MUMBAI, 1 March 2007 — Three Indian telecom companies — Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) are among the nine consortia partners vying for a third mobile license in Saudi Arabia. The Indian telecom companies are trying to use their experience of low cost operations into the Kingdom, which is their venture into a new market.
The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) of Saudi Arabia has confirmed that it had received nine applications for providing mobile services with March 10, as the last date of submission of bids.
According to the CITC, Reliance Communications has tied with Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Rajhi, Bharti Airtel with Samawat, while MTNL is partnering with Al-Shoula, all Saudi companies. The other applicants in the race for the third mobile license in Saudi Arabia are the consortia led by Egypt’s Orascom Telecom, South Africa’s MTN, Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co. (MTC) Kingdom Holding Company which is bidding with Turkish mobile operator Turkcel, Dubai-based Oger Telecom, and Digcel with Tawasul. India’s largest telecom provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was also interested to bid for the third mobile license but last minute administrative problems prevented it from collaborating with Saudi companies and thus it backed out.
A Department of Telecommunications (DOT) official said that Indian telecom companies were looking at emerging markets outside India, which he said was the fastest growing telecom market in the world.
Another factor that attracted the Indian companies to venture into the newest Saudi market is the liberalization of the telecom market — free competition that had provided level playing field for all.
Officials of all the three Indian telecom companies that had participated in the bidding were very optimistic that it would be the Indian companies that would emerge successful in grabbing the license.
According to industry sources, it would be Reliance Communications which is tipped to be the winner in the race for the license and with its low-cost operation experience in India, Reliance would, in all probability, provide the lowest rates to the subscribers, said a Reliance official.