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Vodafone Qatar abandons state broadband firm acquisition

Vodafone Qatar has reneged on its non-binding agreement to buy the country’s fixed broadband operator, Qatar National Broadband Network (QNBN).

The initial non-binding agreement was originally announced in October, and would have seen Vodafone Qatar acquire QNBN for $57 million.

The second-placed Qatari operator did not confirm a concrete reason for dropping the deal, only saying that “following a due diligence and negotiation process, the parties have determined not to proceed with the transaction”.

Currently deploying a nationwide fibre network, QNBN has pre-existing contracts with both Qatari operators (Vodafone and Ooredoo) to provide wholesale broadband capacity.

Vodafone Qatar is the smaller of Qatar’s 2 operators, with 1.4 million mobile connections at the end of Q2 2014. This figure is up 16% on the same period last year.

 



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