The recent decision to open up Qatar’s telecom market doesn’t appear to concern the Emirate’s only telecommunications services provider, quite the reverse in fact, with QTel apparently raising the bar that any potential competitors will have to vault over. To date, there have been no public expressions of interest by other firms to set up shop in opposition to QTel after Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani issued new legislation in early November 2006 ending the company’s monopoly status. According to Hessa al-Jaber, the secretary general of Qatar’s Supreme Council of Information and Communications Technology, opening up the telecommunication sector will serve to drive the Emirate’s economic and social development. “We can look forward to investment from an array of new industries, brand new jobs across the economy and innovative ways of doing business in the public and private sectors,” he said. QTel itself has welcomed the liberalization of the
