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Benin: Government to open mobile sector Print E-mail
Friday, 03 August 2007

Benin’s telecommunications regulator, the Transitional Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ATRPT), will open the country’s GSM mobile sector to interested investors.

An ATRPT statement said the government is calling on all interested investors to apply for licenses to commence operations immediately. This step was taken as a result of the situation created by the July 12 suspension of the operating licenses of Areeba and Telecel. The operators say that they simply changed their names while the government has maintained that the transactions conducted by the two companies involved the unlawful sale of operating licenses. According to laws governing the telecommunications sector in the country, such a move must be sanctioned by the ATRPT.

Following the suspension of the two companies, only Libercom and Bell Benin remain operational. The two operators lack the capacity to absorb the nearly 900,000 subscribers who have been left without mobile service after Areeba and Telecel were suspended. Companies that have shown interest in Benin's GSM sector include Nigeria’s Globacom, which says it is prepared to abide by new regulations requiring the payment of US$ 62.7 million for a ten year mobile license.

Source: Xinhua - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.