JEDDAH, 11 April 2004 — Sixteen consortia including Saudi Oger, Samawat, Batelco, Saudi Inteltec and Gulf Telecom have been prequalified to apply for the Kingdom’s two new public data telecommunications service (PDTS) provider licenses.
“Prequalified candidates will be able to purchase the request for applications from the Communications & Information Technology Commission (CITC) from April 18,” a CITC statement said.
The commission invited national and international companies to take part in the prequalification process after it decided to license two more service providers to extend the service.
The prequalified consortia were: A.A. Turki Corp. for Trading & Contracting, General Dynamics Telecom Saudi Arabia and MCI International; Al-Afandi-Hi Cap; Atheeb Trading Company, Saudi Internet and National Telecommunications; Batelco; Bayanat Al-Oula for Network Services; Datecon Al-Saudia Company; Gulf Telecom; Integrated Visions; In-touch Communications SAE, Dallah Al-Baraka and Red Sea Housing Services; Samawat; Saudi Inteltec; Saudi Oger; Shabakah.Net; Victory; VSNL, INE & Al-Zamil; and WMPN.
The new announcement comes after the Kingdom’s telecom regulator prequalified 11 consortia including telecom giants Vodafone of Britain, Deutsche Telekom of Germany and Telefonica of Spain for Saudi Arabia’s second mobile phone operator license.
The CITC said the winner would be chosen from the 11 consortia by the end of the year. But a commission official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AFP news agency that the choice would be made in late July “if everything goes according to plan.” Only one of the 12 applicants was dropped.
Bidders for the license included firms from Austria, Egypt (Orascom), France (Bouygues), Italy, Kuwait (MTC), Malaysia (Maxis), Spain (Telefonica Moviles), South Africa (MTN) and the United Arab Emirates (Etisalat). The number of mobile users in the lucrative Saudi market is estimated at 7.5 million.
“We expect the entry of a new operator to stimulate demand” in a market which is growing at a rate of about 30 percent, the CITC official said.
