Yahsat welcomed over 30 of its service partners, who provide in-market sales, marketing and customer services for the company’s satellite broadband internet service, YahClick. Service partners from the Middle East, Africa, Central and South West Asia met to discuss opportunities and growth plans for 2017 ahead of the launch of Al Yah 3, Yahsat’s third satellite.

During the evening segment of the forum, Yahsat recognised several of its partners across seven award categories for their service excellence and efforts to provide reliable and wide-reaching satellite services in their respective geographies. The award categories and respective service partners that won the categories include:

• The ‘YahClick Service Partner of the Year’ was presented to SkyStream (UAE) for its commitment and dedication in driving the YahClick business. SkyStream achieved consistent levels of excellence across all aspects of YahClick’s business including innovation, service delivery and driving subscriber growth. Skystream boasts a presence in the UAE, Yemen and Iraq; and plays a fundamental role in growing the customer base by offering an end-to-end comprehensive approach, from the retail experience through to installation and customer support.

• The ‘Operational Excellence’ award was presented to Sistec (Angola) for demonstrating exceptional operational efficiency and seamlessly managing installations across Angola.

• The ‘Innovation’ award was presented to Supernet (Pakistan) for facilitating the banking industry by offering innovative solutions that not only connected rural branches and offsite ATMs to the head-offices but also enabled throughput data communication and end-to-end network security.

• The ‘Marketing Excellence’ award was won by TeleYemen (Yemen) for driving a strong brand presence in their market using a range of diverse marketing tools and tactics. Despite a challenging work environment, TeleYemen’s perseverance and drive allowed TeleYemen to push through the associated infrastructure and commercial challenges.

• The ‘Community Effort’ award was won by Mobile One to One (Kenya) for supporting socio-economic development in Kenya by improving the provision of healthcare and educational services. Twenty health clinics are now benefiting from connectivity for Telemedicine services and three rural schools are now equipped with e-learning facilities.

• The ‘Subscriber Retention’ award was jointly won by two service partners: Sistec (Angola) and Vox Telecom (South Africa) in recognition of their ability to retain a high numbers of customers, as a result of their excellent support with in-country technical, operational and customer care teams. Vox Telecom achieved an impressive subscriber retention rate with an average lifetime of 30 months.

• The ‘Subscriber Growth’ award was won by SkyStream (UAE) in recognition of the significant growth of their subscriber base which grew by 30% for 2016.

Commenting on the annual award ceremony, Yahsat’s Chief Commercial Officer, Farhad Khan, said: “The ever changing global business environment presents both challenges and opportunities. In the face of a tough global economic climate, with the continuous support and dedication of our international partners, we have been able to celebrate many successes. Many of whom exceed targets to deliver our broadband satellite services often in the most hard to reach and rural areas.”

“We rely on the local knowledge and dedication of our service partners and I would like to express my gratitude for their steadfast efforts. I look forward to further strengthening our relationship as we move towards a new phase for YahClick with the widening of our footprint,” added Khan.

Award nominations were collected from within Yahsat and were carefully reviewed by an evaluation committee for the final selection.