DOHA: Experts have expressed fears over recent news about the acquisition of Qatar National Broadband Network (qnbn) by a private telecommunication company and said it will create monopoly.
On October 2, Vodafone Qatar entered into a non-binding Heads of Agreement with Information Communication Technology Holdings (ICTH) to acquire the entire issued share capital of qnbn — 21 million shares, each at a par value of QR10.
Faisal Al Marzuki, in his recent column in Arab daily Al Watan said a local newspaper had recently carried news that the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ictQATAR) planned to sale its ownership of qnbn to a telecom company.
The deal raises questions about the establishment of this broadband company in 2011, he said.
Al Marzuki said it was set up to prevent monopoly of any company in broadband sector, stop exploitation by controlling prices and pave way for competition among telecom companies. The government had spent billions of riyals to take its ownership from Ooredoo.
Now the ministry is selling this company with all its privileges to another telecom company.
This contradicts with the aim of its establishment and will result in going back to the era of monopoly, he said.
Another question is that how the ministry decided to sale a company owned by the government to another company without inviting any bids according to the law.
He said when the government took over the broadband company, it had paid billion of riyals as compensation for the installation of infrastructure. Now the question is the new company which is going to buy this company will repay this entire amount or it will remain as debt on paper and with time will be written off, he added.
Finally, the deal lacks the minimum required transparency and is in violation of the law where the ministry is supposed to be most committed to respecting the law.
“I hope the concerned body to reconsider the deal to protect public money and avoid serving interests of other party,” Al Marzuki added.
Another prominent columnist, Abdulla Al Mohanadi, wrote in Al Watan that there was no doubt that our life has become strongly linked to modern technology which has brought the world closer. This has made telecommunication and IT companies around the globe most successful and profit-earning entities despite strong competition.
He said customers are afraid of going back to the era of monopoly after the sale of a national broadband company to another company. Vast telecom networks with very high speed are essential for economic development and to encourage innovations and enhance services. The question which arises after the deal is that what prompted the ministry to sell the broadband company which had been functioning successfully and generating good revenue, he said.
He wrote that this company was set up in 2011 as fully government-owned entity to support the government’s mega projects and Qatar’s National Vision 2030 without competition from any other companies.
He said one of the aims of setting up this company was to establish a national telecommunication and highly efficient fibre optic network in a very short time and provide coverage to 90 percent of the people and 100 percent to companies. This broadband company has strategic role in future development projects.
Al Mohanadi hoped that any step to be taken regarding qnbn will be well-studied otherwise “we will lose much and fall under monopoly”. The Peninsula
