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Wednesday, 12 December 2007 |
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Qatar authorities indicate that Vodafone-led consortium beats off rivals (and allies) to win second GSM licence in Qatar.
The splendidly-named Supreme Council of Information & Communication Technology, aka ‘ictQATAR’, announced at the beginning of this week that a consortium of Vodafone and the Qatar Foundation have won the country’s second mobile licence after a two-round bidding process. Unofficial reports put the size of the winning bid at somewhere near UK£300mn.
Vodafone and the Qatar Foundation fought off bids from rival consortia led by AT&T, Etisalat, MTC and Verizon. Of these, Verizon and Etisalat made it through to the second and final round of bidding. MTC and Verizon are currently partners of Vodafone in the Gulf and in the USA respectively.
Vodafone’s stake in the new operator is expected to be a dominant one rather than a majority holding. The Qatar Foundation was founded by the Qatari Emir in 1995 and is devoted to “progressive education, research and community welfare.” The royal connections might have been more important than these objectives in the final selection process.
Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber, ictQATAR Secretary General, said, "this is an important milestone in the liberalisation of the telecommunications market in Qatar. The introduction of competition will benefit the people and economy of Qatar.” She added: “we look forward to the roll-out of new products and services in 2008."
Jim Chalmers
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