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Home > Communications > Telecommunications > General Telecom
Qatar Telecommunications Report Q3 2008
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At the time of writing, there was still no word on the winner of the tender for Qatar’s second fixed-linenetwork operating licence, despite earlier suggestions that a winner would be picked in April 2008.Therefore for the time being, Qatar’s wireline sector remains a monopoly under the control of QatarTelecom (Q-Tel). Meanwhile, the sector expects to see the launch of mobile competition before the endof 2008. In December 2007, the Qatari authorities awarded Qatar’s second mobile telephony licence to aconsortium comprising Vodafone of the UK and local partner, the Qatar Foundation. In March 2008, itwas announced that Vodafone was preparing to launch an initial public offering (IPO) of around 20% ofits shareholding in Vodafone Qatar sometime before the end of June 2008. Following the IPO Vodafonewill hold 45% of the Qatari unit’s share capital, with 40% in public hands and the remaining 15% held byQatar government institutions. In April 2008, Vodafone Qatar announced that it intended to appointHSBC Middle East and Qatar National Bank to lead manage its upcoming IPO.
When Vodafone finally enters the mobile service provider market, it will find a sector which is alreadyswelling to bursting point with Q-Tel customers. Q-Tel’s introduction, in February 2008, of a specialpromotion for new Hala prepaid users has contributed in an upsurge in growth for the market incumbent.In March 2008, Q-Tel announced that it had amassed 1.4mn mobile customers, following apparent 11.1%growth in both Q407 and Q108. By the end of March 2008, Qatar’s official mobile penetration rate wasalready over 164%. As a result of these new growth figures, we have had to make significant revisions toour predictions of future growth for Qatar’s mobile sector. We now expect the market to grow by 29.5%in 2008 and by a lesser 13.6% in 2009. Although we now envisage a total market of some 2.2mn mobilecustomers at the end of 2012 (equivalent to well over 200% penetration), it should be remembered thatthe country’s real penetration rate, once inactive customers and multiple SIM card holders are deducted,will be somewhat less than this.
Meanwhile, the latest data published by Q-Tel and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)appears to indicate a slowdown in fixed-line growth. The number of fixed-lines grew by just 3.9% in2007 to reach 237,400 at the end of the year (equivalent to 27.9% penetration). Although fixed-linegrowth in 2007 was slightly weaker than we had predicted, broadband growth was slightly stronger, witha total of 70,300 broadband customers at the end of the year giving the country a penetration rate of 8.3%.By the end of 2007, 80.8% of Qatari internet subscribers used a broadband connection. This figure was upfrom 67% at the end of 2006.
Qatar has dropped several places in our latest set of Business Environment Rankings for the Middle Eastand now sits in eighth place. The main reason for Qatar’s lower overall ranking is the lower score whichthe country receives in the telecoms market category. The lower overall score is also due to our decisionto reduce Qatar’s country structure score.
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