Bids were submitted in early November for the general service contract to expand the country's GSM network. About eight companies are understood to have participated in the tender, which will involve work at about 1,900 sites across the country (MEED 10:9:04).

The project will involve the provision of services for the expansion over a two-year period and is expected to be split among different companies with general service contracts. All three main equipment suppliers are expected to get shares of the work, which will have a total value of up to $800 million. The lump-sum contracts will include procurement, installation, maintenance and optimisation of parts of the GSM network.

Sweden's Ericsson is the only one of the three to have a general contract licence through its local office. Finland's Nokia and Germany's Siemens have joined up with local general service companies. The client is Mobile Company of Iran, a subsidiary of Telecommunications Company of Iran, itself owned by the government.