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Egypt: Third mobile license to be auctioned in July Print E-mail
Wednesday, 19 April 2006

Bidding for Egypt's third mobile license will start in July at US$434 million, a Communications Ministry representative said. Amr Badawi, senior adviser to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said that the bidder would be judged on the speed at which they could set up the network, adding that some bidders had pledged six months.


 

The Government said 21 companies purchased the prospectus for the license by the April 3 deadline. Badawi predicted the number of serious bidders would be lower as companies would associate to strengthen their bids. The deadline for bidding is May 4. Badawi said bids with Egyptian partners would be preferred.

"There will be priority for those companies that bid in partnership with an Egyptian company ... It does not matter if the (Egyptian) company is medium sized or large," Badawi said.

The license would cost the owner at least a basic fee of US$ 3.9 million per year, plus a percentage of revenues from the second year onwards, starting at 3%.

Vodafone Egypt and MobiNil operate Egypt's two existing mobile networks. They had nearly 13 million subscribers at the end of December 2005. Egypt has over 73 million people.

Operators that have expressed interest in the license include Telecom Italia, Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co., Emirates Telecommunications Corp. and Turkcell. Fixed line operator Telecom Egypt and Norway's Telnor have also said they are considering bidding.

Source: Reuters - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News