Qatar's telecoms regulator, ictQATAR has awarded the country's second mobile operator license to a consortium made up of Vodafone and Qatar Foundation. They submitted the highest bid in the second round auction. The other eligible consortiums submitting bids were Argos (Verizon and Virgin Mobile) and Etisalat.
The license will be issued when closing procedures are completed. The new licensee is expected to launch service during 2008.
Five companies had been shortlisted to compete in the auction; Argos Consortium, AT&T Qatar Mobile Consortium, Etisalat Consortium, MTC and Partners Consortium & Vodafone and Qatar Foundation Consortium
These parties were requested to submit one further bid to complete the auction process.
Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber, ictQATAR Secretary General, said "This is an important milestone in the liberalization of the telecommunications market in Qatar. The introduction of competition will benefit the people and economy of Qatar. We congratulate the Successful Applicant and we thank all those who participated in the process."
"This is the culmination of many months of hard work by the applicants and the ictQATAR team," she added. "We look forward to the roll-out of new products and services in 2008."
Qatar Telecom is the incumbent monolopy operator in the country. According to figures from the Mobile World, the company ended September with 1.1 million customers -which represents a population penetration level of 120%. This is boosted by a high number of foreign workers though.
Posted to the site on 10th December 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/27971.php