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State-owned Qatar National Broadband Network (QNBN) said the fibre optic technology it has rolled out for government entities and the private sector is safe from any form of cyber security threat.
“QNBN is currently implementing Phase 1 of the Government Network (GN) project, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (ictQatar) in March 2014,” business development manager Mohamed al-Yafei told Gulf Times at Qitcom 2014 yesterday.
The GN project aims to roll out “dark fibre” (passive fibre optic connections that are not yet utilised by a service provider or end user) for both governmental agencies and private sector entities.
Al-Yafei noted that once the dark fibre is utilised by a particular end user, the “active component” or the content passes through “dedicated” fibre optic cables that are managed and fully-controlled by the end user.
“The main advantage of dark fibre is that it is a ‘dedicated fibre.’ Nobody can use it except the government agency itself. Even QNBN cannot see the active component, which is why classified data is 100% guaranteed to be safe and secured from any cyber threat,” al-Yafei said.
The official said fibre is up to 10 times faster than standard broadband and can download 200MB worth of files in one minute or it can upload 30 photos to a website in 25 seconds.
Aside from government and private sector use, al-Yafei said QNBN’s fibre optic infrastructure would also benefit homes, the environment, and sectors in health, education, and public safety.
In a recent statement, QNBN chief executive officer Mohamed al-Mannai said Qatar ranks as the highest among Arab nations in terms of ICT as reported by the Network Readiness Index commissioned by the World Economic Forum.
Al-Mannai said the shift towards a digital knowledge economy is creating immense opportunities for all sectors of society. He also noted that the QNBN fibre optic broadband infrastructure “is critical to ensuring sustainable national growth.”
In 2012, al-Mannai announced QNBN’s bid to install world-class fibre optic broadband network in Qatar at an estimated $500mn by 2015.
The move is part of QNBN’s mandate to enable accessible high-speed communications using cutting edge fibre optic technology in line with the Qatar ICT Strategy 2015.
Al-Mannai said by next year, QNBN should have covered 95% of households in Qatar and 100% of business establishments in Doha, which accounts for 300,000 connections by 2015.
