Kuwait's National Mobile Telecommunications Company (Wataniya Telecom) on 2 December was provisionally awarded the third GSM operating license in Algeria after placing the highest bid of $421, announced the Algerian post and telecommunications regulatory body (ARPT). Wataniya hopes to capitalise on the rapidly growing market in Algeria and will rival Egypt's Orascom Telecom, which paid $737 million for Algeria's second mobile phone licence in 2002, and is now the leading operator with more than 1 million customers.
Under the terms of the prequalification notice, only companies with at least three years of experience in mobile telephony, 1 million subscribers and market capitalisation of $2,000 million were eligible. A consortium headed by Rothschild (Paris), including legal advisers Coudert Brothers and technical consultant ICEA, advised the government (MEED 14:11:03).
Wataniya signalled its regional intentions in October 2002 when it acquired a 50 per cent stake in Tunisia's second GSM licence.
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