JEDDAH, 14 January 2007 — Etihad Etisalat, a consortium of companies led by UAE telecom giant Etisalat, intends to compete with international companies for the Kingdom’s second landphone license after it successfully grabbed the second GSM license two years ago.
“Our company has decided to compete for the second land phone license after conducting a series of feasibility studies on the viability of such an investment,” Tadawul website quoted Khaled Al-Kaf, the company’s CEO as saying.
Al-Kaf did not give any details on the company’s plan for land phone service. However, he pointed out that the infrastructure facilities established by Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) during the past two years would enable the company to provide a better service. At least 10 consortia, comprising Saudi and foreign investors as well as specialized international companies, are vying to win the Kingdom’s second land phone license and third mobile phone license, informed sources said. Most of the companies involved in the new business tie-ups previously competed for the second mobile license in the Kingdom.
Last year, the Mobily chief had announced plans to link all parts of Saudi Arabia with an optical fiber network. Etihad Etisalat’s entry into land phone would diversify its investment and lead to gaining better returns for its shareholders.
The Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC), the Kingdom’s telecom regulator, last month extended the deadline for submitting applications for the new mobile license to Feb. 24 and for the fixed-line license to March 10 in response to requests from several interested parties.
According to the previous announcement, the last date was Jan. 20 for mobile and Jan. 27 for fixed phone. Copies of the applications for both licenses can be downloaded from the CITC website or can be collected from its office in Riyadh. Interested parties can surf www.citc.gov.sa to get more information.
The planned licensing is a major milestone in the liberalization of the Kingdom’s telecom sector, the CITC said, adding that the organization was committed to issuing the licenses at the earliest.
The new licenses will break the monopoly of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) on landline phone services and add at least a third mobile phone operator after STC and Mobily.