Qatar’s second mobile licence attracts 20 hopefuls

Qatar’s second mobile network operating licence has attracted interest from more than 20 regional and international companies, the head of Qatar’s telecoms regulator has announced. Companies from Europe, Asia and the Middle East expressed interest after the country initiated a tender process last month, Hessa al-Jaber said on Thursday. The winning bidder will be announced in November, she added, and went on to say that: ‘I want the Qatar telecom market to be very competitive. For the last five years we’ve had gross domestic product growth of 8.7% and the expectation is for the growth to continue. For the growth to be sustainable we will need a very competitive telecom market…Average annual revenue per user for [incumbent operator] Qtel was close to QAR1,000 (USD274) over the past five years, making the market attractive for a second operator…The telecommunications market has grown at an annual average rate of 23% in the past five years, and Qtel’s total revenue in the period was USD1.1 billion…Qatar is investing more than USD64 billion over the next five years in different sectors, which will have a positive impact on the telecom sector.’