Fatter Qatar bandwidth as Qtel hails FTTH pilot a success

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has announced the successful completion of its first pilot project for fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) internet access services, reports Al Bawaba. The FTTH network rolled out in partnership with property developers in the Mesaieed and West Bay Lagoon areas of Qatar, is now fully operational, delivering customers internet speeds of up to 50Mbps, with the capacity to upgrade to 100Mbps in due course. Qtel is finalising a plan for national rollout of FTTH services, whilst the telco has also developed a fibre-to- the-building (FTTB) service for apartment blocks. Khalil Al-Emadi, Executive Director, Networks, Qtel, said: ‘With the success of this pilot project and the positive feedback we have received from partners and customers in the developed areas, we are now positioned to start a large scale rollout.’ Qtel is working on its direct fibre network development with Huawei Technologies of China.