Telecoms & IT

Qatar boasts a well-developed telecoms market, with high levels of internet use and smartphone ownership among the populace, as well as fast mobile and fibre-based internet connection speeds. The larger of the country’s two main telecoms operators has also emerged as a major force in the regional and international mobile telecoms market. The IT sector is less developed in some respects, with industry observers noting comparatively low penetration rates, particularly in the small and medium-sized enterprise segment. However, some fields, such as e-governance, are highly advanced, and a shift towards the use of the cloud and software-as-a-service is under way in the corporate sector. There are also efforts to develop the start-up scene, and Qatar is emerging as an important centre for computing-fo¬cused research, with several applied research projects already having been successfully commercialised. This chapter contains an interview with Ahmad Mohamed Al Kuwari, CEO, MEEZA.