the circuit-switched network systems that gives our customer the freedom to dynamically increase (or decrease) the bandwidth and pay/per day usage,’

With bandwidth-on-demand, large enterprises like banks, hospitals, hotels chains can subscribe to DIA with symmetrical upload/download capacity for a fixed term and also have the facility to meet planned/unplanned additional bandwidth requirements at any given time during the contract period without worrying about long-term commitment. This cost-effectively meets the highly versatile requirements for additional data transfer power, which can be reversed after the requirement is met, says ‘Srinivasan Arumugam, Head, Network Operations, Kalaam Telecom

One of Kalaam’s customers, Mohsen Constructions regularly and successfully avail of Kalaam’s managed DIA bandwidth-on-demand service. ‘Whenever we are working on a project that requires massive amount of data transfer above our usual load, which is sometimes over three times the regular bandwidth, we give Kalaam a call and within an couple of hours – our bandwidth capacity is increased, says, Mohammed Khalil, the IT Systems Engineer.

Elite Hospitality Group’s IT Head Ms. Lalita Manjunath explains how they recently used Dedicated Internet Service from Kalaam Telecom: ‘Kalaam’s service recently allowed us to economically eliminate all barriers associated with the extension of the high-bandwidth broadband services to our another hotel, Elite Seef Residence & Hotel. The Kalaam solution enabled us to quickly and easily deploy high-bandwidth services to the new site in an economical way. The solution has also allowed us to tailor those broadband services to meet the specific needs of each of our hotels and serviced apartments at various locations.’