Qatarnet pre-paid promo pushes card sales past 2.5 million

Qatar’s monopoly mobile operator Qatarnet says that a recent pre-paid promotional scheme has seen demand for its recharge cards skyrocket, with the cellco’s users buying up 2.5 million cards in the space of three weeks. The operator launched its ‘Get more with the same’ promotion on 10 July, offering users of its ‘Hala’ pre-paid service bonus credit whenever they topped up their airtime. By the end of July 2.5 million cards had been sold, a record number. The promotion runs until the end of August and is part of Qatarnet’s concerted push to increase its pay-as-you-go subscriber base; the cellco is also offering a 50% discount to customers signing up to a Hala service by 31 August. A wholly owned subsidiary of national PTO Q-Tel, Qatarnet has more than half a million mobile subscribers, less than half of which are pre-paid.