Turkcell could withdraw from the tender for Syria’s third mobile licence.

“We are not excited about the licence because it could be costly and difficult to manage, but so far no board decision has been made,” says an official spokesperson for Turkey’s largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers.

The operator is understood to be more interested in launching a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in the country, similar to one soon to be launched in Germany.

“We have heard no information about Turkcell withdrawing its bid, according to our confirmations everything is still in process, there are still five companies in the running,” says Muhammad Aljalali, Syria’s deputy minister of communications.

The other bidders are Saudi Arabia’s STC, Qatar’s Qtel, the UAE’s Emirates Telecommunications Company (Etisalat) and France Telecom.

The revenue share for the third licence is 25 per cent and this portion of the revenue needs to be guaranteed until 2015. “It is very difficult to project and so some may be discouraged by these numbers, but it is a transparent process and we are looking forward to it,” says Ghassan Hasbani, chief executive officer of STC international, one of the bidders.

The deadline for the technical proposal is the end of April. Once they are evaluated, those who pass that stage will be able to submit their financial proposals and an open session for auctions will follow.

The auction, initially scheduled for 12 April will take place in the first week of May following a request for deadline extension by the bidders.

Syria has made headway in establishing a regulatory body for the communications industry. It has chosen seven commissioners with the minister of communications acting as the director general of the body.  “Unlike the Jordanian model, our model has two levels, an executive and commissioner level,” says Aljalali.

The minister will be replaced as head of the council of commissioners after two years in a bid to increase Independence.