Eleven Bid for Egyptian GSM License

Egypt's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) has confirmed that eleven companies have submitted bids for the country's 3rd GSM operating license. A high-level committee was formed by the NTRA to undertake the technical evaluation of the bids. This committee is composed of experts from the Ministries of Investment and Finance, Administrative Control agencies, academia, State Council in addition to experts from NTRA.

The bids were submitted by the following companies and consortia:

• Telecom Egypt and Telecom Italia
• Etisalat of UAE, Egypt Post, National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Commercial International Bank (CIB)
• MTC of Kuwait and Egyptian Financial Group (EFG-Hermes)
• MTS of Russia and TeleTech of Egypt
• TurkCell of Turkey, Banque Misr of Egypt and Amwal from the Gulf
• TeleNor of Norway and National Telecom Company (NTC) of Egypt
• Wataneyia International of Kuwait, Univest, National Bank for Development of Egypt, and Aman trading
• Qtel of Qatar, and Naaem Group, and Singapore Tech Telemedia
• Saudi Telecom Company, Telecom Malaysia and Pico Telecom
• EMAC For Information Systems (Kharafy group) and Reliance of India
• MTN of South Africa and Raya Holding of Egypt

"Eleven consortia from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East in partnerships with Egyptian companies and institutions have come forward and submitted bids." said the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt, Dr. Tarek Kamel. "This response is a true recognition from the international community for the reforms that Egypt has taken over the course of the past few years resulting in a stable economy, and their confidence in making further investments in Egypt; and more specifically in the viable and high growth ICT sector." The Minister also added that such a response results from trust of investors in the neutrality and transparency through which ICT sector in Egypt is being governed; as the abovementioned bidders are almost all the competent entities who purchased the bidding documents.

"We are committed to continue this transparency and neutrality throughout the whole reform process" he added."

Posted to the site on 9th May 2006