Qatar has ranked as the world’s second-healthiest telecom market, behind only the UAE, in the inaugural Kearney Global Telecom Health Index, which compares the performance and resilience of telecommunications sectors across 34 markets.
The index builds on Kearney’s 2025 European Telecom Health Index, expanding the benchmark beyond Europe with 14 additional markets including Qatar and the UAE.
Kearney evaluated each market across five dimensions: financial performance, commercial ability, technology deployment, business environment and customer sentiment. The assessment uses 20 metrics drawn from Kearney data, primary consumer research and third-party sources.
Qatar combines strong technology deployment with customer satisfaction
Qatar’s second-place ranking reflects what Kearney describes as a “virtuous cycle” in healthier telecom markets.
In this model, a limited number of national operators can coordinate investment more effectively, helping support stronger networks and better customer experiences. Those outcomes can then improve financial returns, creating more capacity for continued infrastructure investment.
Qatar has two national mobile operators and ranks among the top five markets globally for technology deployment.
It also places second worldwide for customer sentiment, indicating that network investment is being reflected not only in infrastructure quality but also in how customers perceive telecom services.
Market structure matters more than size or wealth alone
One of the index’s broader findings is that telecom-sector health cannot be explained simply by national wealth or market size.
The United States, for example, benefits from high GDP per capita and widespread fibre and 5G availability, but performs less strongly because of weaker customer satisfaction and mixed financial returns.
South Korea and Singapore, both widely regarded as advanced digital and telecom markets, rank only in the second quartile of the index. Kearney attributes this to customer sentiment and returns that are weaker than their technology leadership might suggest.
The findings indicate that technology deployment by itself is not enough to create a healthy telecom market.
Investment conditions emerge as a key differentiator
Rather than recommending a single market structure, Kearney’s research points to the importance of creating conditions that support sustained investment while improving customer outcomes.
That includes the ability of operators to generate sufficient financial returns to fund network upgrades, while maintaining competitive service quality and customer satisfaction.
For Qatar, the combination of a concentrated operator landscape, high technology deployment and strong customer sentiment appears to be producing a more balanced telecom market than in many larger economies.
