Vodafone Qatar, a subsidiary of the UK’s Vodafone, is awaiting approval from the Qatar Financial Markets Authority to launch an IPO, a prerequisite for launching services in the country.

Vodafone Qatar, a subsidiary of the UK’s Vodafone, is awaiting approval from the Qatar Financial Markets Authority to launch an IPO, a prerequisite for launching services in the country. Vodafone Qatar intends to launch GSM mobile services for 1,000 trial users on March 1, 2009. So far though, the company does not have a firm date for an IPO of 40 per cent of its shares. It had earlier announced that it would go ahead with its IPO in February. Meanwhile, the company has stated that its outstanding issues with the state’s current sole operator, Qatar Telecom (Qtel), including interconnection charges, will be resolved by March 2009.