Asia-Cell, the consortium lead by Kuwait's Wataniya Telecom, Asia-Cell Telecommunications and United Gulf Bank of Bahrain, has formally signed its license for mobile operations in Northern Iraq. The licence, awarded by the Iraqi Ministry of Telecommunications on 7 October 2003, appoints Asia-Cell to provide GSM services to Iraq's Northern region for the first year and to expand to the rest of Iraq in the second year.
Initial services are already available in Sulaymaniya. Last week, Wataniya launched commercial services in Kirkuk and within two weeks Mosul will follow. Asia-Cell customers will be able to enjoy national mobile telecommunication in the central and southern regions of Iraq using their Asia-Cell lines in the future. Asia-Cell will be expanding its network coverage ahead of its license obligations to provide much needed telecom services to the people of Iraq.
"We are very happy to mark the official start of the Northern Iraq license, as it is a vital step in the reconstruction of Iraqi telecommunications." said Faisal Al- Ayyar, Chairman, Wataniya Telecom. "We are committed to take an active role in bringing Iraq's mobile telecommunication to international standard."
Rapid mobile adoption is predicted, with an estimated 500,000 new customers expected to take-up new lines in the first year of operation. The consortium is now able to provide the much-needed services immediately due to the existing network infrastructure of its local partner, Asia-Cell Telecom. Asia-Cell Telecom has already an active subscriber-base of well over 70,000 customers. The network infrastructure has been designed to provide network expansion for up to 400,000 subscribers in the North quickly and without compromise on the stability of services."
Posted to the site on 5th January 2004
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/10360.php