Category: Our News

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.’

In a signing ceremony held at Elite Resort and Spa, Muharraq, Elite Hospitality Group’s Chief Operating Officer Mr Sarosh Aibara, said: “In today’s environment, internet plays a large role in our lives. Keeping in-line with Elite Hospitality Group’s technological vision, we stay abreast of new advancements and dynamically invest on this for the growth of our organisation and the convenience of our valued guests with the up to date release of broadband technology. We have opted to upgrade by connecting with the Internet technology bringing the internet to life with faster speeds, no line dropouts, and an always-on connection. With this in mind we are pleased to have selected Kalaam Telecom as our service provider.”

Kalaam Telecom’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Veer Passi said: “We are pleased to be selected as Elite’s partner and to deploy a one-stop ICT solution based on Next Generation Premium Technology in all their properties. The centralized data and bandwidth management solution is fully redundant ensuring 100% connectivity at consistent speeds with no down-time. Further, Internet speeds can be increased as and when required through ‘bandwidth-on-demand’ feature, which is ideal for seasonal or cyclic nature of the hospitality industry. Kalaam Telecom’s expertise-in implementing a scalable solution that will not only meet Elite’s immediate requirement but also take care of their requirement for the forthcoming years without the need for more investment-is the key factor that sets us apart as a ICT service provider.”

Avinash Phandis our Chief Financial Officer said: “Kalaam Telecom was chosen for its innovative, cost-effective and expandable solutions that met Elite Hospitality Group’s standards. This move will further enhance our efforts to delight our guests, as also improve our central reservations network and our internal communications”

“This ICT-based solution provides immense flexibility to Elite and well-equips them to meet the ever-demanding, need for internet speed in this very competitive hospitality industry. It will act as a service-differentiator for the Elite Group, to whom, customer satisfaction is paramount. We look forward to a successful business partnership wherein we both continue to set high benchmarks in customer satisfaction, in our respective industries,” concluded Veer Passi.

Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. Kalaam Telecom’s pioneering international calling card, k-talk launches “Talk & Win” loyalty campaign at the peak of their 5th anniversary celebrations. “K-talk was the first and foremost calling card to be introduced in the Bahrain market in October 2005, and has been doing successfully well for the past 5 years, thanks to our loyal customer base.

On the occasion of our 5th anniversary, we are pleased to be giving our customers an opportunity to win more than 800 prizes through this „Talk and Win’ Campaign! K-talks 5th Anniversary celebrations started with the unveiling of our new K-talk card design in the beginning of the year, together with the launch of the „best minutes to India‟ campaign, followed by a two-month campaign (in June and July) offering amazing rates to top calling-destinations Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. K-talk will continue to provide great value and service at very affordable rates” said Veer Passi, Chief Operating Officer, Kalaam Telecom.

The ‘Talk & Win’ campaign, which commences from 6th October and will end on 6th December offers K-talk international calling card users the chance to win a mega-prize – LCD TV; free tickets to India on Jet Airways; DVD Players, Digital Cameras, Mobiles phones and many more prizes besides K-talk calling cards.

Customers who buy and use a K-talk calling card (any denomination), are required to fill in their name and mobile number fields printed at the back of the K-talk card and drop it into one of the “Talk & Win” collection boxes that are installed at all BFC (Bahrain Financing Company) Branches at Adliya, Arad, Bahrain Mall, Bokhawara (‘West Riffa’), City Centre, Country Mall, Exhibition Road, Gudaibiya, Hamad Town, Hidd, Juffair, Lulu, Manama, Muharraq, North Muharraq, Riffa (‘East Riffa’), Salmabad, Salmaniya, Sanad, Seef Mall, Sitra, Souq, Waqf Building (Church) or additionally at any of the major k-talk resellers (visit www.kalaam-telecom.com for a complete list).

Four major draws will be held and the winners announced in the Gulf Madhyamam on Thursdays 21st October, 4 November, 25th November and 9th December. Further winners will also be contacted individually on their mobiles to collect their prizes.

Commenting on the launch of the promotion Mr. Jubin Koshy, Retail Sales Manager, Kalaam Telecom said, “The „Talk and Win‟ Campaign is all about rewarding our customers. We have always provided our customers with the best minutes and voice quality in the market and we will continue to maintain our domination in this segment. I am sure with k-talk‟s reputed brand complimenting the prizes being given away, “Talk & Win” will be a resounding success.”

Over the past five years, Bahrain This Month has written regularly about the state of the telecommunications market in the Kingdom. While the fireworks in the earlier years have given way to a period of relative calm, that looks about to change.

In some respects 2011 is a make or break year; it is set to be a tipping point. There are critical policy decisions to be made that will significantly shape the industry in the short- to medium-term, and perhaps, even the overall economy. In some quarters there is a renewed sense of optimism that the playing field will be a lot more level than it has been.

The developments that are driving this optimism are number portability, additional international connectivity, local loop unbundling and the release of the National Broadband Network (NBN) implementation strategy.

The comments from Veer Passi, Kalaam Telecom chief operating officer (page 86) suggest that, even after the wholesale price reductions demanded by the TRA from Batelco, VIVA offers competitive pricing in the wholesale market. It suggests a softer approach, where who is dominant or possesses market power is not the primary point of determination. Rather, it should be the presence of other operators in the market with equivalent dominance/power, who could balance out the market and keep it ‘in check’.