Qatar-based multinational telecoms operator Ooredoo Group has announced that it has sold its Pakistani division, Wi-Tribe to HB Offshore Investment for QAR32.7 million (USD8.97 million). HB Group currently operates in Pakistan’s telecoms sector via fixed line voice, broadband and IPTV provider Sky Telecom, which has a presence in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
Earlier this month, the group had confirmed that it was pulling its investment out of its last remaining WiMAX-based wireless broadband operator, Wi-Tribe Pakistan. Qatari newspaper The Peninsula reports that during the group’s AGM, the chairman of Ooredoo’s board of directors, Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, announced that Ooredoo has now withdrawn its investments in wireless broadband businesses in Pakistan, Jordan and the Philippines as the technology had not picked up well enough. TeleGeography notes that the Jordanian Wi-Tribe operation was shut down in December 2012, whilst Ooredoo Group sold its entire stake in the Filipino Wi-Tribe venture to domestic conglomerate San Miguel Corp in July 2015.