THE CHALLENGE

Vodafone Qatar CEO Kyle Whitehill reveals his struggle to bring competition to the Qatari telecom market and what really happened with the QNBN deal.

Vodafone’s uphill battle for Qatar’s mobile market

When Kyle Whitehill took up the reins of Vodafone Qatar in April 2013, he knew he had three key commitments to make good on.

The first was to make a company that people could be proud of. The second commitment was to deliver a clear return to shareholders. And finally, to bring competition to the marketplace across all segments. As the executive admits in a candid interview with Gulf Business, arguably all but the last have been achieved even as the firm has faced off with an incumbent the size of Ooredoo. “When you look at two player markets your immediate assumption is that it should be much easier. In my experience, its significantly tougher because you don’t have anyone else to look at.”

Indeed, the Scot’s current market draws more parallels with his favourite team Glasgow Rangers, jostling with Celtic during its prime, than the six and 14 player competition he took on as CEO of Vodafone Ghana and COO of Vodafone India previously.

“Every single day we look at Ooredoo and every single day Ooredoo looks at us. Everything you do has a direct impact on the other operator. So you have to be very clear about your strategy.”

MAKING A MARK ON MOBILE

The struggle Whitehill has faced in challenging Ooredoo’s monopoly is clear in his voice as he describes some of the obtacles in expanding the telco’s mobile network, which launched in 2009.

This began with the telco being excluded from around 500 legacy sites in its sharing agreement, he says, while planning permission to build new sites was difficult to come by. “We’ve been excluded from quite a few sites where strategically it’s important for us to have some physical presence. That’s where we’ve had a little bit of frustration. You want competition, so give us full access to network coverage.”

Equally, he argues, that while the telecom regulator tries to facilitate