The ongoing bid for Bahrain’s second GSM license has March 5 as the deadline for submitting proposals. Bahrain’s government terms and provisions in the license make it very attractive for interested parties. The Kingdom’s small and well-developed market is capable sustain another operator, says the Arab Advisors Group.
The new Bahraini Telecommunications Law entails the issuance of a license to a second GSM operator in the country to compete with existing operator, Batelco. The mobile licensee will be authorized to establish and operate a GSM mobile telecommunications network and to provide public mobile telecommunications services in Bahrain. The winning bidder will also have the right, but without obligation, to establish and operate a 3G network.
“The number of mobile users who are between the ages of 14 and 21 has risen rapidly in the last two years, mainly due to the successful launch of the prepaid SimSim service in addition to the availability of cheaper handsets in the market,” explained Arab Advisors Bahrain Analyst, Hala Baqain in a recently published report.
“With this increase in the young generation users, the demand for personalized services such as downloading ringing tones and more sophisticated wireless Internet services will definitely increase. The Arab Advisors Group projects Bahrain to have a GSM subscriber penetration of 77 percent by 2006,” added Baqain.
“It is very evident that the government of Bahrain is very keen on introducing competition to its communications market,” said president of Arab Advisors Group, Jawad Abbassi. “The new mobile operator in Bahrain will have incentives and privileges unseen before in other Arab market. These include very modest annual license fees of one percent of gross revenues, unbundling of Batelco’s ducts and fiber infrastructure, national roaming with Batelco for a year, the option but not the obligation, to rollout 3G services and the right to lease circuits from Batelco for International Long Distance service provision.”
“With an upfront license fee of $265,000, the emphasis in this “beauty contest” tender is not on maximizing immediate governmental financial gains, but making the new network quite viable right from the start,” Abbassi added. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
