Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tunisia Awards Third Mobile Licence

A consortium made up of France Telecom and Divona Telecom has been
provisionally awarded the third mobile license in the North African
country of Tunisia. The license covers both GSM and 3G services, and
includes a landline service.

A statement from the regulator warned that the award is temporary
pending the completion of the provisions included in the procedures of
the international call for tender. The final decision should be
confirmed next week.

There are currently two mobile network operators in the country - the
state controlled Tunisie Telcom which is the sole landline operator,
and Tunisiana, which just operates a mobile phone network. It is not
immediately clear if Tunisiana will be offered a landline license,
otherwise it would be commercially at a disadvantage to the other two
operators.

Figures from the Mobile World analysts show that both operators ended
the first quarter of this year with some 4.3 million customers,
although Tunisiana has shown faster growth over the past few months.
The population penetration level stood at 82%.

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