AFK Sistema Mulls Bidding For Iraqi Mobile License-Report

MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- Russian financial-industrial holding AFK Sistema is looking for a partner to bid jointly for a mobile phone license in Iraq, telecommunications research agency ComNews reported Wednesday.

Iraqi authorities said earlier that they plan to issue four new mobile licenses, three of which will replace ones that expire on June 30. The new licenses will cover all the country and be valid for 15 years.

"It isn't wise to enter such markets as Iraq on one's own, so we are currently looking for an influential partner in that region to create a consortium with," Vladislav Vasin, deputy head of Sistema Telecom said, as quoted by ComNews.

Vasin said that he expects the existing three operators to win the tenders for the new licenses, but hopes Sistema's consortium will receive the fourth license.

The companies that already operate there are Egypt's Orascom Telecom Holding, Atheer Telecom Iraq, co-owned by Vodafone Group PLC and Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications and Asiacell GSM.

The successful bidders will have to comply with strict rules, pay for the licenses and make payments every year to the state. However, the opportunities are quite vast because mobile penetration is only 15% to 20% and fixed-line networks were largely destroyed during the war, ComNews said.

Company Web site: http://www.comnews.ru

-By Anna Ivanova-Galitsina, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 974 80 55; anna.galitsina@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 19th April 2006