Gulf Times

Doha, July 24: QTEL’S pre-paid and post-paid customers may soon be able to access mobile Internet service without having to regularly subscribe to it.

Qtel is working on a platform that enables mobile customers with net-enabled handsets to hook on to the Internet whenever they want. This platform is likely to be ready before the year-end, it is learnt.

Currently, Qtel’s mobile users have to subscribe to Mobinet, a service that allows them to check or send e-mail or surf the Internet.

Mobinet, which is a high-speed service, allows subscribers to surf the Internet, check e-mail, receive news alerts, live sports, stock prices on their mobile handsets.

Mobinet users can also establish an Internet connection between their handsets and laptop/PC.

Mobinet is offered to Qtel customers at a monthly rental of QR20, which includes a free bundled volume of 2Mb.

Customers will have access to the Internet through the new platform Qtel is working on. This means Mobinet will not be the only corridor to gain access to the Internet.

“Customers will be paying user charges which is now the case with dialup Internet through the fixed line,” they said.

While the call credit of pre-paid users will be deducted immediately after they use the mobile Internet service, post-paid users will be billed later.

Qtel has over 810,000 mobile customers now of whom 640,000 are pre-paid users.

By offering Internet facility to mobile customers without the normal subscription, Qtel is trying to rope in thousands of customers. The only requirement for a mobile Internet access is a net-enabled handset. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) enabled mobile phones can hook on to the Internet.

WAP offers the ability to connect to the Internet from the mobile phone. With the phone, the user connects to the Internet and can then surf any WAP enabled sites.