Qtel goes to Barcelona meet

15/02/2010 00:00 AST

The Qtel Group will showcase its ongoing growth and fresh products and services at this year’s edition of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which starts today, it was announced yesterday.

During the four-day event, Qtel’s bold new range of innovations being developed expected to have a significant impact on its customers and the market it serves will be the highlight at the 350 sq m Qtel pavilion.

Organised by the GSMA association, the Mobile World Congress gathers around 1,300 companies and 47,000 mobile professionals from 182 countries every year.

Dr. Nasser Marafih, CEO of Qtel Group, said: “The Qtel Group has evolved significantly into a major regional provider in recent years, and the scope of our operations in 17 countries has provided us with significant market knowledge and customer understanding.

“Because of this, we are able to respond to the strong demand in Middle Eastern, North African and Asian markets for a host of value-added services, by launching value-driven innovations. We aim to use our presence at this year’s Mobile World Congress to showcase our journey and to highlight the major new services we are planning to provide to our customers.”

The Qtel Group’s strategy for offering a new range of data and content services is built upon collaboration and open innovation with a number of leading organisations.

In December 2009, the Group concluded a collaboration agreement with Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) to create a mobile innovation hub for the Middle East and North Africa region in Qatar.

A number of other major partnerships are due to be announced in Barcelona.

“The mobile market is changing rapidly, driven by the increased capacity offered by improved Broadband technology and by the growing demand from customers, particularly from younger consumers. We believe that The Qtel Group, given its market positioning and our ongoing investment in value-driven innovation, is ideally placed to capitalise on these changes,” Dr Nasser explained.

The Qtel Group Innovation Exchange 2010 concluded on Sunday, having attracted application developers, content providers and telecom operators from around the world.

One of the key areas of discussion was the growth of the applications market for SmartPhones, and the opportunities this creates for customers and for businesses.

The Peninsula