Interview with the director of Lte magazine

Interview conducted by Mr. Diop Youssef with Mr. Ahmed Khaouja, director of Lte magazine, on the occasion of the 7th anniversary of Lte magazine.

1-Number 43 is online, marking the 7th year of publication of Lte magazine; a brilliant story. How do you explain this longevity in a very difficult environment?

Answer: It’s true to publish a technology magazine once every two months is not easy in a country where support is a scarce resource. Its publication is subject to a total commitment on our part to another form of publication, which takes time and refuses the superficial. It is a lot of work, with the only reward being the recognition of our readers who encourage us to continue this electronic publication. Since its launch on July 1, 2015, the Lte magazine team has been mobilized so that: “Each issue is an opportunity to better understand together a subject related to telecoms or digital” and also so that each issue is released on the agreed date. i.e. every two months. So in 7 years we have always been there with our readers.

The magazine remains a completely adequate tool, insofar as it constitutes a forum between young people operating in the NICT sector and former executives who have worked in the telecom sector. Of course, our personal motivation and that of my team increases when we receive a message from a reader who claims to have read such an article or such an interview, in the columns of Lte-magazine or when certain major players place their trust in us such as the international group IDC, which has associated us as a partner for the organization of the IT Forum in Casablanca Morocco.

Therefore, beyond the intellectual and business aspect, this electronic medium constitutes, today, a mean of strengthening the dialogue and the confrontation of experiences and points of view between the various generations of executives operating in the ecosystem of telecoms, digital or regulation.

2-Lte.ma is a whole set of initiatives and contributors. What are your best encounters?

Answer: We have published since 2015, several articles and interviews. So many authors we dealt with various different themes to share intellectual information far from fake news. I am that optimistic because  thanks to Lte magazine, we maintain contact with luminaries of the sector, great personalities, experienced professionals, inventors, researchers, even astronauts and Nobel Prize winners. On this occasion, I would like, once again, to reiterate my warmest thanks to the contributors to Lte-magazine, for their efforts in favor of the development of this magazine, to my readership for its confidence and to my team for their dedication. I also express my sincere thanks to the partners of the magazine for their support.

3-How is each number designed?

Answer: There are proposals from our contributors and our partners to deal with this or that subject. There are also encounters, and desires to deal with this or that theme. Each issue is a different collaborative adventure. Once the subject is chosen, we begin to work on it. The job consists of reading documents related to the theme and also meetings with experts to understand better the subject. I say and I always repeat the best way to master a subject is to treat it in the form of an article or a presentation in a seminar.

Telecoms and digital are a vast field and the themes are endless. Some of these themes are in the news, others we take from the past. We are not those who deal with subjects without ever looking back.

4-What awaits the reader in Lte.ma?

Answer: First of all, the awareness of decision-makers on current or future subjects with the files dealt with. We also aim for our magazine to be a link between young and old in the telecom sector. As we said, Lte magazine is aimed at the telecom and digital ecosystem. Through our newsletters, we target a particularly informed category of readers, belonging to this ecosystem, operating in telecoms and digital at the international level. We also target national organizations in Morocco and international ones, such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the World Bank, NASA, African regulatory authorities and so on. It should be noted, however, that our readers may also have other areas of expertise, insofar as Lte magazine is also interested in equally interesting themes, in relation to current events such as ecology, economy or management. An open forum is precisely dedicated to these contributions, in relation to the aforementioned centers of interest.

5-Are you confident in the future of your magazine?

Answer: Hard to predict. One thing is for sure keeping a magazine that lasts over time is not an easy task. Because there is a lack of support from institutional bodies for the type of our publication. Of course we will continue our work, because as the Americans say “Self-confidence is the first secret of success” or as the Russians say “Falling is allowed, getting up is ordered”.

But we also think of more or less ambitious prospects for Lte magazine by looking:

– to guarantee permanent financial resources to ensure the sustainability of the magazine;

– to transform Lte magazine into a publication medium for young African researchers, in order to make them known worldwide;

– to continue our negotiations with our partners, with a view to a new impetus for this support.

6-Question: Allow me to return, for a few moments, to the very initial idea of ​​creating this magazine, which makes telecoms, digital and regulation its favorite fields?

Answer: I will briefly mention the main stations known to the magazine. It actually dates back to the beginning of 2015. With a small sum of 3000 euros, an amount granted to retirees by the organization responsible for the social activities of the organization where I worked in Morocco. I got the idea to use this amount wisely, within the framework of the new digital paradigm. I then started by acquiring a good professional computer and I provided available and interesting internet domain names for my projects. To give a boost to my start-up company, I had to make a shortcut and create the online magazine in question to quickly make my business PTT Morocco known. Actually, through this strategy, I wanted to save time. Throughout my career as a telecom engineer, I have always liked to use the shortcut strategy as much as possible. I think that if some lawyers have invented the strategy of rupture, for my part, I think that I have composed with the one of shortcuts.

7- Question: How are you organized? How are you funded?

Answer: In fact, as early as June 2015, I remember sending letters to all actors in the telecom sector in Morocco and also to certain ministries to ask for support for my company. Of all the letters sent, only two private actors had reacted. One is in Casablanca and the other one in Temara, a town not far from Rabat.

For financing, I started by ensuring it from the year 2015, through training sessions that I provided in the field of regulation. Moreover, the synergy between my company PTT Maroc (www.PTT.ma) and Lte magazine (www.lte.ma) proved to be very conclusive. For example, this magazine gives me the opportunity to stay up to date in the telecom and digital fields and also to make the PTT company known in Morocco and internationally.

In terms of work organization, my employees and I use modern solutions. Thus, we rely on cloud solutions and collaborative work. Several people cooperate with me all over the five continents, in shared mode, thanks to information and communication technologies, in particular cloud and internet platforms. Today, the English version has been operational since January 1, 2021.

This interview was conducted in French by Youssef Diop