| Kuwait
Public Telecom Corp. W.L.L
A full-scale private
company established in mid 1996, with special permission from the Ministry
of Communication and the Ministry of Commerce under License No. 5941/96
& Commercial No. 65932. (a)
To provide, manage, and maintain the public telephony service
throughout the State of Kuwait based on the Smart Card solutions. Operation
Management
KPT retains the latest business mechanism in regards to its payphone management system, which utilizes a highly sophisticated on-line system linked to every single payphone with the capability to provide constant reports on payphone’s utilizations, numbers, period, and cost of calls. Our management system also provides reports on the status of each phone’s operations on per minute basis, along with the capability to signal the technical department in case of any abusive fraud attempt by users. Inventory and accounts control represents a crucial part of our payphone business, where the plastic cards (smart cards) are considered cash upon leaving our volts. We have therefore developed a unique software build on Unix and Sybase platforms to control our inventory, in regards to smart card distribution and receivables. We have set up a comprehensive accounting system that discloses any possible mistake in distribution cash receipt, with analysis and reconciliation capabilities between payphone utilizations against the invoices received by the Ministry of Communication (MOC). Achievements & Future Plan Considered to be a pioneer in the prepaid Smart Card application business in Kuwait and the second payphone company to apply such technology in the Middle Eastern Region after UAE’s Etisalat. KPT has worked with other industries introducing its Smart Card application mechanism to improve management control and the approach of the new generation consumer payment. Business prospective achievements on behalf of KPT in its past 6 years of operations, is as follow: (a) KPT along with its major shareholder and associated company Robincorp, have worked with KNPC in introducing the smart card concept throughout Kuwait’s petrol station, with tremendous success known to consumers as PetroNet in the market today. (b)
KPT through its associate company Robincorp,
is behind the introduction of the prepaid smart card project for payment
of electricity and water consumption through Schlumberger’s wide
range of water and electricity products to the MEW. Robincorp being Schlumberger’s
sole agent in Kuwait; further, in mid 1998, KPT resulted into successful
tender after previously conducting consultancy work for nearly one and
a half year with the Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW) officials
in training its employees, handling seminars, and conducting field tests
for the implementation of water and electricity meters that will operate
through the prepaid smart card mechanism of Schlumberger’s products.
Unfortunately due to economical drop in oil prices during end of 1998
and to political issues within the MEW, a stoppage of this project was
conducted on the behalf of MEW officials. (c) KPT has recently signed an agreement with KUCM, the subcontractor in charge of expansion of the new Kuwait International Airport, to install its latest technology of public payphones at different locations within the airport’s premises. (d)
KPT in partnership with Gemplus/ATM
had finalized their field-testing to introduce a new extra-added service
to mobile users in Kuwait. |