ASIF IQBAL

DOHA BARWA Real Estate has entered into agreement with the Qatar National Broadband Network (QBBN) for the extension of optical fibre cables to Barwa’s projects in Al Khor and Barwa Al Baraha.

The agreement was signed by Barwa Real Estate Deputy Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Abdulla al Abdulla and QBBN Chief Executive Officer for Technology Ahmad Salman al Sulaiti.

The agreement allows linking and connecting residential and commercial units of Barwa projects to the national broadband network. It is a continuation of the framework agreement which was signed between the companies in July 2011. It comes as part of both companies’ support to government plans to establish a national network of optical fibre broadband.

The new network to be built by QNBN will accelerate the process of providing optical fibres to residential and commercial areas in the country and accordingly enable consumers to access the next generation of broadband network services such as Internet protocol television (IPTV) in addition to enabling them to choose the most suitable services from a variety of options.

According to the agreement, the QNBN will supervise the process of leasing the service to telecom service providers while Barwa will be able to use part of the network capacity to offer a range of services, other than telecommunications services, to its tenants.

In his remarks, Abdulla said, “The agreement comes as part of the framework agreement signed with QNBN earlier to provide the best information and telecommunication technology services to the tenants in our projects and achieve the national objective of providing the needed coverage for all residences, companies and government agencies by 2015.” Sulaiti said, “This agreement is the result of the mutual trust between both parties and the result of the accomplishments made through Barwa City project.

We are committed to providing Barwa projects with the highest level of quality and efficiency to add value to the consumers in those projects.”