Senior representatives from Qtel Group and RIM met in Doha this week to discuss opportunities to promote new smartphone technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC) and innovative new BlackBerry subscription services to Qtel customers.

Dr Nasser Marafih, CEO of the Qtel Group, met with Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM; Patrick Spence, managing director, global sales and regional marketing, RIM; and Sandeep Saihgal, managing director, Middle East, RIM, to discuss the expanding global relationship between the two companies.

In recent months, Qtel Group companies including Nedjma Algeria, AsiaCell Iraq and Wataniya in the Maldives have launched BlackBerry services, joining operations from Qtel Qatar, Wataniya Kuwait, Nawras Oman and Indosat Indonesia, a statement from the telecommunications provider said.

Marafih said: “Our partnership with RIM enables one of the central strands of the Qtel group strategy, which is to drive innovation throughout our markets, and also allow us to support customer choice. BlackBerry services have made a major difference to our customers in a diverse range of Asian and Middle Eastern markets, and we intend to remain at the cutting-edge in the months and years ahead.”

“We are committed to a strong partnership with the Qtel Group across their global portfolio of operating companies. Our close collaboration aims to create value-added services for the group and give their customers access to the latest smartphone technologies and subscription services,” Balsillie added.

In early 2011, Qtel and RIM collaborated in the first innovation symposium of its kind held in the region, which helped define the roadmap for the partnership between the companies throughout 2011.

Both companies also recently announced the introduction of a portfolio of new BlackBerry smartphones, including the BlackBerry Bold0 9900, BlackBerry Torch 9810 and BlackBerry Torch 9860, the statement said.

The new smartphones are based on the next-generation BlackBerry 7 Operating System (OS), which introduces substantial overall performance enhancements including a next generation BlackBerry browser with a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry, it said. – TradeArabia News Service