Vodafone Qatar calls for greater clarity on fixed-line licence
The head of Vodafone’s operations in Asia and the Middle East has called for Qatar to provide more information about the terms of the country’s second fixed-line licence which Vodafone Qatar won last year.
The country’s telecoms regulator, ictQatar, has…
The head of Vodafone’s operations in Asia and the Middle East has called for Qatar to provide more information about the terms of the country’s second fixed-line licence which Vodafone Qatar won last year.
The country’s telecoms regulator, ictQatar, has yet to inform Vodafone where its Qatari subsidiary can provide fixed-line services, said Nick Read, Vodafone’s chief executive officer for the Asia Pacific and Middle East region.
“I have yet to determine what the economics of that business are,” he said on the sidelines of the group’s full-year results briefing.
At the weekend, Vodafone Qatar revealed that it had borrowed US$120m from the financing arm of the parent company using a revolving credit facility.
Read said that Vodafone Qatar had borrowed the money to pay for the roll out of the fixed-line network. Vodafone Qatar will formally receive the fixed-line licence from the government in June once it has changed its articles of association.
When ictQatar first proposed issuing a second fixed-line licence, it talked about only allowing the new operator to provide services to newly built real estate developments. However, it has never specified exactly what areas of Qatar it will open to the second licence.
Read said that Vodafone Qatar had put the facility in place in case it needed all US$120m, but at the moment he could not tell how much Vodafone Qatar will have to invest in the network.
