Meeting the challenge of making cyberspace user-friendly

Challenge. It's a word which Maroua Naim, General Manager of Emirates Internet and Multimedia, uses a lot. There are no problems in her life, just challenges to be faced. Challenges like adapting to a new country and culture after her family moved from Morocco to Canada when she was 17 years old. Challenges like getting her electrical engineering degree, then her Masters in operational research, then her executive MBA.

Challenges like carving out a successful career in the male dominated hi-tech telecoms industry, first with Bell Canada, then with Telecom Italia, now with Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat). Challenges like juggling a hectic business schedule with the needs of her husband and home.

Challenges like making the UAE's Internet service not just the best in the region but one of the best in the world. The latter, she agrees, is no easy task given previous problems. Unreliable access, slow download speeds, frequent, random disconnections and a customer support system which did everything but support the customer, led Etisalat's harshest critics to insist the acronym is short for Emirates Terrifying Internet Service And Low Availability Telecommunication.

It is a label which Naim is keen to consign to history. She wants Internet subscribers to have what she calls "an enjoyable experience" when they log on. Naim accepts that in the past the experience for Internet subscribers was less than enjoyable. But, she said, things are changing.

With her appointment Etisalat's internet and multimedia operations have become more focused. People are both responsible and accountable, something which was not always the case before. "Because it was not one unit it was not laser focused. It was something that was in between departments. No one was responsible for the Internet from a-z.

"It is now an autonomous unit within Etisalat. By providing the right focus and putting the right people in the right place we can harness the power of what the Internet can bring to the Emirates."

"Of course there are still things that need to be put right. It would be a joke for me to tell you everything is perfect. But alongside the people who are dissatisfied there is another group of people who are very satisfied with the service, but those the media don't talk about.

"Yes, we have experienced some problems, but the Internet is something called best effort technology. There is nothing I can do to make it exactly like the telephone in your home. I am not dealing with just Emirates Internet and Multimedia, I am dealing with several servers across the world. I have to go to the United States to get the feed onto the Internet.

If one of the servers goes down now and then it affects us dramatically. But our customers blame us. They think it is a matter of access. That is a misconception." Nevertheless, Naim said EIM is upgrading all its servers and increasing the network's capacity in response to subscriber complaints about access problems, download speeds and disconnections.

"These are typical ISP problems. They are not unique to Etisalat. But we are working really hard on them." Other misconceptions, according to Naim, are that the proxy slows down access and that cacheing of pages, introduced to make access to popular web pages quicker, enables Etisalat to keep an eye on what its subscribers are looking at on the Internet.

"We are not doing this. I can guarantee that at Etisalat we don't do this. The only time we check is when we are asked to do so by the security forces. We don't have the time and it is absolutely against our privacy policy."

Naim defended the use of a proxy server to block sites which conflict with the culture and traditions of the UAE. "Oftentimes when I talk to parents who have kids I ask them if they would want their children to have complete access to the Internet. They don't. The proxy provides a minimum of protection for residents of this country. We are required to do this by law."

Naim denied that Internet costs in the UAE are higher than in many other parts of the world. "People forget that local telephone calls are free. But Etisalat has to pay the provider of the link to the U.S. to get onto the Internet. Somebody has to pay for the network. There is no such thing as a free lunch. The money has to come from somewhere.

"If you compare our prices with the rest of the Arab countries, or even the Gulf, we are not expensive. We are among the most competitive ISPs in the region and that includes Asia. "I could give you a flat rate of Dh20, but you would have to pay three fils a minute for the phone call. At the end of the day the money will still come out of your pocket."

Naim said EIM were planning to bring in mobile Internet services this year which would allow people to check their e-mails or surf the web on the move, even on the beach, UMTS technology to provide higher bandwidth to access the Internet, on-line education, video gaming and possibly video on demand via the Internet. EIM is also looking at how it can work with application service providers to improve the local content of the Internet.

However, Naim ruled out the possibility, at least in the immediate future, of other service providers being allowed to compete with EIM and Internet via satellite. Both, she said, are against the law of the land which enshrines Etisalat's monopoly on telecommunications.

One of the biggest priorities for Naim is customer service, a source of many complaints in this newspaper and others. She said Etisalat had invested in a dedicated customer support centre in Ajman which aims to answer calls within one minute. The centre is fully manned with trained staff.

"We are working extremely hard on our customer service, but it is not something that can be done overnight. "People love to hate us because we are doing well. If you are not doing well people leave you alone.

But I do know that we must improve on our customer service and it is important that our customers get a good service. So we are trying to improve on our image and bridge the gap between us and our customers."