Iraq awards GSM wireless licenses
Communications Ministry taps Egyptian, two Kuwaiti companies to roll out mobile phone network.
October 6, 2003: 8:18 AM EDT
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said Monday it had awarded three GSM mobile phone network licenses to consortia led by an Egyptian and two Kuwaiti companies, ending months of speculation about which technology would be chosen.
The Iraqi Communications Ministry said the contracts had been awarded to a group including Egypt's Orascom Telecommunications, another group including Kuwait's National Mobile Telecommunications and a consortium including Kuwait's MTC.
Egypt's OT will help build and run a mobile phone network in Baghdad and central Iraq, while MTC's consortium has won the contract for southern Iraq and National Mobile Telecommunications, also known as Wataniya Telecom, has clinched the deal for the north.
Industry experts have long expected new Iraqi mobile phone networks to be based on GSM technology, which is already used across the Middle East and would therefore allow cell phone customers to travel across the region using just one phone.
But the issue was clouded after one U.S. lawmaker in March urged top politicians, including U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to ensure that rival U.S-backed technology CDMA be deployed to safeguard American jobs and profits.
The licenses are seen as among the most lucrative contracts to be offered in post-war Iraq, especially since wireless service was not available in the country during Saddam Hussein's rule.
