| Orascom Telecom and state-owned Telecom Egypt secured a US$ 65 million tender for a 15-year fixed-line license in Algeria, the head of the telecommunications regulatory authority, Mohamed Belfoudil, said.
The consortium was the only bidder for the two licenses. Last year a similar tender failed to attract any bids.
"We were interested in this tender because the penetration rate in both GSM and land-lines is so low in Algeria and we hope our partnership will be able to increase the penetration rate," a spokesperson for Orascom said.
According to the Algerian Telecommunications Ministry, only 10% of Algerians are fixed-line subscribers and only 15% of the population have mobiles. Orascom is one of the three mobile operators in Algeria, which has seen rapid mobile growth since the second mobile operator began offering service in 2002. Industry sources expect the number of mobile subscribers to almost double by the end of 2005, to around nine million.
Source: Dow Jones |