Ooredoo Group is Qatar’s national telecommunications company and one of the largest telecommunications operators in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, serving over 100 million customers across its operating markets. Listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange with significant government-linked shareholding, Ooredoo has evolved from a domestic fixed-line monopoly into a multinational digital communications group that provides mobile, broadband, enterprise, and digital services across multiple jurisdictions.
Domestic Operations
Ooredoo Qatar, the group’s domestic operating company, provides mobile, fixed-line, broadband, and enterprise telecommunications services throughout Qatar. As the legacy national operator, Ooredoo maintains the most extensive fixed and wireless network infrastructure in the country, including comprehensive 5G coverage across major urban areas. The company competes with Vodafone Qatar in the domestic market, a competitive dynamic introduced by the government in 2009 to improve service quality and pricing.
The domestic operation generates a disproportionate share of Ooredoo Group’s profitability, reflecting the high average revenue per user in Qatar’s affluent market and the company’s infrastructure advantages as the incumbent operator. Ooredoo Qatar’s network investments, including fiber-to-the-home deployment and 5G rollout, position the company as the backbone of Qatar’s digital infrastructure.
International Operations
Ooredoo Group’s international portfolio spans operations in Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Myanmar, Oman, Palestine, Tunisia, Indonesia, and the Maldives. These markets vary significantly in economic development, competitive intensity, and regulatory environment, creating a diversified revenue base with varying growth characteristics. The Indonesian operation, through Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (following the 2022 merger with Hutchison’s Indonesian mobile business), is among the largest in the portfolio by subscriber count, operating in the world’s fourth most populous country.
The international portfolio has been subject to periodic strategic review, with disposals and restructurings reflecting the group’s evolving assessment of where capital is best deployed. The merger in Indonesia exemplified a strategic consolidation approach designed to achieve the scale necessary for competitive viability in a price-sensitive mass market.
Digital Transformation
Ooredoo has invested in digital services beyond traditional voice and data connectivity. The group’s digital platforms include mobile financial services, content delivery, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and Internet of Things solutions for enterprise customers. These investments reflect the broader industry transition from connectivity-as-utility toward digital services-as-platform, a transformation that the group views as essential to long-term revenue growth.
In Qatar, Ooredoo’s enterprise division provides digital infrastructure and managed services to government entities, QatarEnergy, and other major domestic institutions. The company’s role as a digital services provider to the state positions it at the center of Qatar’s digitalization ambitions.
Role in Qatar National Vision 2030
Ooredoo’s contribution to QNV 2030 operates across the economic and human development pillars. The company provides the digital connectivity infrastructure upon which knowledge economy activities, e-government services, smart city applications, and digital commerce depend. Qatar’s diversification objectives are unachievable without world-class telecommunications and digital infrastructure, and Ooredoo is the principal provider of that infrastructure.
The group’s international operations contribute to economic diversification by generating revenue from non-hydrocarbon sources and non-Qatari markets. Ooredoo’s dividend payments to its government-linked shareholders represent a return on sovereign investment in the telecommunications sector.
Ooredoo also contributes to human development through employment of Qatari nationals in technical, commercial, and management roles, and through its support for digital literacy and education initiatives within the community.
Strategic Outlook
Ooredoo Group faces the industry-wide challenges of commoditized connectivity, capital-intensive network upgrades, and the need to monetize digital services at scale. The group’s strategic priorities include maximizing the value of its international portfolio, accelerating digital service revenue growth, and maintaining network leadership in the Qatari domestic market. As Qatar’s economy digitizes, Ooredoo’s role as the national digital infrastructure provider will become increasingly central to the country’s development trajectory.