Indian telcos lose Saudi mobile licence bid

Dubai, Mar 25: Two consortiums led by Indian telecom companies that bid for Saudi Arabia's third mobile licence lost out in the race when a group led by Kuwait's Mobile Telecom Company (MTC) made the highest bid with an offer of SR22.91 billion (6.11 billion dollars) to enter the largest mobile market in West Asia.

The consortiums led by Bharti Telecom, which offered SR17.25 billion, and Reliance with SR 11.25 billion lost out to MTC.

The others in the race were Tawasul-Digicel (SR16.125 billion), Oger Telecom (SR15 billion), Kingdom Turkcell (SR11.25 billion), and MTN Saudi Arabia (SR8.4 billion).

Telecom regulator Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said the determination of the winner required Cabinet approval.

''The announcement of the bids does not necessarily mean that the successful applicant has been determined,'' CITC Governor Dr Mohammed Al-Suwaiyel said.

''Determining the successful applicant will require evaluation of the documents attached with the financial proposals. The results of the evaluation would then be considered by the CITC's board of directors in preparation for submission to the Council of Ministers for the final approval of the results and determination of the third mobile license winner,'' he added.

Saudi Arabia is West Asia's fastest growing telecom market with total revenues from both mobile and land phones reaching SR34.2 billion (9.1 billion dollars) in 2005.

Forecasts indicate that the number of mobile phone and internet subscribers will virtually double in the next five years.

The announcement comes before the award of the second land phone licence in which ten consortiums are bidding.

UNI