Building cutting edge telecom infrastructure in Qatar

24 May, 2011

QITCOM presentation

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Qatar is committed to ICT development to meet its 2030 vision and build a knowledge-based economy

1 Based on Qatar 2030 Vision

Qatar 2030 Develop-ment Pillars1)

HumanDevelopment

Social Development

Economic Development

Environmental Development

ICT Contribution to Achieve Qatar National Vision

▪ Improves population access to healthcare services

▪ Enhances people’s skills and capabilities

▪ Helps all people of Qatar participate in and contribute to a knowledge-based society

▪ Creates new business models for sustainable development

▪ Stimulates innovation and entrepreneurship

▪ Encourages use of environmentally sound technologies and raises public awareness

Qatar Commitment to ICT Development

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Other countries have recognized the importance of setting an aspirational ICT vision and defining an implementation strategy

SOURCE: Web search; team analysis

Examples of resulting government strategy (non-exhaustive)Vision of the country

▪ Deployment of ultra-high-speed infrastructure– Fiber deployment at natural level– Free wireless connectivity

▪ Training plans for ICT workforce▪ Transformation of key economic sectors through ICT

use (government, education, health, …)

Singapore "Be the world’s no. 1 in harnessing ICT to add value to the economy and society"

▪ Push for fiber technology, partially funded by government

▪ Tax incentives boosting broadband use▪ Different levels of competition at different network layers▪ Set of government incentives to boost demand

Malaysia "Be one of the most advanced countries in South East Asia"

South Korea "Offer all Koreans access to internet and computers regardless of their sex, age and region"

▪ Development of high-speed core network linking all cities funded by government

▪ Push for advanced services▪ Strong boost of ICT adoption through government

policy (e.g., fiber deployment, ICT trainings, e-learning)▪ Collaboration with operators to develop ubiquitous

networks

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The Government has developed a comprehensive set of ICT initiatives to enable this vision

Digital Content Ecosystem

ICT Human Capital

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Cyber safety and security

QNBN

Legal and regulatory Framework

Developing human capital across all demographic groups

An ecosystem that enables creative contribution to the digital world

Encouraging technology innovation and entrepreneurship in Qatar

Working to address cyber security risks, protect sensitive information, and ensure the safety of our children

Building a passive fibre network to provide 95% of Qatari households with high speed broadband by 2015

Ensuring that competition thrives in Qatar, bringing benefits to businesses and individuals across the country

e-Health

e-Government

e-Inclusion

e-Education

Enhanced healthcare through technology – digitising healthcare systems and records

A safe, reliable network for Qatar’s government

Developing and ICT skilled population whose members share equal access to technology

Making ICT an integral part of students’ educational journey

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ICT initiatives must be supported by a state of the art Telecominfrastructure – Singapore example

SOURCE: IDA; press releases

Example of ICT initiatives and role of telecom infrastructure

NOT EXHAUSTIVE

ICT@Education

▪ 100% computer ownership in homes with school going children

▪ Digital learning and notebooks for teachers

▪ ICT integrated into 30% of curriculum

ICT@Healthcare

▪ Integrated Electronic Medical records and secure ‘real-time’ access to patients’ records

▪ Video-conferencing with patients for routine care

ICT@Government

▪ Over 1,600 public sector services online through a unified portal

▪ Provision of a Unique Entity Number for access to E-Government

▪ Standardized ICT operating environment for all Government services

State of the art Telecom infrastructure

▪ NextGen FTTH network

▪ 100+% fixed and mobile data penetration

▪ Speeds of 100mbps and free public WiFI

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Qatar’s aspiration for fixed infrastructure will place it ahead of most developed countries in the quality of its fixed infrastructure

FTTH worldwide penetration rank 2010% of households with ONT activated

29

8

33

32

112222

33

5

88

121213

21

3435

45

ItalyRomaniaRussia

NetherlandsFinlandSingaporeSlovakiaEstoniaUSADenmarkBulgariaSloveniaNorway

Portugal

LithuaniaTaiwanHong KongJapanUAESouth Korea 53Qatar (aspiration) >90

Qatar (2010) <1Czech

France

China Latvia

Sweden

SOURCE: Global FTTH Council September 2010; IDATE; ARCEP; Pyramid research

Several countries (e.g., UAE, Australia) have aspirations to reach similar penetration levels in a similar timeframe

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PDA/Smartphone

IPTV

Tactile panel

Media Center

PC

Nationwide FTTH coverage will make Qatar the land of the cyber home…

100

0

200

Necessary bandwidth for effective service Mbps

“Full 3D collaboration”

“Sharing info”

“Connecting places and

people”

Web browsing

5MB Download

Video Multi-streaming

3D TV

HDTV/Multiroom

Remote Computation Technologies

Qatar Today

SOURCE: Corporate Angels

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…and support development of data-based services includingCloud Computing

Voice and data

Distributed services

Applications

Data centers

Next gen “AIN” services

Collaboration services

Contact centers

Local Access & Metro

Application services

Infrastructure services

Connectivity services

Communication services

IT Stack Example companies

Backbone State of the art fixed infrastructure would be critical to move up the IT value chain into managed services

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The Government has set up the QNBN to help achieve this vision

Description

Business model

▪ QNBN will lease passive fibre infrastructure for telecom services

▪ Appropriate national wholesale prices will be set to

– Ensure low retail rates across Qatar

– Give margin to operators

– make QNBN self-sufficient in the long-run

Network roll out

▪ 95% FTTH coverage nationwide using a combination of P2P and GPON technologies

▪ Provide wholesale access and core fibre across Qatar

▪ Rollout network in greenfield areas in cooperation with developers and lease existing ducts wherever available

Company set-up

▪ Qatari government to own 100% of QNBN entity to start but option for operators to join the company

▪ Sufficient funding from the Government in the form of both equity and subsidy

▪ 100+ FTEs once fully operational

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High-speed

Nationwide

Affordable

Open

Rapidly deployed

High-level objectives of the QNBN have been defined and approved by the ictQatar Board

Key objectives for the QNBN

▪ Infrastructure that supports 100 mpbs and beyond for in-country active connections

▪ Available nationwide to achieve greater social inclusion

▪ Reuse existing infrastructure where needed to avoid duplication

▪ Affordable services to all segments of society and offers competitive retail and wholesale prices

▪ Provides infrastructure access to operators in a fair and equal manner

▪ Coverage target achieved by 2015, driving national competitiveness and acting as catalyst for the broader economy

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QNBN will only offer services in the passive layer to encourage innovation in the active and service layers

Q.NBN Infrastructure Tier Focus

Passive Layer

Active Layer

Services and Applications

▪ Retail operators compete based on separate services and applications

▪ Operators will also compete based on active infrastructure to avoid limiting operators’ flexibility with technology choice

▪ QNBN focuses on passive deployment only to de-bottleneck the most costly and challenging to upgrade layer

▪ Focus on passive removes possibility to create a monopoly in retail services

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QNBN will leverage existing infrastructure while speeding up roll-outin new areas

Existing areas with good infrastructure

Existing areas requiring upgrade

Greenfield areas

QNBN plan

▪ QNBN will lease ducts access and take responsibility for rolling out and maintaing fibre infrastructure

▪ Fibre access is then leased on wholesale basis

▪ QNBN will roll-out infrastructure in collaboration with government entities (e.g., Ashgal)

▪ QNBN will invest in new or additional fibre to upgrade areas where fibre does not meet required standards

▪ QNBN will invest and rollout fibre in cooperation with developers, ensuring developments are fibre-ready when complete

Nationwide coverage will be vital to offer a sustainably reasonable wholesale access price across the country

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Substantial progress has been made to set-up the QNBN

Business case and model designed

Various scenarios have been examined to understand

Possible range of wholesale prices

Subsidy required

Total investment costs

Business plan for QNBN developed

Company set-up well under way

QNBN funding approved

Company registered and initial governance struc-ture (board of directors) in place

Initial working crew set up and running

Applied for wholesale license from ictQATAR

Already engaging operators and developers

Engaging operators to discuss

Sharing of fibre both access and backbone infrastructure

Last-mile duct access

Discussions with major developers to deploy fibre in greenfield areas