Alcatel and Qtel Offer 3G Commercial Services in Qatar

By Johanne Torres

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Thanks to a partnership announced today between Alcatel and Qatar Telecom (Qtel), customers in Qatar will be able to sign up for multimedia high speed 3G/UMTS services, including video conferencing, high speed data or video streaming.

 

"Alcatel (News - Alert) interactive mobile 3G solutions bring a vast range of new capabilities to mobile phones, including Video Calling," said Dr. Nasser Marafih, CEO of Qtel in a statement. "We are confident that both Alcatel 3G network infrastructure and mobile services solutions will enable us, in the long run, to provide users with personalized and interactive content, such as video MMS service, video streaming or live broadcast TV. This 'made for mobile' TV channels solutions will boost the broadcasting of the 15th Asian Games, the second largest sporting event after the Olympics Games, taking place in Doha this December."

 

Qtel's 3G Video Calling service is the first in a set of services that will be rolled out in Qatar. Qtel will offer the Video Calling service for postpaid and prepaid customers with no connection or monthly fees.

 

"The successful delivery & commissioning of the 3G network in a relatively short time frame, providing high quality 3G services reflects the close and long-standing partnership between our two companies," stated Pierre-Alain Cadillon, Alcatel country senior officer of Qatar. "In the very near future, a software upgrade is foreseen for the HSDPA technology. It will allow Qtel to bring significant added value over 3G/UMTS, and to stay ahead of customer demand and satisfaction."

 

Alcatel made news yesterday when it announced it scored a contract to deploy a Mobile NGN system for Chinese service provider Jilin Mobile Communications Company (Jilin MCC) and expand the operator's existing mobile network. The contract was won through Alcatel Shanghai Bell, an Alcatel company in China. The contract is reportedly valued at about $63 million U.S.

 

The new contract calls for Alcatel to offer Jilin MCC its distributed mobile-switching system including the Alcatel 5020 Spatial Atrium Softswitch, a multi-standard mobile call server controlling distributed media gateways. Once deployed, Alcatel's Mobile NGN solution will enable Jilin Mobile to allow its current network to support future advanced mobile services with one high-capacity core network.

 

Qatar Telecom

Alcatel

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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne's columnist page.