Qatar's telecom regulator ictQATAR today announced that Vodafone and its local partner the Qatar Foundation Consortium had won the second mobile telecommunications license in the country, with service expected to launch in 2008.

"Other consortia which included Verizon Communications, AT&T Inc, the UAE's Etilisat and Kuwait's MTC lost out to Vodafone and its Qatar Foundation Consortium partners for the licence which will open up Qatar's QTEL monopoly to competition," writes Thomson Financial's Kathy Sandler.

"This is an important milestone in the liberalization of the telecommunications market in Qatar," says ictQATAR Secretary General Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber. "The introduction of competition will benefit the people and economy of Qatar."

More here from Reuters ... more here from MarketWatch ... more here from Telecompaper ... and the press release is here.