Lebanon’s network privatizations postponed until end of year
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The sale of two mobile phone networks in Lebanon which has already been delayed many a times is again delayed till the end of this year. US$7 billion was expected to be raised through this sale for the heavily indebted government, although valuations have fallen since the economic downturn.
10- Year Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) agreement led to the set up of Lebanon’s two operators in June 2001. However, the government controversially cancelled the BOT licenses held by LibanCell and Cellis which were not due to expire until 2004 and invited bidders to manage the networks on its behalf, and the concession was eventually awarded to Zain and Alfa.
Political turmoil in the country had led to the failure of network sales.
Comium Gambia launched by President
Gambia’s third mobile network operator, Comium, was officially inaugurated at the weekend by President Jammeh. Comium, a subsidiary of Luxembourg-registered Lebanese holding company the Comium Group, has rolled out a 2.5G GSM/GPRS network since being awarded a mobile licence in early August 2006. It has announced that it will offer a wider range of advanced value-added services than those currently provided by existing operators Gamcel and Africell, which have around 200,000 and 150,000 subscribers respectively. It also claims that it will be the first cellco to offer complete coverage of the country. A Comium spokesperson announced that: ‘Our strategy involves the acquisition of new licenses across west and central Africa, in countries where mobile phone and internet penetration is still limited and where we feel we can bring tangible, sustained value to subscribers.’ Comium has established mobile networks in Liberia and Sierra Leone and is preparing to launch operations in the C´te d’Ivoire. It was involved in Lebanon’s mobile market as the manager of LibanCell (now MTC Touch Lebanon) until 2004 when the Lebanese government sold the management contract to Kuwaiti cellco MTC.
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