Iraq's American administration has issued a tender for three mobile phone licenses to cover the country. The licenses are geographic, one each for northern, central and southern regions of Iraq. Applicants are required to bid for at least two regional licenses.
"Companies, individuals or consortia that may wish to apply for a mobile communications license are invited to notify their interest to the CPA," the Coalition Provisional Authority said in a statement.
"The CPA has chosen a regional licensing approach in order to enable the rapid rollout of services to the main population centers," the statement said. Each license will be for just two years, not leaving much opportunity for the license holder to recover their investments. "This is considerably shorter than is normal for a mobile telecommunications license but reflects the special circumstances in Iraq," the statement said.
The CPA said the new licenses would serve more than 16 million people living in major cities including Baghdad, Basra, Kerbala and Arbil.
Existing temporary GSM networks cover Baghdad and Basra, with a permanent GSM network in the Kurdish controlled north of the country. It is not immediately clear how the new license awards will affect KurdTel's existing operations."
Posted to the site on 18th July 2003
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/9309.php