Mobile Telecommunications Company, the mobile phone operator in Kuwait, has bid 22.9 billion riyals ($6.1 billion) for Saudi Arabia’s third mobile license.
On March 17th, the board of directors of Saudi Arabia’s Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), chaired by Mohammed Jamil Mullah, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, selected the seven consortia from nine applicants. Egypt’s Orascom Telecom and Al-Shoula-MTNL consortium were out of the fray. The other bidders were Samawat – Bharti Consortium (India, Singapore), Oger Telecom (controlled by Lebanon’s al-Hariri family), Kingdom Turkcel (Kingdom Holding Co., owned by billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bidding with Turkish mobile operator Turkcell), Digi cel Tawacel Consortium, MTN Saudi Arabia Consortium & Abdullah Al Rajhi Reliance Telecom (India).
The 10 consortia bidding for the fixed license are: Optical Communications Company (Verizon), Khaled Ahmed Al-Juffali Co. (WorldCall Telecom of Pakistan), Saudi Telecom Holding Co. (Qtel-Atco), Al-Mutakamilah (Hong Kong’s PCCW), Electronet (Autelia of Italy), Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), Atheeb Telecom (Batelco of Bahrain), Makkah Telecom (China Telecom), Al-Shola (MTNL India) and Bayanat (Korea Telecom).
http://www.citc.gov.sa
