|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
Qatar Telecommunications Report Q2 2011
Business Monitor International, March 2011, Pages: 76
The Qatar Telecommunications Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, telecommunication associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Qatar's telecommunications industry.
The Q211 update on the Qatar telecoms market incorporates data from fixed line incumbent operator Qatar Telecom (Qtel) and alternative operator Vodafone Qatar, a subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone Group Plc, for the 12 months to December 31 2010. Our latest five-year forecasts for the country’s mobile, fixed-line and internet sectors, which extend to 2015, is based on recent developments in Qatar's telecoms sector, as well as our view of the country's macroeconomic environment during the next five years.
Qatar's mobile market grew by 11.7% in 2010 (46.9% in 2009) to reach 2.763mn subscribers. This represented a market penetration of 183%. The report notes that overall subscriber growth in 2010 was tempered by successive quarterly subscriber losses in the second half of the year by market leader Qtel. The analyst attributes subscriber losses by Qtel to the disconnection of inactive lines and fewer subscriber uptakes on the back of increased competition in the market. Second operator Vodafone produced another strong performance in the fourth quarter of 2010 to take its customer base above the 700,000 subscriber mark two years earlier than it previously anticipated.
Qtel reported a 9.5% y-o-y decline in mobile revenues for the 12 months to December 2010 due to intense price competition in the mobile sector. Mobile tariffs have been declining since early 2009 following the entry of Vodafone into the mobile market. Vodafone adopted a value-led strategy to build its subscriber base, while Qtel responded with a similar strategy to defend its market share. Meanwhile, in May 2010 Qtel and UK-based Virgin Mobile signed a brand licensing to offer prepaid mobile services under the brand Qatar Virgin Mobile Service (QVMS). The service targeted young consumers with low prepaid tariffs, further adding pressure mobile ARPUs.
It is, therefore, not surprising that Qtel's ARPU, which believe is the highest in the market by virtue of market position, fell by 41% in the two years to December 2010 from QAR192.3 to QAR112.6. We believe declining ARPU levels and, consequently, mobile revenues, support our view that Qatari operators need to focus on higher value services, such as data, and improve their subscriber mixes to offset revenue losses from the voice segment. This does not appear to be case yet as both Vodafone and Qtel reported a contraction to their postpaid subscriber bases in Q410.
In December 2010, Vodafone contracted Alcatel-Lucent to deploy an FTTH network based on gigabit passive optical network (PON) and point-to-point gigabit Ethernet technology. In January 2011, QTel successfully completed the first phase of a trial fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) project in Doha, serving approximately 1,000 customers with high-speed internet access, high-definition TV and voice telephony services. We expect these developments to boost competition and drive growth in the fixed sector. By 2015, we expect Qatar's fixed voice and broadband penetration to be just under 23%.
Product samples
A sample for this product is available. Please Login/Register to download this sample.
|
|
|
|
