Eight vie for Qatar telecom licence

Eight telecoms operators from around the world have registered interest in applying for Qatar’s second fixed line licence, the country's regulatory authority said Tuesday.

Verizon (US), Vodafone (UK) and AT&T (US) have expressed interest, along with Bahrain’s Batelco, British Telecom (BT), Italy’s Eutelia and PCCW (Hong Kong), ICTQatar said in a statement, adding that the level of international interest had led it to extend the closing date for applications.

Companies will be judged in a ‘beauty contest’ or comparative evaluation on network quality, range of proposed services and level of public commitment. The winning operator will be announced in May 2008.

ICTQatar secretary general Hessa Al-Jaber said choice in fixed line service providers as in the mobile market would bring consumers “excellent service and value”.

"We are confident that the award of this license will further ICTQatar's vision of state-of-the-art infrastructure with high-speed broadband and innovative services for every Qatari citizen and business,” he said.

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