QITCOM 2011 Presentation: Qatar National Broadband Network Presenter: Mr. Ahmed Al Mislimani - Representative, Q.NBN

1. Building cutting edge telecom
infrastructure in Qatar
24 May, 2011
QITCOM presentation

2. | 1
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)
Human
Development
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

3. | 2
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

4. | 3
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
ICT
for
government
and
society
ICT
for
economic
development
Foundations
for
sustainability

5. | 4
ICT initiatives must be supported by a state of the art Telecom
infrastructure – 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

6. | 5
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
3
3
3
2
1
1
2
2
2
2
3
3
5
8
8
12
12
13
21
34
35
45
Italy
Romania
Russia
Netherlands
Finland
Singapore
Slovakia
Estonia
USA
Denmark
Bulgaria
Slovenia
Norway
Portugal
Lithuania
Taiwan
Hong Kong
Japan
UAE
South Korea 53
Qatar (aspiration) >90
Qatar (2010) <1
Czech
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

7. | 6
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/
Multiroo
m
Remote Computation
Technologies
Qatar
Today
SOURCE: Corporate Angels

8. | 7
…and support development of data-based services including
Cloud 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

9. | 8
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

10. | 9
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

11. | 10
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

12. | 11
QNBN will leverage existing infrastructure while speeding up roll-out
in 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

13. | 12
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