Vodafone Qatar signs IT infrastructure contract

Vodafone Qatar has signed a QAR125 million (USD34.5 million) agreement with IT services provider MEEZA, a newly established joint venture part-owned by the cellco’s minority shareholder Qatar Foundation. MEEZA agreed to provide end-to-end turnkey IT infrastructure solutions to support Vodafone Qatar’s planned core and wireless network operations. The UK-backed company was awarded Qatar’s second mobile licence in June for a fee of QAR7.7 billion, and was also announced as the winner of the country’s second fixed line licence in September. It is scheduled to launch mobile services in March 2009.