Virgin Galactic to launch tourism and scientific research space flights from the United Arab Emirates capital. In July 2011, Aabar invested a further to develop a program to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit, raising their equity share to 37.8%. Virgin announced in June 2014 that they were in talks with Google about the injection of capital to fund both development and operations. The New Mexico government has invested approaching $200m (£121m) in the Spaceport America facility, for which Virgin Galactic is the anchor tenant; other commercial space companies also use the site. In February 2007, Virgin announced that they had
Virgin Mobile in the region, with various newspapers referring to the operation as an MVNO. Initially the claim was rejected by Qtel and Qatar's telecom regulator, ictQatar, the local telecommunications authority reiterating that its only a branding agreement. However, on 6 June 2010, The Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR), instructed Qtel to close all the Qtel Virgin Mobile-branded services in the State of Qatar. ictQATAR notification stated that all Virgin Mobile-branded SIM cards should be deactivated by 4 August 2010. The decision noted that "Qtel had engaged in anti-competitive conduct and an abuse of [its dominant position]", and instructed