Qtel Chairman visits Philippines operations

His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, Chairman of Qtel, visited the offices of wi-tribe in the Philippines, to review the success of the operations since the initial roll-out of its Wireless Broadband Service, this week. 

During the visit, His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah met with Ramon Ang, President and Chief Operating Officer of San Miguel Corporation (SMC), Qtel’s partner for wi-tribe operations in the Philippines, to discuss the potential for future cooperation in this dynamic and fast-growing market.  Also present on this visit was Dr Nasser Marafiah, CEO of Qtel. 

wi-tribe is the Philippines’ first 4G Broadband service provider, and the visit coincided with
wi-tribe’s first year of operations in the country. Since the launch, the company has successfully expanded the accessibility and availability of Broadband Internet, and attracted 50,000 subscribers to the service. With an infrastructure upgrade completed in 2010 and a range of new services planned for 2011, executives at the Qtel Group believe there is strong potential for growth in the near future. 

With Broadband penetration levels of about 17 per cent in 2010 and a young population excited about the educational and entrepreneurial potential of the Internet, the Philippines is a high potential market for growth for the Qtel Group.  

His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, Chairman of Qtel, said: “We are seeing strong signs of success in the Philippines market, which has responded very well to the cutting-edge innovation provided by wi-tribe. Given the exciting potential of this market, and our strong relationship with our partners, we continue to look for new opportunities for growth and joint investment, to build upon our impressive start in this market.”

Ramon Ang, President and Chief Operating Officer of SMC added: “One year after the launch of wi-tribe, we’re encouraged by the traction that our brand and services have gained in the Philippines. With favorable demographics and a relatively low broadband subscriber base, we see a lot more room to expand. Broadband is leading the way in growth in the local telecommunications industry and we’re confident that as we continue to deploy and develop our wi-tribe network, our partnership with Qtel will help us bring broadband access to even more Filipinos.” 

The wi-tribe brand is a growing global presence driven by the ambition to enhance on-line access in emerging markets in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.  Since its launch in Jordan in 2008, wi-tribe has successfully launched operations in Pakistan and the Philippines. 

Accompanying the delegation, Mr Sohail Qadri, CEO, wi-tribe Group, stressed the significance of leading the way with 4Gservice: “Being the first to deliver such an advanced technology is evidence of our determination to pioneer ways of delivering a better, more reliable Broadband service for our customers.”