Qtel, a top telecom service provider in Qatar, has completed the first pilot project for Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Internet service, which will deliver the fastest-ever broadband speeds across the country.

The pilot project, which provided the service in partnership with developers in the Mesaieed and West Bay Lagoon areas of Qatar, is now fully-functional, with customers enjoying Internet speeds of up to 50 Mbps.

A capacity to upgrade to 100 Mbps will soon become available, a statement said.

Having completed this pilot stage, Qtel is now finalising a plan for national availability of FTTH services across Qatar. The delivery of FTTH will play a key role in making Qatar one of the most connected countries in the region.

Fibre to the Home is a high-level technology that deploys optical fibres to provide Internet, phone and digital television directly to people’s homes.

As part of the pilot project, Qtel has also developed a “Fibre to the Building” service, which will provide fibre to apartment blocks in Qatar which can be offered as a central service for all residents.

“Qtel offers the most reliable network in Qatar and we aim to build on this position by embracing next generation technologies like FTTH,” said Khalil Al-Emadi, executive director, Networks, Qtel.

“With the success of this pilot project and the positive feedback we have received from partners and customers in the developed areas, we are now positioned to start a large scale rollout,” he added.

Qtel is working with Huawei Technologies, a leader in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions, to develop Qatar’s first FTTH network. – TradeArabia News Service