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 Message
from the Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Renewal -
Development
CYTA is currently going
through a period of creative development, moving
forwards with passion, character and dignity,
and giving society an early taste of the future
it envisions.
At the beginning of 2008
our Organisation found itself vigilant and
prepared, in a position of strength and
consistency regarding the monitoring of the
rapid advances in technology and all its
applications in the electronic communication
sector. The year began on a healthy footing with
extremely satisfactory financial results which
give us the independence needed for new
achievements.
2007 was a year of change
that confirmed CYTA’s place among the
frontrunners in the international
telecommunications environment. In the new,
competitive Cyprus market we remain leaders in
the provision of integrated electronic
communication solutions.
In the year under review
we added another page of progress to our
history, participating in the global development
of the sector with a clearly-defined
people-oriented approach and contributing to the
advance of society, of our customers,
our partners and, above all, our
personnel.
Our Personnel
Another productive year has come to an end,
thanks to our people. We embraced new challenges
and faced up to them creatively, building on the
firm foundations provided by our personnel.
This is why we have deepened
the relationship with our people even further.
CYTA remains one of the best employers in
Cyprus, a fact that has been acknowledged by
European projects such as EQUAL. We won the
Social Excellence Award for Reconciling Family
and Professional Life for implementing
programmes that balance our personnel’s family
and professional life.
We implemented a new
organisational structure within CYTA with the
main aim of achieving maximum productivity and
we await the results and conclusions of this
project with interest.
Again, thanks to our
personnel, CYTA is the first and only Cypriot
enterprise to be awarded the five-star ranking
"Recognised for Excellence" from the European
Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).
Customers
and Partners
We are one of the most modern organisations on
the business scene. Rapid changes in the
environment and moves by our competitors have
brought about a need for dynamic action. Through
our new strategy we have repositioned ourselves
in the market, making the change from
telecommunications organisation to provider of
integrated electronic communication solutions.
Our customers are central to
our vision and mission, to the values of trust,
freedom, teamwork and progress that guide our
every step. This longstanding relationship
continues as we constantly seek to win over
their hearts and minds.
Success in achieving the best
customer experience demands a team effort by all
the Organisation’s departments, so that we
harmonise all our brand interfaces, not only on
a visual level but in terms of managing consumer
experience and feeling.
2007 Projects
Our strategy is being implemented gradually,
transforming the Organisation into a TIMES
(Telecommunications, Informatics, Multimedia,
Entertainment, Security) provider with the aim
of offering integrated solutions to customers.
Of great importance to this strategy is the
so-called “quadruple play” application which
brings together voice, fast Internet, video/TV
and converged mobile and fixed telephony
services in the home, at work or on the move. In
this context we have already created a
significant section of the next generation
network which is entirely based on IP
technology.
We have enhanced our
portfolio in all services:
miVision: Internet
Protocol Television (IPTV)
In our portfolio of services, we place
particular significance on broadband products
such as miVision and i-choice which have been
recognised as being of strategic importance for
the encouragement of electronic communication
and the transformation of Cyprus into an
Information and Knowledge Society. We continue
to enrich the content of miVision, we have
introduced a second decoder (STB) enabling
customers to watch a different programme on a
second television set on the same premises and
we have increased the number of titles available
via the Video On Demand service.
Fixed Telephony
In 2007, Fixed Telephony continued to be one
of our Organisation’s most basic
telecommunications services, despite the
intensely competitive environment in which it
operates. During the year, while keeping within
the regulatory framework, we enhanced our range
of telecommunications packages and discount
schemes, offering customers new and inexpensive
choices. These included the introduction of the
"Classic Package 2"
a pioneering package which, for a fixed monthly
charge, gives customers 100 minutes of free
calls to CYTA’s fixed telephone network.
Mobile Telephony
Technological advances in the mobile telephony
sector create increased demands on the part of
customers. We respond to them by offering many
new products and services and, in the year under
review, these included Mobile Email (BlackBerry
from Vodafone and Windows Mobile Email) and the
Video Call service.
Internet
CYTANET continued to flourish in 2007,
thanks to the constant development of its
network and the provision of new services to
home and business customers, and by increasing
the number of Wi-Fi Zone hotspots from 18 to 54,
offering Internet username/password information
via credit card, providing Safe Internet free to
all CYTANET customers and to schools, and
introducing the Satellite Internet service.
Convergence Products
In 2007 the project to develop convergence
services continued with the involvement of a
large number of personnel. The project aims at
the development of innovative products and
services which will be based on the convergence
of fixed and mobile telephony and the Internet,
with the aim of expanding the ways in which
customers communicate with one another.
Expansion Abroad
After the UK and Hungary, an ambitious CYTA
has now entered the particularly competitive and
rapidly developing Greek market.
Through our subsidiary
company CYTA Hellas, our Organisation has taken
up the challenge and is rolling out our brand in
Greece. We have made a start in eastern Crete,
the Argosaronic Gulf and western Macedonia with
the ultimate aim of expanding throughout the
country.
We secured our participation
in the Information Society S.A. project through
a Europe-wide tender. The aim of this major
project is the development of broadband
infrastructure in various regions of Greece.
Investment in the project amounts to some €50
million.
Faster Speeds,
Renewal and Further Progress
In conclusion I wish to note that our
excellent financial results, achieved in what
was a difficult year, were not the only factors
contributing to our success. Contemporary
thinking decrees that successful organisations
should take an active role in the society in
which they operate. We have adopted the
principles of Corporate Social Responsibility
and shown our unbreakable bond with Cypriot
society, of which we are an integral part.
To give some examples: we
contributed to the transformation of the Pefkios
Georgiades Primary School into a Model
Electronic School; we donated €200.000 to the
victims of the summer fires in Greece; we
reinforced efforts to cultivate environmental
awareness with an advertising campaign; we
supported the theatre through our sponsorship of
all the professional theatre companies in
Cyprus; we continued the free connection of all
schools to the Internet and the provision of
services at a special low monthly rate; and we
continued our sponsorship of the Centre for
Preventive Paediatrics.
We are at the forefront of
the global electronic communication market and
fully abreast of developments in the sector. By
nature we are innovators. We monitor and –
mainly – we shape changes and new prospects in
Cyprus in a serious, responsible and consistent
manner, fully aware of our leading role.
We exploit and create
opportunities for constant improvement and for
the provision of more services, open to
comparison by Cypriot consumers who now have a
choice. We are moving ahead, promising Cypriot
society an experience of the future that holds
enormous surprises. Come with us.
Photios Savvides
Deputy Chief Executive Officer
June 2008
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