War of words as Vodafone targets Qatar customers

The war of words is hotting up in Qatar as global phone giant Vodafone gets ready to launch against Qtel.

As the CEO of Vodafone Qatar announced his intentions to make his brand the number one in the Gulf state, Qtel revealed its plans to slash call rates in a bid to keep customers.

“We have a few surprises for Qtel,” Vodafone Qatar’s CEO, Grahame Maher, told reporters, adding: “Every market we enter we expect to take a larger share…We will be the number one brand in Qatar.”

But with Vodafone yet to release any detail about their pricing plans, Qtel on Sunday announced major cuts in its call rates to Europe, Australia and America, Qatar daily The Peninsula reported on Monday.

Call charges for other GCC states have been slashed to one riyal (27 cents) per minute while for Europe, Australia and the US, the new rates per minute will be 1.25 riyals. Calls to India and other Asian countries as well as countries in Africa will attract charges at 1.50 per minute riyals.

“All rates will apply 24 hours a day,” Adel Al Mutawa, executive director of group communications, Qtel, said.

Vodafone is the fifth largest mobile handset manufacturer in the world and also works closely with other manufacturing giants like Nokia and Sony Ericsson, among others.

“We are going to make a world of difference for the people in Qatar,” Maher vowed.

He said Vodafone had got the approval from the regulators (ictQatar) to launch fixed line phone services in the country, too, but the formalities are yet to be completed.