EPIC CYPRUS
Technical and Information Officer , building on its achievements prior to that date and its new direction thereafter . He is responsible for both IT and the Networks and has 100 + skilled engineers and technicians in his team . “ We used to be predominantly a mobile operator , and were the first to introduce 3G , 3.5G , 4G and VoLTE in Cyprus . In 2020 we were ranked for Cyprus as “ Best Mobile Network in Test ” by umlaut , and “ Fastest Mobile Network ” by Ookla .”
Michaelides and his team started around three years ago the journey to become the # 1 mobile network in Cyprus . They called it “ The preferred network project ,” a name allowing no misinterpretation about what this project was all about . This journey begun by putting a plan in place , to tackle all the weak points of the network , starting from excelling first in voice , through improvements in coverage
“ This is not just about transforming our IT systems , but about transforming the way we do our business . This is going to enable us to manage interactions with customers , at all touchpoints , flexibly , quickly and how they really should be during this digital age ” with Umts900 , the rollout of several new sites and the activation of HDvoice and VoLTE . Then , they planned how to become faster in data speeds , by improvements in the 4G indoor coverage , the use of lower spectrum bands , the reframing of more and more spectrum towards 4G and the addition of several 4G bands that would allow the extensive use of carrier aggregation in the network .
“ In parallel , we needed a reliable and independent way to continuously monitor the results , to benchmark ourselves , against our previous performance and against our competitors . As such , we selected umlaut to measure our performance using its proven methodology , and monitoring how the network was changing week by week . It ' s a fantastic “ tool ” to measure our results , our progress and how we compare against
YIANNIS MICHAELIDES CHIEF TECHNICAL AND INFORMATION OFFICER , EPIC CYPRUS
58 November 2021