Tunisia to Offer 3rd Mobile Phone License

North Africa's Tunisia is to launch a tender for a license to provide both landline and mobile services - with tenders due by May next year.

"In order to open up the telecoms sector, Tunisia's telecoms ministry has decided to award, via an international auction, a licence to install and exploit a public telecoms network and provide fixed-line phone and 2G and 3G mobile phone services," Tunisia's Ministry of Technologies and Communication said in a statement.

There are currently two telecoms operators in the country - the state controlled Tunisie Telcom which is the sole landline operator, and Tunisiana, which operates a mobile phone network.

It is not immediately clear if Tunisiana will be offered a landline license, otherwise it would be commercially at a disadvantage to the other two operators. Egypt's Orascom Telecom, which controls Tunisiana recently shut down its landline operations in neighbouring Algeria citing obstruction from the dominant telco and government.

Figures from the Mobile World analysts show that Tunisie Telcom ended the first half of this year with some 4.23 million customers, compared to 3.9 million for Tunisiana. Statistics from the government claim that the country has around 1.26 million landline users.

On the web: Mobile World - Ministry of Technologies and Communication

Posted to the site on 5th December 2008