Algerian Prime Minister Ali Bin Fleis signed a decree recently finalizing the agreement granting the nation’s second mobile telephone network operating license to Egypt’s Orascom Telcom (OT) Company.
OT, a leading telecommunication company in Egypt, bid $737 million for the 15-year license, with half of the amount due by November 2003. The company has stated that it plans to spend approximately $200 million on the Algerian network by 2003.
Prime Minister Bin Fleis awarded the permit to the chief executive of OT at a ceremony held recently in the government palace, according to London’s Al-Hayat daily.
The local Algerian branch of the firm, Orascom Telecom Algeria, now holds 51 percent of the network stock. An unnamed company will own the remainder of the holding.
OT representatives stated that the agreement would give access to 450,000 subscribers during its first year of operation in Algeria (2002), and to an additional one million subscribers within five years.
OT is currently the largest cellular phone provider in the Middle East and Africa in terms of licenses and operations. -- (Mena Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
