Formerly | Orascom Telecom Holding |
---|---|
Company type | Société Anonyme Égyptienne |
EGX: GTHE | |
Founded | 1998 in Cairo, Egypt |
Headquarters | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
Key people | Gerbrand Nijman (CEO) |
Products | mobile networks |
Revenue | US$2.956 billion (2016) |
Owner | VEON (98.24%) |
Subsidiaries | SLTMobitel [1] |
Website | www.gtelecom.com |
Global Telecom Holding S.A.E. (GTH; formerly Orascom Telecom Holding) is a holding company based in Amsterdam, and a subsidiary of the multinational telecommunications services company VEON. GTH previously owned mobile network operators in multiple countries.
Global Telecom has delisted from the EGX Egyptian Exchange [2] and is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. [3]
In 1997, Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) was established as a separate entity to consolidate the telecommunications and technology interests of the Orascom group of companies established in 1976. [4] Founded in 1998 as part of the Orascom company, it became the largest cellular operator in the Middle East in only five years. [5]
In 2010, Russian Vimpelcom acquired Orascom Telecom as well as Wind Telecomunicazioni from Weather Investments of the Egyptian entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris and merged the two companies to form Global Telecom Holding based in Cairo. Excluded from this transaction were the activities in North Korea (Koryolink) and Egypt, which were transferred to Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding, which remained majority-owned by Naguib Sawiris. The Italian activities of Wind Telecomunicazioni report directly to the parent company Vimpelcom and are not part of Global Telecom Holding. [6]
Orascom Telecom Holding has been renamed to Global Telecom Holding in 2013. [7] On 1 July 2019 Gerbrand Nijman (since June 2015 GTH's group CFO) succeeded Vincenzo Nesci as GTH's CEO. [8]
Onsi Sawiris was an Egyptian businessman. He was the head of the Sawiris family and founder of the Orascom Group conglomerate.
Mobilink was the trade name of Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (PMCL), a mobile operator in Pakistan providing a range of prepaid and postpaid voice and data telecommunication services to both individual and corporate subscribers. In 2017, Warid Pakistan merged with Mobilink to form Jazz, under which the company now operates. Mobilink's head office was in Islamabad, and its last president and CEO was Aamir Ibrahim, who became the CEO of Jazz.
Orascom Construction PLC is an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor based in Cairo, Egypt. The company was Egypt's first multinational corporation and stands at the core of the Orascom Group companies. OC is active in more than 25 countries.
WIND Hellas was a Greek integrated telecommunications provider with headquarters in Athens, Greece.
Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A., more commonly known as Wind, was an Italian telecommunications company of the VimpelCom Ltd. group, which offered mobile telephony services and, through Infostrada, also fixed-line telephony services, Internet and IPTV.
Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd., d.b.a. Banglalink is a Bangladeshi telecommunications company headquartered in Dhaka. It is the third-largest mobile network operator in Bangladesh and a subsidiary of VEON group.
Sri Lanka Telecom PLC, doing business as SLT-MOBITEL, is the national telecommunications services provider in Sri Lanka and one of the country's largest companies with an annual turnover in excess of Rs 40 billion. The company provides domestic and corporate services which include fixed and wireless telephony, Internet access and IT services to domestic, public and business sector customers. As of 2018 SLT-MOBITEL was Sri Lanka's second largest mobile network operator with over 7.9 million subscribers.
Naguib Onsi Sawiris is an Egyptian businessman. Sawiris is chairman of Weather Investments's parent company, and the former chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding and Orascom Investment Holding S.A.E.
Hutchison Asia Telecom Group or HAT, is a division of Hong Kong-based multinational conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings. The division provides telecommunications services to several Asian countries. The division was formerly incorporated as Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited, known as Hutchison Telecom or HTIL in short. It was an offshore company in the Cayman Islands and a listed company in the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. It operates GSM, 3G and 4G mobile telecommunications services in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam under brands 3, Hutch and Vietnamobile.
Wind Telecom S.p.A. was an Italian telecommunications holding company owned by the multinational telecommunications company VimpelCom Ltd., originally controlled by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris.
Nassef Onsi Sawiris is an Egyptian businessman, and the youngest of Onsi Sawiris' three sons. As of October 2021, his net worth was estimated at US$8.7 billion, making him the richest Egyptian and fourth richest African.
Globalive is a Canadian telecommunications and investment company founded in 1998. It is based in Toronto, Ontario. Globalive is best known for its telecommunication businesses like WIND Mobile, Yak Communications, and OneConnect.
Freedom Mobile Inc. is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider owned by Quebecor. It has 6% market share of the Canadian wireless market, mostly in urban areas of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. Freedom Mobile is the fourth-largest wireless carrier in Canada, with 2,290,497 subscribers as of November 30, 2022.
Khaled Bichara was an Egyptian businessman and entrepreneur who served as the chairman of link.net and chief executive officer of Accelero Capital. Prior to joining Accelero Capital, Bichara was chief executive officer of Orascom Telecom Media and Technology OTMT, group president and chief operating officer of VimpelCom Ltd., and executive chairman of Global Telecom Holding. Bichara played a pivotal role in the merger of VEON and Wind Telecom to create the world's sixth-largest telecommunications carrier.
Samih Onsi Sawiris is an Egyptian-born Montenegrin businessman, investor and billionaire and the second of three sons of Onsi Sawiris, the other two being Naguib Sawiris and Nassef Sawiris. He is the former executive chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Orascom Development Holding AG.
The Sawiris family is an Egyptian Coptic Christian family that owns the Orascom conglomerate, spanning telecommunications, construction, tourism, industries and technology. In 2008, Forbes estimated the family's net worth at US$36 billion.
Orange Egypt, formerly known as Mobinil, is the oldest mobile network operator in Egypt, founded on March 4, 1998. Orange provides voice and data exchange services, as well as 4G, 3G, ADSL and broadband internet.
VEON Ltd. is a Dutch-domiciled multinational telecommunication services company. It predominantly operates services in the regions of Asia, Africa and Europe. It is the 13th largest mobile network operator in the world by number of subscribers. The company operates in six markets including Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, VEON announced the sale of its Russian operations on 24 November 2022. VEON's brands include Kyivstar, Jazz Pakistan, Banglalink and others.
3G mobile telephony was relatively slow to be adopted globally. In some instances, 3G networks do not use the same radio frequencies as 2G so mobile operators must build entirely new networks and license entirely new frequencies, especially so to achieve high data transmission rates. Other delays were due to the expenses of upgrading transmission hardware, especially for UMTS, whose deployment required the replacement of most broadcast towers. Due to these issues and difficulties with deployment, many carriers delayed acquisition of these updated capabilities.