Vodafone Qatar launches online

Vodafone Qatar officially launched the country’s second commercial mobile phone network today with an online promotion. Visitors to the UK-backed company’s website can register for a SIM card, select a payment plan and choose their own number. CEO Grahame Maher said that 200,000 people had viewed the site since a trial began in March. Vodafone Qatar will open four retail stores later this month, whilst later in the year it will add to its range of ‘Flexi’ post-paid packages with a pre-paid product under the ‘Red’ banner aimed at rivalling incumbent Qatar Telecom’s (Qtel’s) ‘Hala’ package. It aims to cover 98% of Qatar’s population with GSM-based services by September, partly by sharing infrastructure with Qtel.