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Doha-Qatar

HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti has approved the amendment of the network rollout and coverage obligations of Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar licences for the provision of public mobile telecommunications networks and services. 
The amendments adopted unified obligations for both companies related to the Second Generation (2G), Third Generation (3G), and Fourth Generation (4G) networks that are in accordance with the amendments of the Annexure (G) of the network rollout and coverage obligations of both companies’ licences related to public mobile telecommunications networks and services. 
Also, the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has issued decisions to grant the radio spectrum licences to both companies for the deployment of the Fifth Generation (5G) commercial networks in Qatar as of January 2019. 

In addition, the CRA has unified all prior existing radio spectrum licences and replaced them with a single document ‘Radio Spectrum Licence’ that includes harmonised terms and conditions for both companies. 
In the mentioned radio spectrum licences, the CRA has initially assigned to each company 100MHz within the 3500 - 3800MHz frequency band for the commercial deployment of 5G networks. 
Under the radio spectrum licences, the two companies will be committed to rollout the 5G networks before the end of 2020 in all densely populated areas, all primary roads and highways, as well as all venues associated with the FIFA 2022 World Cup, including stadiums and fan zones.
“Unifying the obligations of telecommunications companies for the 2G, 3G, and 4G networks is a very important step towards the development of a sustainable and fair competition in the telecom market in Qatar. 
“This will benefit the sector and consumers at the same time as the companies are keen to provide competitive, innovative, and high quality services, and that will contribute to the development of the Information and Communications (ICT) sector in the state of Qatar,” said HE al-Sulaiti.
“The CRA was keen to facilitate the introduction of 5G technology to the state of Qatar, and to assign the necessary frequencies to telecommunications companies in Qatar. Qatar will be one of the first countries in the world to launch 5G commercial services, which undoubtedly will contribute to the achievement of Qatar National Vision 2030 goals by ensuring the sustainable development of the ICT sector. 
“On behalf of the CRA, I would like to thank all stakeholders and telecommunications companies for their cooperation and efforts to contribute to the development of the sector,” said CRA president Mohamed Ali al-Mannai.