Etisalat Renews Talks to Enter the Iraq Mobile Market

Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) is reported to be in talks to acquire an Iraqi mobile operator by the end of this year. Etisalat's Chief Operating Officer Ahmad Julfar told the Reuters news agency that the company is in talks with a small operator with a limited coverage area, but declined to name the company.

 "Iraq has a lot of potential because of the unavailability of fixed-line telephones because of war conditions," Julfar told Reuters, without giving further details.

Rumours that Etisalat was seeking to enter the Iraqi market originally surfaced earlier this year, when the company was said to be in talks with an unnamed Kurdish operator - almost certainly Korek Telecom, being the only independent operator in the country which Etisalat could hope to enter into a partnership with.

The country has three operators, Zain, Asiacell  and Korek Telecom.

Asiacell is actually a consortium is comprised of Asiacell Iraq - the earlier license holder, Qatar's Qtel  and investment banking group, MerchantBridge.

Orascom owned the Iraqna network, but failed to get an operating license in the last round of auctions and had tried to set up a joint venture with Korek Telecom but that fell apart. The break-down has left Korek with a national license, but coverage which is limited to mainly the Northern region of the country. An expansion to national coverage would need the financial muscle of an outside partner.

Iraqna was later sold to Zain.

On the web: Reuters

Posted to the site on 19th September 2008