Qtel Chairman addresses Global ITU Telecom World Congress

The Chairman of Qtel, H.E. Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Thani, today delivered an inspiring keynote presentation to a packed audience of heads of state and government, ICT ministers and global business leaders at the ITU Telecom World Congress in Geneva, Switzerland.

The event, which is being held in Geneva until 27 October, is the most significant of its kind, bringing the brightest minds and most influential leaders together to debate the key issues that will shape the future of an industry that pervades virtually every field of human endeavour.

Speaking in the first session of the global event, Sheikh Abdullah called on the delegates to show courage in the face of enormous social and technological change reshaping the global communications landscape.

At a time when global mobile penetration has reached 90 percent and when demand for data services is higher than ever before, many operators and technology companies are struggling to keep up the pace of change.

Referring to the experience of the Middle East and Arab world in 2011 – where the total number of Facebook users has doubled in one year to reach 27 million people and some 75 percent of people using social media are between the ages of 15 and 29 years – Sheikh Abdullah argued for the importance of courage.

“To adapt to the pace of the new Broadband world, it is essential that operators, regulators, technology companies and business leaders all act with courage. Operators must invest and create new services for our customers that are truly special; regulators must recognise that the rules are changing in a Broadband-driven environment; and leaders must have the courage to make a difference,” said Sheikh Abdullah.

In his speech, Sheikh Abdullah described the remarkable achievements of the Qatari nation, and its success in building its global profile with the launch of Al Jazeera and its success in bidding to host the FIFA World Cup.

By thinking big and acting on its plans, Qatar has achieved unprecedented success, thanks to the country’s inspired leadership.

Sheikh Abdullah also described Qtel’s remarkable growth, from a single nation operator to a regional giant with more than 75 million customers and a presence in 17 countries, and outlined the role that innovation and ambition have played in his company’s success.

With an action-packed agenda focusing on the major global issues reshaping the information and communication technology (ICT) landscape, the 40th anniversary edition of ITU Telecom World is hosting a dynamic series of debates led by some of the industry’s biggest names.

The vibrant opening ceremony featured President Ali Bongo of Gabon; Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji; Igor Shchegolev, Minister of Communications and Mass Media, Russian Federation; Doris Leuthard, Head of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications, Switzerland; Jianzhou Wang, Chairman, China Mobile; and Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU, in addition to H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohamed Saud Al-Thani, Chairman, of Qtel.

CEOs and leaders of global technology and telecoms companies from around the world are attending, including Alcatel Lucent, AT&T, China Mobile, Du, Ericsson, Etisalat, Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel, KDDI, Microsoft, NTT Corporation, NTT DoCoMo, the Qtel Group, Swisscom, Telkom SA, Türk Telekom, Verizon and ZTE.

To set the tone and fuel the debate, ITU took the occasion to unveil a new mini-report, The World in 2011, which reveals impressive growth in areas such as global Internet use, particularly in developing countries. The publication confirms that ICT growth continues apace, with close to six billion mobile cellular subscriptions forecast by the end of 2011, and around 2.3 billion people using the Internet.

Growth is fastest in the developing world, and amongst the young, with almost half the world’s online population now under 25 years old. That number should continue to increase steadily as Internet penetration continues to grow in schools.

The developing world’s share of the world’s total Internet users has grown from 44% five years ago, to 62% today. Global Internet penetration has grown by over 50% in three years – from 13% in 2008 to 20% in 2011.