Vodafone Qatar granted six-month coverage extension

Qatar’s telecoms regulator, ictQATAR has amended the licence awarded to Vodafone, granting the licensee an additional six months to achieve national coverage requirements. Under the terms of its original licence Vodafone Qatar was required to achieve 98 per cent population coverage and launch full services by March 1, 2009. The revised terms require 98 per cent coverage by September 1, 2009 and the commercial launch of services by July 1, 2009.

ictQATAR says that it took the decision to amend the licence due to the unforeseen delays experienced by Vodafone Qatar in agreeing interconnection with Qtel as well as site sharing arrangements. Only last month did Vodafone enter a tower sharing deal with Qtel and confirm an interconnect agreement.

“Despite the fact that Vodafone Qatar has not met the initial target dates set out in its licence, ictQATAR is satisfied with the progress that has been made on network development and interconnection with Qtel, and looks forward to the launch of competitive telecommunications service in Qatar in the near future,” commented Hessa Al-Jaber, ictQATAR secretary general

Following the licence term amendments, ictQATAR decided not to cash the performance bonds it holds against Vodafone Qatar’s coverage obligations amounting to QAR 110 million (US$30 million). ictQATAR plans to continue to hold these performance bonds as security to ensure the revised coverage obligations are met.