Q-Tel launches MMS nationwide, slashes call costs and promises 3G in six months

Qatar’s monopoly telco Q-Tel has slashed its peak local call rates for users of its Qatarnet mobile service by 23.6% for pre-paid and 22.2% for post-paid users; off-peak rates remain unchanged. The cellco has about 680,000 customers, of which 530,000 are pre-paid. Earlier this week Qatarnet announced that it expanded its multimedia messaging service (MMS) and made it available to all users of its network. The cellco also revealed plans to launch commercial 3G mobile services within six months. Qatarnet is investing around QAR800 million (USD220 million) in the upgrade of its GSM network with W-CDMA technology.