Qatar Telecom (Qtel) said it has doubled the broadband speed for its customers, free of charge, as part of its major Internet upgrade.

The enhanced speeds are among the first benefits realized through Qtel’s major Internet upgrade, which began on April 1, 2009, and were instantly made available for ADSL and Mozaic TV+ customers across the country, said a Qtel statement.

With the speed upgrade program, customers currently enjoying speeds of 512 Kbps can migrate to 1 Mbps without any additional charges, retaining the competitive price of QR200 ($55) a month.

This same speed upgrade is being made available for customers of Mozaic TV+, the innovative “triple play” service, which will now come with 1 Mbps as standard, the statement added.

Customers using the higher 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps service can move up to the 2Mbps or the new 4 Mbps service – without additional charges.

Over time, Qtel will phase out the 512 Kbps service, and deliver 1 Mbps high speed Internet as standard. Customers will be able to deploy the 1 Mbps for QR200, 2 Mbps for QR 300, and 4 Mbps for QR 400, it said.

The initiative has been developed to deliver twice the value at no extra cost for Qtel customers, enabling them to enjoy the benefits of enhanced technology and Qtel’s ongoing investment in a world-class Internet infrastructure, under the “Broadband Qatar” strategy.

New research from ictQatar, announced yesterday, reveals that Qatar has made significant strides in IT adoption in recent years, with mobile penetration exceeding 120 per cent, and Internet penetration reaching 63 per cent, with over 90 per cent of businesses with more than 10 employees connected to the Internet.

Such significant progress has been built upon a framework of long-term investment and development.

Adel Al Mutawa, executive director, Group Communications, Qtel, said: "We are pleased to deliver the first fruit of the major Internet upgrade project to our customers across Qatar."

"At a time when people are more conscious about their expenses, we believe that this free enhancement will be warmly welcomed by customers across Qatar."

"In particular, we have made sure to include Mozaic TV+ customers in this upgrade, so that they benefit from faster Internet speeds for free alongside their great choice of digital television programming."

"We are also looking to make sure that the content available within Qatar is family-friendly and of exceptional quality, through partnerships with leading providers and the use of advanced technology," he added.

Qtel has a strong track record of providing Internet upgrades for ADSL customers, having previously doubled Internet speeds for free in April 2005.

Through consistently enhancing the speed and quality of Broadband performance, the company believes it can make a measurable contribution to the range of entertainment and educational opportunities for its customers.

The process of upgrading Qatar’s network has been a challenging one, including the development of additional international bandwidth, significant network upgrades and upgrades for access ports across the country.

Khalil Al-Emadi, executive director networks, Qtel, explains: "Our network strategy involves the deployment of highly advanced technology in partnership with some of the leading providers in the world."

"In this instance, we have worked hard to ensure that the infrastructure is in place that will enable as many customers as possible to smoothly migrate to faster speeds."

"There were three main stages to this Internet upgrade project. The first was the development of more international bandwidth."

As more and more customers start using bandwidth, and as they deploy applications that require more bandwidth, such as video on demand and peer-to-peer application sharing, there are greater demands on the network. We are investing in intern