Qtel Group chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani declaring Qtel Fibre live at an event held at the company’s corporate headquarters in West Bay yesterday. Qtel rolled out the fibre network as part of its QR1bn project aimed at connecting the entire country by 2014
By Pratap John/Chief Business Reporter

Qtel’s fibre optic cable is upgradeable if there is demand for greater speed and bandwidth, said chief operating officer, Waleed Mohamed al-Sayed.
He said the Qtel Fibre package of 100Mbps is the highest speed available in the region. Elsewhere in the world, however, some countries are offering speeds in giga bytes per second (Gbps).
“But it is not picking up because 100Mbps speed is quite sufficient for a vast majority of customers,” al-Sayed said.
Qtel will deliver special packages over fibre with speeds of 1 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps.
Packages start at QR233 a month for 1Mbps home broadband and voice, al-Sayed said. Customers will be able to download films, games and music faster than ever before and at an affordable monthly rate.
Customers who want the fastest-ever Internet speeds can choose the 100 Mbps home broadband and voice for QR650 a month.
Two more packages - 10Mbps and 50Mbps packages are available for QR333 and QR500 respectively.
Customers with existing packages will be upgraded to the next fastest Internet package. Qtel will also shortly launch an incredible next generation Mozaic TV service on Fibre. As well as high definition images, this service will also offer incredible features like recording, pausing and other advanced fibre-fuelled functions.

Waleed Mohamed al-Sayed: “100Mbps speed is quite sufficient for a vast majority of customers
Al-Sayed said, “We have conducted wide-ranging research to ensure that the range of packages available suit every customer segment, so that customers can enjoy value and incredible speeds, as well as a wide range of value-adding services with Qtel Fibre.”
Full details of all plans, pricing and offers are available on
www.qtel.qa, along with a map showing areas where Qtel Fibre is available. Qtel Mozaic and Broadband customers who are migrated to Qtel Fibre do not have to pay any installation costs and migrating to Qtel Fibre is absolutely free. All plans will include a Qtel landline with unlimited free local calls.
Over the coming months, new and existing customers will be visited by the Qtel Fibre Team once the building phase reaches their area. Customers who have already had the Qtel Fibre equipment installed will receive a call to schedule an appointment, and the Qtel Fibre team will then return to connect them to the Qtel Fibre services and demonstrate the new products and equipment.
Customers do not need to call Qtel to upgrade to the new services, and will continue to receive their existing Internet and Mozaic TV services at the current speeds and current prices until they are upgraded, he said.
He said Qtel had already spent QR600mn on the fibre project.
“We will lay the infrastructure to cover the entire country by fibre optic cable by 2014,” al-Sayed added.

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