Qatar's Qtel launches camera phone service

While conservative Saudi Arabia has banned camera phones, the exclusive telecommunications provider in the more liberal Gulf state of Qatar is heralding the introduction of GSM camera phones in that country.

Yesterday Qtel debuted "MMS snap n' send" for customers with contracts and notd that pre-paid customers would be able to have camera phone service later this year.

The camera phone service will support a variety of handsets, although Qtel customers need to ensure the phones are provisioned for camera phone service. Nokia and Samsung were mentioned in the press release, and will be participating in camera phone demonstrations around the country.

Training dealers about MMS

It appears that camera phones have been sold in Qatar, but the service hasn't been available until now. Qtel also conducted a trial of camera phone service before it was officially launch.

Qtel has been training its cellular retailers about MMS and how to provision handsets, according to an article in The Peninsula. The telecommunications company held a two-day dealer training seminar last month and 165 people representing 108 retailers atended.

Participants were trained to provision MMS phones from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Alcatel, LG and Pantech, the article says.

Not cheap

The camera phone service is expensive, based upon what I read in the press release. The cost is 100 Qatari riyals -- $27 -- per month for unlimited use, although there isn't any "connection fee" that I assume means no airtime charge. This is an introductory price and it could change.

I don't know if there are any other charges or any cheaper plan. Perhaps there's a cheaper alternative, such as a per-MMS charge that's available from many other cellular operators.

Update: I just read that Qtel will introduce a new billing system that will enable per-MMS billing later this year.

MMS compatibility

The press release notes that sending messages to international destinations and MMS roaming will be available in 2005.

I assume that means the ability to transmit MMS photos handset-to-handset to overseas cellular subscribers as well as Qatari subscribers being able to send photos when they are out of the country.

Comments

[Dj]

Hi! I'm planning on moving to Qatar and I'm wondering what cellular phone to buy that I can use there...should it be tri-band or quad-band? Thanks. Regards!