Qatar Telecom Claims 50,000 HSDPA Subscribers

Published on: 28th January 2008

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has announced that it now has 50,000 customers connected to its HSDPA mobile network, which was launched in July 2007. Qtel's 3.5G network covers most of the East Coast of Qatar including Doha, Wakrah, Rayyan, Messaieed, Khor and Ras Laffan. Qtel is working on improving the coverage further within these areas and also to roll out the 3.5G network to other areas.

Buoyed by the success of Qtel's new mobile broadband network, Sh. Fahad Bin Jassim Al-Thani, Qtel COO said that Qtel was committed to providing the best possible mobile user experience and encouraged other Qtel customers to take advantage of the new network. "We chose to make the 3.5G service available to all our customers at no additional charge as we want everyone to enjoy the improved capabilities," Sh. Fahad said.

After describing how the new network dramatically improves the customer experience of existing data services, Sh Fahad went on to say that Qtel would also be using the high speed data rate capabilities of the new network as a springboard for the launch of an entirely new range of products & services. He indicated that Qtel intended to launch its first dedicated 3.5G service within the next few weeks - a new simple and affordable Mobile Broadband data tariff that in combination with the launch of a new USB Modem would provide laptop users with mobile broadband speeds similar to the speed of home ADSL broadband.

"The launch of this new high speed mobile network helps position Qtel as a broadband telecom services provider and marks another significant step in Qtel's journey towards becoming a full voice, content and entertainment services company. The company is investing not just in ADSL, WiFi and IPTV broadband technology but also in wireless broadband and we look forward to making further coverage and speed improvement announcements during the course of 2008".

Figures from the Mobile World database report that Qatar Telecom - the monopoly operator in the country - had an estimated 1.1 million subscribers at the end of last Sept., of which 185,000 were 3G users.

 

Tags: [qatar telecom]  [qtel]  [usb modem]  [modem]  [iptv]  [wifi]  [usb]  [Qatar]