Virtual doctor

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"The mobile phone is a very powerful tool in Africa. It is much more powerful than in other markets because you are connecting one billion people to each other," he adds.

Having started its operations outside of the Middle East just 18 months ago the company is now 100% owner of Hits Yemen Distribution, Hits Egypt Distribution and its African subsidiary, Hits Africa.

Hits Africa is a major shareholder in a full service network in Liberia, and it is currently building new-generation communications networks in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It has also just been selected as the operator of the second national network in Equatorial Guinea.

Not only does Africa provide a great deal of opportunity for Hits to expand, it is also, along with a number of other Middle East operators, being actively encouraged to do so by the African governments.

"I think GCC investments are welcome because they are so close to African markets; they understand the culture well and they have a history dating back thousands of years.

Hits also has ambitions to conquer markets less close to home with Hits in Latin America due to launch in July.

Like Africa, Latin America offers a great deal of opportunity for the company. Subscriber growth in the region exceeds 350 million and has grown 30% year on year for the past five years. 150 million people are expected to subscribe by 2012 and penetration rates are just 60% in the major markets of Brazil, Mexico, Columbia and Venezuela.

With already well-established telcos, Bahabri doesn't deny that cracking the Latin America markets may be more difficult than in Africa. "Traditionally those markets have very strong operators that have been in existence [for some time] but there are opportunities.

Does Bahabri want Hits to become the largest operator in the world? Being ever the good doctor, he would rather offer his customers a difference than aim for global dominance he claims.

We don't want to be the biggest, in terms of numbers, revenues and profits. We would prefer to be remembered as the people who have changed the way mobiles are used today.

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