Qatar has topped the world for the fastest ‘fibre roll-out’, according to the report ‘National Fibre Strategies’ National economic imperative or just another private industry task?’ by Arthur D Little which shows country’s huge success in modern communication technology. Qatar ranks seventh in fibre optic penetration in the world, reaching out to 66 percent of the households, reveals a study.
The country has one of the fastest nationwide fibre roll-outs in the world, since the start of deployment in 2011, as judged by the average percentage of homes passed by fibre (33.3 percent of the total) and the number of homes connected (6.3 percent) per year, says the report.
The study is based on figures from the Fibre To The Home (FTTH) Council as well as data collected from operators and other estimates by ADL, an international management consultancy company.
“We have had one of the world’s fastest roll-outs of fibre optic network. We recently passed a major milestone as per which more than 50,000 customers are now connected to Ooredoo Fibre,” Waleed Al Sayed, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ooredoo Qatar, said yesterday.
He was addressing a press conference on the release of the national fibre strategies report.
“Currently we have passed 191,000 homes and connected 56,000 homes, and we are continuing to pass thousands of more homes every month,” Al Sayed added.
He said that Ooredoo is spending more than QR 1bn to have Ooredoo fibre pass by all households in Qatar by the end of 2014, replacing the copper cables.
The company will soon launch Ooredoo Business Fibre, with a special emphasis on the country’s small and medium-sized businesses, Al Sayed said.
The ADL report says that the telecom industry, governments and regulators need to move decisively to fibre in order to support future economic growth. It argues that there are clear economic benefits to improving broadband infrastructure; whereby jobs are created along with a permanent boost to the GDP.
“Governments should ensure the right regulation and control so that funding can maximize the economic impact,” said Dr. Karim Taga, Managing Partner and Global Practice Leader, ADL TIME practice, who joined the press briefing through video conferencing.
It is no longer possible to modernize and upgrade the copper-based network. Whole fibre or mainly fibre networks are now needed not only for the fastest fixed access services, but also to underpin the micro layer of the latest mobile backhaul networks.
“After 30 years or more of breaking national monopolies, it now seems that too much infrastructure competition is holding back fibre deployment, which in turn is hurting consumers and the wider economy,” Dr Taga said.
Source :
Qatar Chronicle
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