By Dawit Endeshaw
ADDIS ABABA, June 26 (Reuters) - Ethiopia’s communications
regulator said on Friday it received twelve bids for the two
telecom licences it plans to award to multinational mobile
companies, breaking the state monopoly.
Nine bidders are telecom operators and two non-telecom
operators, and one submission was incomplete, the regulator
said.
Bidders include Etisalat, Axian, MTN, Orange, Saudi Telecom
Company, Telkom SA, Liquid Telecom, Snail Mobile and Global
Partnership for Ethiopia, a consortium of telecom operators made
of Vodafone, Vodacom, and Safaricom. The two non-telecom
operators are Kandu Global Telecommunications and Electromecha
International Projects.
The issuing of licences will open up one of the world’s last
major closed telecoms markets in the country of around 110
million.
The Ethiopian Communications Authority said the licenses
will be awarded through a “competitive bidding process,” but did
not clarify a deadline for it.
“This is the initial stage. We will soon have...the second
stage,” said Balch Reba, director-general of the Ethiopian
Communication Authority.
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw, Editing by Giulia Paravicini and
Chizu Nomiyama)
Vodafone (VOD)
