Qtel Celebrates 1.5 million mobile phone customers in Qatar

Alain Robert, the famous urban climber known as a real-life “Spiderman,” spun an extra surprise for Qatar, when he helped telecom leader Qtel celebrate reaching 1.5 million mobile phone customers in Qatar.

The historic occasion was marked by the freestyle climber unfurling a banner from the roof of Doha’s La Cigale Hotel, following his unaided climb up the side of the imposing tower.

Qtel, which sponsored the event, chose the occasion to mark its success in winning 1.5 million customers for its symbolic significance and also for the charitable benefit provided by Robert’s climbs.

Adel Al Mutawa, Executive Director of Group Communications, explains: “Like Alain Robert, Qtel has scaled incredible peaks in countries around the world, and we wanted to celebrate our achievement in our home market of Qatar with something truly exciting for our customers. By reaching 1.5 million customers, Qtel has demonstrated our ability to offer something for everybody in Qatar, and our capacity to match the nation’s ongoing growth with impressive development of our own.”

In reaching its 1.5 millionth customer, Qtel has significantly grown its mobile phone customer base from 1.26 million recorded in 2007. Customer acquisition now exceeds the total population of Qatar, as people look to own multiple phones for business and personal use.

Qtel reached the target in November 2008, following the launch of the entirely new and exciting approach for the popular HALA Pay As You Talk service, which saw record numbers of new customers apply for HALA accounts at shops across the country. In addition, Qtel’s launch of a new number range starting with the number ‘3’ also drove demand. 

In Qtel Group announcement for Q3 2008, the company recorded more than 55.7 million consolidated customers across its global operations.

Qtel’s success in driving mobile market penetration in its home market of Qatar is seen by many analysts as a vital factor in ensuring the company continues to grow and develop even as the market enjoys greater liberalization and competition.

The company was particular pleased to sponsor Alain Robert’s endeavour because the French national has used many of his international climbs to promote environmental awareness and to raise money for a number of charities.

“We wanted to mark our success in a memorable way, but it was also important to us that the occasion should have some social impact as well, particularly since it is one of the events being held by Qatar to celebrate the occasion of Eid Al Adha. Mr. Robert’s contributions to charity encouraged us to support this climb,” added Al Mutawa.

Alain Robert became famous by climbing more than 85 of the world’s most famous landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, PETRONAS Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur and Taipei 101 in Taiwan

7/12/2008