Yemen Telecom Day 1–30 Playbook: Stabilise Uptime, Power, and Cash

Part 1 of a Bridge Connect mini-series on post-conflict telecoms (spotlight on Yemen)

Post-Conflict telecoms brings distinct challenges. In this mini-series we highlight what the C-level and Board of Directors should be able to do:

• Establish a recovery-grade decision cadence (daily, weekly, monthly).

• Prioritise sites and spend using MVN logic rather than “equal coverage” instincts.

• Align the CEO/COO/CFO/CTO around the same operating picture and thresholds.

Spotlight on Yemen

Telecommunications in Yemen has historically been more than a commercial sector; it is repeatedly described as one of the country’s most important sources of public revenue and economic activity. At the same time, the growth runway remains large: DataReportal estimates that internet penetration was ~17.7% at the end of 2025, implying that over 80% of the population remained offline, even while mobile connections were ~56.8% of the population and most connections are “broadband-capable” (3G/4G/5G).

The practical implication for senior leadership is simple: the upside is real, but only if you stabilize operations first. In the first 30 days of a recovery phase, your mandate is not “transformation.” Your mandate is control: control uptime, control energy risk, control cash conversion, and control the narrative with customers and stakeholders.

Executive summary (if you only read one section)

In the first 30 days, strong operators do five things exceptionally well:

1. Define the Minimum Viable Network (MVN): the smallest set of sites, links, and core functions that must remain stable to protect revenue and national service continuity.

2. Stand up a cross-functional “Operations & Cash War Room” with a single daily dashboard and clear decision rights.

3. Make energy a first-class network KPI (not a facilities issue): classify sites by criticality, set autonomy targets, and fix the fuel/spares bottlenecks.

4. Lock down revenue integrity: stop the bleeding (leakage), stabilize billing configuration, and protect the top revenue corridors first.

5. Communicate predictably with customers and enterprise accounts: publish service targets, restoration principles, and complaint resolution commitments.

The critical decision: What is your Minimum Viable Network?

Most leadership teams try to “restore everything.” That approach usually fails because it spreads scarce fuel, spares, and field capability too thin.

Instead, define MVN in week one:

MVN is the subset of your network that:

• protects the highest concentration of paying demand (consumer and enterprise),

• keeps national/strategic corridors operational,

• minimizes single points of failure in the core,

• and can be supported with realistic energy and field logistics.

A practical MVN definition method (48 hours)

Step 1: Rank sites by revenue + dependency

• Top 50–100 cell sites by traffic/revenue contribution

• Core and aggregation sites with high dependency (many downstream sites)

• Key enterprise termination points (banks, government services, large employers)

Step 2: Confirm power realityFor each MVN site, capture:

• current autonomy (hours on battery / storage),

• generator status,

• fuel consumption rate,

• solar/storage condition (if present),

• security/access constraints,

• spares availability (rectifiers, batteries, controllers).

Step 3: Publish the MVN listThe MVN list is not secret. It is a management tool. Your whole organization should know:

• these sites get first fuel, first spares, first field teams, first monitoring.

Days 1–7: Establish control (war room + baseline)

1) Stand up the Operations & Cash War Room

Non-negotiable: one room (physical or virtual), one owner, one daily rhythm.

War room core roles

• COO (chair) or delegated Network Operations Director

• CFO delegate (cash + collections)

• CTO/Network Planning (engineering decisions)

• Supply chain/procurement lead (spares + fuel logistics)

• Customer operations lead (complaints, enterprise escalations)

• Security/compliance lead (site access risks)

Daily cadence (30–45 minutes)

• Review yesterday’s uptime and energy incidents

• Review today’s “blocked sites” and who unblocks them

• Review cash collections vs target and top leakages

• Decide today’s allocation of fuel, spares, and field teams

• Confirm customer/enterprise communications for the day

2) Create a 1‑page “Day 1 Dashboard”

Do not start with 30 KPIs. Start with 10.

Recommended Day 1 Dashboard KPIs

• Network availability (overall + MVN)

• Top 10 outage causes (count + hours)

• Energy autonomy compliance (MVN sites meeting target)

• Backhaul/link availability (core + aggregation)

• Mean time to repair (MTTR) for MVN incidents

• Recharge/top‑up success rate

• Billing success rate (rated vs billed)

• Daily cash collected vs target

• Top 10 complaints categories + resolution time

• Enterprise SLA breaches (count)

Days 8–30: Stabilize reliability (energy + spares + field execution)

1) Make energy a first-class network workstream

In weak-grid environments, energy is the network.

Define three site tiers

• Tier A (MVN / aggregation / core dependencies): target autonomy 48–72 hours

• Tier B (high demand but lower dependency): target autonomy 24–48 hours

• Tier C (coverage/long tail): stabilize later; maintain where feasible

Fast interventions that typically pay back

• Replace failed rectifiers/controllers that cause repeated downtime

• Battery health audits and selective replacement (avoid blanket spending)

• Standardize generator maintenance intervals and spares kits

• Install remote monitoring on Tier A sites first (fuel level, battery status)

2) Fix your spares bottleneck (often more damaging than CapEx)

A recovery-phase network fails less from “lack of investment” and more from:

• the wrong spares,

• spares not where they are needed,

• no standard kits,

• and slow approvals.

A 10‑day spares reset

• Define a Top‑20 spares list for the technologies in your MVN

• Pre-position spares in 2–4 regional hubs

• Establish “field swap” rules: what can be swapped immediately vs escalated

• Publish a simplified approval matrix (who can authorize what, same day)

3) Restore field execution discipline (without bureaucracy)

Rule: every major outage must have:

• an owner,

• a root cause code,

• a time-to-next-update,

• and a closure report (one paragraph).

This is not paperwork. This is how you stop repeated failures.

Cash stabilization: protect revenue while restoring service

Telecom is often a macroeconomic stabilizer in fragile contexts. Yemen sector analyses highlight the sector’s historical fiscal and economic importance.

In the first 30 days, cash stabilization is not “cost cutting.” It is:

• collection discipline,

• leakage control,

• and targeted investment in availability (because availability drives recharge).

30‑day cash priorities

• Freeze non-essential CapEx; approve only MVN-critical spend

• Renegotiate payment terms with key vendors (extend without breaking supply)

• Identify the top 5 leakage sources (see Blog #3)

• Protect top-up distribution and dealer liquidity (where applicable)

• Prioritize enterprise accounts with high margin and low payment friction

Customer trust: communicate like a utility

In a recovery context, trust is built through predictability.

A practical customer communications policy

• Publish restoration principles: “MVN first; hospitals/critical services prioritized; updates at fixed times.”

• Publish complaint resolution standards: response times and escalation routes.

• For enterprise: assign named account owners for top 50 accounts and a weekly SLA report.

Common failure modes (what to avoid)

• Trying to upgrade while unstable: modernization without stability compounds outages.

• Fuel without governance: uncontrolled fuel allocation becomes the biggest operational risk.

• No MVN: treating all sites equally guarantees failure.

• Too many KPIs: dashboards that nobody uses do not change outcomes.

• Silence with customers: lack of transparency creates churn even when you are improving.

Bridge takeaway: the 30‑day deliverables your board should demand

By Day 30, leadership should be able to produce:

1. MVN list + criticality map

2. Energy autonomy plan (Tier A/B/C) with costed interventions

3. Spares strategy (Top‑20 list + hub placements)

4. Revenue integrity “stop the bleeding” plan (top leakages + fixes)

5. A single executive dashboard with weekly trendlines

ملخص تنفيذي (Arabic synopsis)

• في أول 30 يوم، الهدف هو الاستقرار والسيطرة: الجاهزية، الطاقة، التدفق النقدي، وثقة العملاء.

• اعتمدوا مفهوم الحد الأدنى للشبكة القابلة للتشغيل (MVN) لتوجيه الوقود والفرق وقطع الغيار للمواقع الأكثر أهمية.

• اعتبروا الطاقة جزءاً من أداء الشبكة: تصنيف المواقع (A/B/C) وتحديد ساعات الاستقلالية المستهدفة.

• أنشئوا غرفة عمليات ومالية بمتابعة يومية ومؤشرات محدودة وواضحة.

• التواصل المنتظم مع العملاء والمؤسسات يقلل الشكاوى ويحد من التسرب في الإيرادات.