Etisalat
and Qtel, the state-backed Gulf telcos, are among six telecoms firms competing
for Syria’s third mobile communications license, the Syrian Ministry of
Communications and Technology has confirmed.
Six
companies had placed tenders for Syria’s third mobile license ahead of Sunday’s
submission deadline, said Mohammad Al Jalali, assistant minister of
telecommunications and technology.
The
tenders span Etisalat of the UAE, Etisalat and Saudi Telecom (STC) of Saudi
Arabia, Qtel of Qatar, Turkcell of Turkey, France Telecom of France and TAMCO
of Iran.
Kuwait’s
Zain, in which Etisalat is in talks to take a 46 percent stake worth $12bn, had
previously expressed interest in the bidding, but failed to submit a tender.
SyriaTel
and South Africa’s MTN operate Syria’s existing two licenses in Syria. The
companies have 10.2m subscribers between them.
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