ictQATAR, Qatar's telecommunications regulator has announced that the Vodafone/Qatar Foundation Consortium will pay a fee of QAR 7.716 billion (US$2.12 billion) for the country's second mobile license. Vodafone and partner Qatar Foundation Consortium won Qatar's second mobile license, beating AT&T and Verizon Communications in December last year - although the final payment details were not announced at the time.

ictQATAR also announced the shareholding structure of the Licensee Company, which will include Vodafone/Qatar Foundation Consortium (45%), public shareholders through an IPO (40%), and Governmental/Qatari Institutional Shareholding (15%).

The license will be issued to the new Company once the legal details relating to the formation of the Licensee Company are finalized. The Initial Public Offer (IPO) for the 40% of the shares which will be held by the public will be held in or before 30 November 2008, which is now the latest date for the IPO.

It is expected that the new licensee will launch services on the first quarter of 2009.

Vodafone is also one of eight companies bidding for the country's second landline operator license - which will also include a WiMAX provision.

Qatar Telecom is the incumbent monolopy operator in the country. According to figures from the Mobile World, the company ended September with 1.1 million customers -which represents a population penetration level of 120%. This is boosted by a high number of foreign workers though.

Source:cellular-news