Vodafone Qatar Scraps Bid For Broadband Firm

Vodafone Qatar has scrapped its bid to buy state-owned wholesale Internet provider Qatar National Broadband Network (QNBN), the country’s No.2 mobile operator by subscribers said on Sunday.

In October, Vodafone Qatar announced it had reached a non-binding agreement to buy QNBN, pending regulatory and other approvals.

Vodafone Qatar did not explicitly state why the deal had failed in a bourse statement, but said that “following a due diligence and negotiation process, the parties have determined not to proceed with the transaction”.

QNBN, which began rolling out a fibre network across Qatar in 2012 and expects to complete construction within three years, has contracts with Vodafone Qatar and former telecom monopoly Ooredoo to provide wholesale broadband capacity.

Such a strategy was seen by analysts as a means to avoid the two rival operators unneccessarily duplicating infrastructure, with a single broadband network used by both in much of the country.

Vodafone Qatar had a 34 percent of Qatar’s mobile subscribers as of Sept. 30, according to its financial results.