Lebanon's Telecommunication Minister, Jebran Bassil has confirmed that he plans to reduce call charges on the two GSM networks in the country prior to a long planned and often delayed privatisation. The two networks are owned by the government, but operated by MTC Touch and Alfa on its behalf.
The government has long planned to sell off the networks to private owners, but political turmoil in the country keeps delaying the process. Speaking to reporters, the Minister said that he plans to negotiate a contract extension with the two companies to extend their franchise which expires in November. It can be presumed from that statement that the privatisation has been further delayed again and should not be expected until next year at the earliest.
Lebanon has two operators which were originally set up under a 10-year Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) agreement, but back in June 2001, the government controversially cancelled the BOT licenses held by LibanCell and Cellis which were not due to expire until 2004. The government then invited bidders to manage the networks on its behalf, and the concession was eventually awarded to Zain and Alfa.
A plan to sell the networks for around US$3 billion each has been on and off for over a year.
The Minister also confirmed that tariffs - reported to be some of the highest in the world - would be reduced. He said that the high call costs are an effective tax on consumers and the government shouldn't be relying so heavily on them in the future. The government earns on average US$1.3 billion a year from the phone networks - equivalent to some 27% of its total tax income.
The two operators have roughly equal market shares as they are tightly regulated by the government. The Mobile World notes that the two operators have some 1.28 million customers between them, representing a population penetration level of 32%.
Posted to the site on 15th August 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/33068.php