Sudan Opens The Bidding For New Mobile Network

25 July 2002 – On Tuesday, Sudan initiated the tender for a second mobile network according to an Associated Press report. The second network will provide competition for the incumbent, the Sudanese Telecommunications Company.

On Tuesday, Sudan’s Information and Communications Minister Maghdi Ibrahim said the new network will begin operating early in 2003.

Sudan’s first mobile phone operator, Sudatel, launched in 1999 and now has a mobile network that covers 17 major cities in Sudan and serves 130,000 customers.

Sudatel’s general manager, Abdel Aziz Othman, welcomed the latest tender, telling reporters that this would increase Sudan’s mobile phone penetration. Sudatel was privatised in 1993, although the government still owns a majority of the company.