Qatar has among the highest broadband penetration rates in the world, but it lags significantly behind leading nations in download speeds, with current maximum speeds of only 8 Mbit/s. In 2011, the Qatari government established the QNBN with a mandate to roll out a nationwide, open-access, high-speed broadband FTTH network. QNBN won a 25-year licence from the Telecom Regulatory Authority to carry out Qatar’s ambitious digital plans, which were summarized under the Qatar ICT Strategy 2015 and further articulated through the Qatar National Vision 2030. The aim was to become one of the most well-connected countries on Earth. The plan called for the wholesale QNBN network to have nationwide fibre coverage. In 2012, Ericsson was selected by QNBN to deploy the network, with the government retaining ownership and responsibility for managing and running it – thus making QNBN a public DBO. The network was expected to cover 95 per cent of the households in Qatar, as well as 100 per cent of the business establishments in Doha, by 2015, equating to approximately 260 000 connections69. QNBN was to focus solely on the deployment of a passive network, leveraging existing and new infrastructure in Qatar to maximize efficiency and cost-effectiveness.According to QNBN, typical investors would not be attracted to passive infrastructure because the return on investment is not that high. As a result, the government invested some USD 500 million in capital to overcome this expected bottleneck. In 2011, QNBN signed an Infrastructure Access Agreement (IAA) with service provider Qtel to reduce its civil infrastructure building costs. Under the agreement, Qtel would supply QNBN with access to ducts and other passive infrastructure over the next 20 years70. However, Ooredoo, which dominates the fixed broadband market, appeared to be aggressively laying fibre in an effort to compete with QNBN’s fibre roll-out. In addition, Ooredoo seemed to not be giving QNBN access to its fibre, despite the regulator’s attempts to force Ooredoo to do so. Ooredoo’s lack of cooperation and roll-out delays hindered the government’s plans for nationwide fibre coverage by 2015.QNBN began to roll out fibre infrastructure in Barwa City and the Barwa Commercial Avenue area in August 2012. But it was not until 2013 that it announced the opening of two central offices to serve 30 000 businesses and residences in the West Bay area (the business district) of Doha. The delay was partly caused by operational complexities in the network roll-out – in particular when re-using Ooredoo’s civil infrastructure. In 2012 QNBN signed an interim wholesale agreement enabling Vodafone Qatar71 to use the QNBN network to deliver its retail services. Vodafone Qatar has deployed very limited fixed infrastructure to date, and it relied on QNBN’s network outside its original local market. QNBN’s slow growth, however, affected Vodafone, giving it a choice of whether to take further potential action such as lobbying the regulator to force Ooredoo to give access to passive infrastructure. In the meantime, QNBN connected a number of government ministries through point-to-point fibre connectivity, enabling the ministries to benefit from secure high-speed broadband networks.In 2014, Vodafone Qatar reached a non-binding agreement to buy 100 per cent of QNBN for QAR 210 million (USD 58 million)72.73However, this deal was scrapped following a due-diligence and negotiation process and QNBN has continued with its build-out strategy.1.4 PPP implementation strategies Operators and governments (and, in some cases, regulators) still use the PPP investment strategies and models descibed in the previous section to finance investment in broadband networks, particularly where government intervention is required. In implementing national broadband PPP projects that include open-access initiatives, however, governments need to take into account several considerations (see Table 1.7). Table 1.7: Requirements for governments to foster and secure investment • Consider local market conditions such as the level of Internet maturity, operator ownership structures and the regulatory and market structure.• Have realistic and well-defined broadband objectives with speed and coverage targets.18 Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016