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Qatar - Market Intelligence Report
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Market Intelligence Reports provide an invaluable mix of vital market data and background information, including telecoms regulation. Qatar's telecommunications market is currently monopolised by a single state-controlled company that operates all information and communications networks in the country, serves all communications service users, and - until very recently - acted as the de-facto regulatory body for telecommunications. The company in question is Qatar Telecom (Q-Tel), which is 55%-owned by the state of Qatar. Following the establishment in May 2005 of an autonomous regulatory authority, Q-Tel's monopoly was removed at the end of 2006 and the process of licensing at least one fixed-line and mobile-centric alternative operator began in 2007. However, given the small size of the market in question, it is doubtful that any new entrants could effectively compete with Q-Tel on a commercial footing. Perhaps significantly, though, content service providers were allowed to begin offering their products over Q-Tel's mobile phone network in December 2003. At present, Q-Tel is the sole provider of Internet access and cellular telephony services in Qatar, serving more than one million cellular customers and approximately 220,000 Internet customers as of March 2007, on top of approximately 212,000 fixed-line telephone customers. Qatar has a total "population" of around 800,000, a significant portion of which (over 150,000) are foreign nationals working in the country short-term. At the time of writing, there were no plans to issue any third-generation (3G) mobile telecommunications services licences in Qatar. In the meantime, Q-Tel has initiated an upgrade of its 2.5G digital cellular network to 3G technology, although it does not hold a 3G-specific licence at present. Facing the prospect of increased competition at home, Q-Tel has begun expanding overseas: in June 2004, it teamed up with TDC A/S of Denmark and a number of Omani investors to successfully acquire Oman's second cellular telephone licence. Q-Tel owns a majority stake in Nawras Telecom, the venture that operates this network (see separate profile on Oman). Q-Tel has since gone on to acquire an alternative operator in Pakistan, a regional mobile operator based in Kuwait (see separate profile on Wataniya Telecom), and a stake in a holding company that controls several major Asian wireless operators. The Supreme Council for Communication and Information Technology (SCICT or ictQATAR) was launched in May 2005 as Qatar's new "autonomous" regulatory authority governing the electronic communications and IT market. However, ictQatar had no legal basis for its operations until the very end of 2006. It has been developing a regulatory regime that will soon allow new entrants into the sector. Consequently, Qatar is still the last of the Gulf States to retain its state monopoly on all forms of communications. This Market Intelligence Report was produced as part of |
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