UAE based Etisalat says that it expects to invest up to US$5 billion over the next five years in its new Iranian network, its chairman, Mohammed Hassan Omran said on Sunday. At least US$1 billion would be spent within the first year to launch the network.
"We will invest $4 billion to $5 billion in the Iranian operation in five years," Mohammed Hassan Omran told reporters at an economic conference in Saudi Arabia - as reported by the Reuters news agency.
The company has set itself a target of at least 1 million subscribers within its first year of operations.
Etisalat won the third mobile network license in Iran in consortium with Taameen Telecom, a company owned by the Iranian pension fund, the Social Security Organization (SSO). Etisalat will have a 49% stake in the joint venture. The company will also have a 2-year exclusivity for offering 3G services.
However, Omran also revealed that the company has not yet signed the license agreement with the Iranian government.
There was controversy over the previous allocation of the country's second GSM license. Turkcell, though its 51% owned subsidiary - Irancell, originally signed an operator license with the Iranian government in 2004, but it fell foul of a clamp down on foreign investments by the conservative Parliament. The Parliament accused the company of having links with Israel - and after a year of battles, the license was reissued - this time to South Africa's MTN Group. MTN took a minority 49% stake, while 51% was allocated to the Iran Electronic Development Company (IEDC).
On the web: Reuters
Posted to the site on 26th January 2009
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/35670.php