Maher Qubain: The Starcomms legend who loves Nigeria

THE success story being told about the telecommunications industry in Nigeria today came principally because of the liberalisation of the sector when the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 took that decisive step.

At that time, the tele-density of Nigeria stood at less than 500,000 and ,as such, what was meant by liberalisation of the sector had meaning for only a handful of Nigerians. But today, the story has significantly changed.

Even at that, the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) technology took the entire stage and dominated the industry to the extent that only few Nigerians knew the existence of the technology called the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

This situation could only be peculiar to Nigeria and Nigerians, who may not know that the CDMA came into existence before the GSM. They may not know that the CDMA came as a result of the improvement on the earlier Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), the technology on which the then NITEL launched its Nutt-Nine-Nutt (090) series.

Again, apart from the people living in Lagos, Abuja and probably Port-Harcourt, many would not know that the likes of Multi-Links, Cellcom, Intercellular ,among others had commenced private telephony until 2001 when the GSM came in with the advent of MTN, ECONET and M’Tel. But right now, the story has completely changed as operators in the CDMA category are giving the GSM operators a fight for their money.

One of such operators in the CDMA category is Starcomms Limited, unarguably Nigeria’s largest CDMA 3G Mobile Network. Starcomms, which commenced operations in 1990 was just another PTO a decade ago seeking to find a foothold in Nigeria’s largely underdeveloped telecommunications industry without much success until much later.

Today, the success story of Starcomms and indeed the CDMA sector will be incomplete if mention is not made of one man; Maher Qubain. Maher Qubain came into Nigeria and straight to Starcomms in 2002 from Ericsson. With over 18 years experience in the telecoms industry at the time, Qubain joined Starcomms as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and he later became the Chief Operating Officer before he finally become the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Starcomms in July, 2005.

Qubain’s deep understanding of the upswings and declines of the telecoms full-market cycles and the rapid transformation of Starcomms into a total communications provider testifies to his abilities which aptly symbolise indelible mark in his career.

When Qubain joined Starcomms in 2002, the company’s subscriber base was less than 2,000 and with only a few base in Lagos. As if he brought a magic wand with him, the subscriber base moved to over 60,000 by the close of 2003. It also forayed into the northern part of the country in the same year by launching services in Kano and Borno.

The figure reached almost 200,000 by mid 2005, and surged to more than 500,000 a year later. Right now and in fact penultimate week, Starcomms announced the subscriber base of 1,000,000 (one million), a feat attained only by the company in the CDMA category Qubain is there all the way steering the company onto the path of greatness.

Reports have revealed that the company’s growth, most of which occurred in the last three years, was propelled by the adoption of technology and business models backed by management savvy, aggressive marketing of products and services, competitive tariffs, robust technology and consistent innovations.

At that, comments by Qubain throw some light on his thoughts and insights. “We want to continue to reinvent and bring innovative services because we believe that we have a moral obligation to bring about fundamental change to the way Nigerians live, talk and use communication generally. That is what our brand values, acquisition strategies distribution and others,” he stated during an interview.

Continuing, he said, “when you have a value system that every employee that comes into the company cherishes, the value system becomes self governing principles for all staff. That’s why you have seen the company changed its course.”

For emphasis, he added: “We want to do business that provides values to the shareholders, to the customers and to the employees. What gives Starcomms competitive edge, in my opinion, may not be an orthodox answer of what you expect. We believe in first and foremost the strength of the company and that is our people and our value system.”

Qubain insists that the CDMA technology consistently provides better capacity for voice and data communications than other commercial mobile technologies, allowing more subscribers to connect at any given time, and that is the common platform on which 3G technologies are built. In early 2007, the company activated its new code numbers, the 0702–8 mobile ranges, thereby actualising one of the provisions of the United Licence granted it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The new range of numbers operates on the CDMA 2000 platform and enables subscribers the freedom to roam wherever Starcomms has operations. Only recently, the company launched the dual-SIM phone which allows for a GSM SIM an a CDMA UIM.

Though, Qubain is not a Nigerian yet, he believes so much in Nigeria and he does not hide this. He tells his story. “I am actually a Nigerian, so, you cannot ask about my journey to Nigeria. I was not born here. I was born in Jordan. I came from a very small village, so, I started from a humble beginning.

“I struggled my way through and at the age of 15, I migrated to United States. And I have been there ever since. So, I am an America-born Jordanean. I arrived Nigeria in the late 2002, I joined Starcomms via my relationship with Ericsson. When I arrived in Nigeria, Starcomms had two base stations and 2,800 subscribers base, that was in June, 2002.

“I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and I also have a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Computer. I have an MBA from the University of Southern California. I was fortunate because while I was going through my education, I was also working. “So, I started my career which was about 20 years now in 1990. In 1990, I joined Airtouch which was sold to Vodafone. After spen ding some time at Airtouch/Vodafone, I joined AT&T Wireless, later Bell South and Ericsson, which has taken me to North and Latin America, Africa Korea and Malaysia.

“So, I quite understand the mentality of Africa and the Middle East. I understand the desire and needs of emerging markets. I clearly understand the challenges that face a developing nation. I have seen through my visit to Korea 20 years ago. In Korea, the people did not understand what telephony was all about. So, I have been fortunate to see the revolution in the telecommunications from the days of early digital technology.”

This fact is no fluke as Qubain was a pioneer in digital convergence and had worked with the world renowned scientist and CDMA technology pioneer, Dr. William C.Y at Airtouch. In addition, Qubain’s proven strong management, business development and strategy as well as implementation skills were key factors in his quiet evolution as a towering ICT legend and a towering icon in human and material management.

The business plan apart, even more tasking to Qubain was how to interlace the various stakeholders and make them see Starcomms as the network to beat. This, he successfully accomplished on the road to steering the company through the fiercely contested bidding process, fenced off the challenges of a dozen competitors and launched the CDMA 2000 platform. Unified Licence granted by the NCC became the icing on the cake.

Today, Starcomms is credited with revolutionalising the fixed wireless telecoms market in Nigeria and generally seen as a top-of-the-mind brand noted for award winning creative campaigns. The deluge of awards received by the company in recent times attest to this fact and Qubain is the brain behind all these.

In retrospect, Qubain, a member of several professional associations says with tenacity and patience that every challenge can be surmounted, noting that his pool of experience, the patronage of Nigerians and cooperation of regulatory authorities, adherence to ethical conduct and robust technology would be the defining features of the expansion of Starcomms into the world of Nigeria’s biggest networks, and this he said will be a litmus test of his capacity to operate a vibrant telecommunications outfit that will speak the people’s language.