Qatar to top world in FTTH Net penetration

Date

10/18/2015 9:50:57 PM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula)Waleed Al SayedChief Operating Officer Ooredoo Qatar (file pix)

By Sachin Kumar

DOHA: Qatar is expected to be top in the world in terms of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) Internet penetration by next year as all the residential and commercial buildings will be connected with fibre by the end of 2016.

“Qatar is now one of the most highly penetrated countries in term of fibre-to-the-home. I think personally that by next year Qatar will be number one in the world in terms of fibre penetration because it is our programme to connect every residential or building with fibre” said Waleed Al Sayed Chief Operating Officer Ooredoo Qatar on the sidelines of an event held yesterday.

Fibre optic technology is the next generation of Internet connectivity to the home and business and currently over 75 percent of the Qatar is connected with fibre to home network.

“Two-thirds of the Qatar are already connected we have started our phase three around first quarter of this year and we believe by next year every single house every single building is going to be connected with fibre. So we will be number one no doubt” said Al Sayed. “Phase three has scope for the houses that have not been built yet” he added.

Along with expansion in Internet coverage Internet users will also see significant increase in their Internet speed. The speed at which users surf Internet and send or receive data is likely to double or triple in the near future.

“Internet (speed) to homes has now reached 100 megabits. We have a plan to double or triple this speed in the near future” said Al Sayed. “In terms of mobile we have built 4G+. Recently we have tested in our lab a new generation of 4G+ which takes speed to more than 375 megabits and it was very successful. In the future the mobile data and speed is going to reach 1 gigabits” he added.

Qatar was ranked first worldwide on the indicator measuring the percentage of individuals using Internet in the developing countries in 2014 (91.5 percent) and first among Arab countries and second globally on the indicator measuring the percentage of households with Internet (98 percent) according to the 2015 edition of the State of Broadband report.

Qatar also came first among all Arab countries and 12th worldwide on the indicator that measures the percentage of individuals using Internet in 2014 (91.5 percent) followed by Bahrain (91 percent) and UAE (90.4 percent).

In the same report released by the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development Qatar ranked 15th at the world level on the indicator that measures the active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.

The Peninsula

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