Virgin Mobile, the telecoms subsidiary of the UK’s Virgin Group, has launched a mobile virtual network operator in Qatar, one of the first virtual networks in the Middle East and the first outside Oman.
Virgin launched its eighth virtual network in Doha…
Virgin Mobile, the telecoms subsidiary of the UK’s Virgin Group, has launched a mobile virtual network operator in Qatar, one of the first virtual networks in the Middle East and the first outside Oman.
Virgin launched its eighth virtual network in Doha on 13 May in a partnership with Qtel, Qatar’s former monopoly mobile and landline operator.
Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, told a press conference that he wanted to launch virtual operators in Qtel’s other markets.
“We’ve got 17 other countries that Qtel is in. We said, let’s test it out here in Qatar first and then move on to other markets,” said Branson. “This is the start of hopefully a much larger relationship with Qtel, possibly in other countries.”
Qtel has a majority stake in Indonesia’s Indosat. In the Middle East and North Africa, Qtel owns operations in Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Qatar and Tunisia.
Qatar’s youthful population provided an attractive market for a virtual network targeting itself at young people, Branson said.
“Qatar is an exciting country. The youth market is enormous here – 40% under the age 29, and 60% under 35. If you pitch yourself at the youth, a lot of people will want to be associated with that,” he said.
Qtel needs new ways to attract customers after it lost its monopoly of the mobile phone market last year when the holder of Qatar’s second mobile phone licence, Vodafone Qatar, started offering mobile phone services.
Virgin Mobile already operates virtual network operators in Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, the UK and the US.