Q-Post signs e-voucher vending machine deal

Q-POST yesterday signed a contract with a local firm for setting up point of sale (PoS) terminals and vending machines at the premises of its 30 odd branches throughout Qatar.

As per the terms of the contract, the local company, Starlink, will supply PoS terminals and vending machines to the postal corporation for issuing e-vouchers which would eventually replace scratch cards, now issued by Qtel to its customers.

The facility covered under the scheme includes recharging of Qtel’s Hala card, WiFi, Ebhar and Q-Card.

Chairman of the Q-Post Ali Mohamed al-Ali said the move would help Qtel save considerable amount of money incurred for making scratch cards. “The eco-friendly and environment-friendly cards would ensure that the company spent less money to provide telecom cards to its customers.”

The chairman said a number of residents of Qatar used more than one mobile connection these days and for such customers too the new facility offered convenience for recharging their connections.

The new facility would be installed at the main office of the General Post Office and Q-Post branches in the next few days and customers would be able to recharge their connections from those points. The customer only requires to make payment at the counters and in no time, e-vouchers, with secret number, would be issued, the chairman said.

Al-Ali said the one-stop shop concept of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) was becoming popular and Qatar was fast emerging as a role model for many others.

“In post offices in Qatar, a number of facilities such as e-government terminals, issuing of health card and driving licence, counters to pay electricity and water bills, and banking among others are provided,” he pointed out.

Later, explaining the details of the vending machines, Starlink CEO Alan Sinfield said it would be installed near post boxes at each post office as the machine should be accessible to customers throughout the day.

“Customers would be able to recharge their coupons round-the-clock at post offices, after making the payment at the machine,” he said.

Its functioning would be more or less similar to those of ATM terminals, he said.
Sinfield described this as the first step towards a paperless system to recharging telecom coupons.

Nabil A R Abu Issa, executive director, Starlink, and Q-Post IT manager George Scott Campbell were also present.