Mobile operator Vodafone Qatar is to raise a US$100m loan to pay for the deployment of a fixed-line network, reports Bloomberg.
Quoting acting CEO John Tombleson, the newswire said the loan, which will come from Vodafone Group at an interest rate of…
Mobile operator Vodafone Qatar is to raise a US$100m loan to pay for the deployment of a fixed-line network, reports Bloomberg.
Quoting acting CEO John Tombleson, the newswire said the loan, which will come from Vodafone Group at an interest rate of 1.7%, will be taken within 45 days.
The unit, a JV between Vodafone and the state-owned Qatar Foundation, launched in 2009 and controls 26.7% of the market, according to Telegeography.
It competes with QTel. Virgin Mobile, an MVNO operating on QTel’s network, was last week ordered to shut down its services by telecoms regulator ictQatar.
Vodafone had taken issue with QTel’s ‘brand franchise agreement’ JV with Virgin Mobile, arguing that it effectively added a third, unlicensed mobile operator to the market. ictQatar ruled that QTel had broken the terms of its licence, but had not broken the law.
In March, ictQatar asked QVMS, the service QTel runs with Virgin Mobile to stop registering new subscribers until it complies with the recommended presentation and marketing of its services.
