It is a long way from a tiny Lebanese mountain village of 5Â 000 people to a boardroom in Johannesburg, but that is the story of Cell C CEO Talaat Laham.
Laham heads a company in flux. Having captured a 10% market share in the South African mobile sector in the past four years, Cell C is positioning itself to take full advantage of the regulatory and technological changes that are set to shake up the sector in the next three years. These include the introduction of number portability, the promulgation of the Electronic Communications Act and the imminent launch of Virgin into the local cellphone market.
Laham embraces the challenges of running a major telecoms company in what he terms a tough competitive industry. But relocating from Lebanon six years ago to take up the post meant sacrifices had to be made. Laham’s three children are still at educational institutions in Lebanon. “They spend their vacations here,” he says. “They enjoy South Africa a lot.”
Growing up in a small village, Laham was driven to make sure he got into a good university and, with his natural ability in mathematics and science, he was soon on his way to study engineering in the capital, Beirut. “I spent the best days of my life in the Seventies at university,” he says.
After a number of positions in the engineering field, Laham was appointed senior adviser to the president of Ogero, the Lebanese fixed-line telecoms operator, in 1996.
Since taking up the reins at Cell C in 2000, Laham has set about turning the company into a major player in the mobile telecoms sector, and he seems pleased with its annual results announced this week.
But Laham is well aware that 2006 will be a key year in determining the future of Cell C. The introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) in September will have the biggest impact on the company as it will enable Cell C to target unsatisfied customers from other mobile operators.
“It is a major barrier in the market now,” says Laham. “A subscriber cannot keep his number and move from one network to another.”
Laham says Cell C stands to bene-fit substantially from the introduction of MNP and research has shown that the benefit of such a regulatory move is always more pronounced for the smaller operator.
“We have done research that shows that some subscribers are interested in joining our network, but they don’t want to do it because they will lose their number,” says Laham.
Tied in closely with the introduction of MNP is the joint venture between Cell C and Richard Branson’s Virgin, which will see Virgin Mobile launch in South Africa in the next few months, piggy-backing on the Cell C network.
Laham remains tight-lipped about the launch, stating that a confidentiality agreement prevents him from discussing the deal.
“Virgin will enter the market as an enhanced service provider and will increase competition,” says Laham. “They have a strong brand and will have an impact on the market.”
On the issue of interconnection fees, which research concludes is negatively affecting Cell C, Laham says the company is a net receiver of interconnection charges.
He says the company is excited about its new product Value Chat, which does not include a handset subsidy in the contract and is in line with the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa’s call for more transparency when operators bundle handsets with contracts.
“It is more transparent for the consumer to know how much they are paying for a handset and how much they are paying for airtime,” says Laham. “We are in the business of airtime more than the business of handsets.”
When not making sure that Cell C is on the path to future growth Laham says he enjoys a few rounds of golf, watching soccer and listening to his favourite Lebanese singer, Fayrouz.