MyAdhan Blog

Link: Qatar says GSM licence winner to be chosen shortly

Qatar’s telecom regulator said on Wednesday it was close to selecting the winning bidder for its second mobile licence. Seven firms and groups, including AT&T, Vodafone and Emirates Telecommunications Corp, bid for the licence, which was due to be awarded in mid-November. “We are about a week behind in the process,” William Fagan, executive director of Qatar’s Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology, told Reuters from Doha. “We are in the selection process and hope it will be shortly.” The regulator said in September it would review technical bids before inviting companies to submit financial bids in an auction that was likely to happen in early November. “The process is still ongoing and the bidders are aware of what’s going on,” Fagan said, declining to explain why the selection had been delayed. Mobile penetration in Qatar, holder of the world’s third-biggest reserves of natural gas, exceeds 100 percent. Qatar’s population should grow to 1.3 million by 2015, driving mobile phone use, the regulator said in April.