RIYADH, 29 March 2004 — Saudi Arabia has postponed the award of the second GSM license for two weeks, according to Dr. Muhammad Al-Suwayyel, governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission.
A decision on the second Saudi mobile phone operator was expected yesterday. No explanation was given for the postponement of the award, which has been fiercely contested.
Twelve consortiums had submitted bids for the mobile license, which was expected to net the Saudi treasury an estimated $1 billion in revenues.
The line-up consisted of 72 companies making up the 12 groups. Each consisted of five companies from the Kingdom and one from abroad.
The requirement of at least five Saudi partners to be involved in each consortium appears to reflect a concern to share out the benefits of the deal among several business groups.
All bids were in on March 20.
The Vodaphone consortium was seen as the frontrunner, although other consortia from Germany, Spain, Italy, Kuwait, the UAE and France were also strong contenders.
Saudi Oger was the only company bidding for the license on its own rather than as part of a consortium. It owns South African mobile phone operator Cell C, which will act as its technical partner in the bid.
The CITC governor has laid down stringent conditions for the operator. The company must control and run a mobile network serving at least 1.5 million subscribers. It must have at least two years experience in deploying and operating a greenfield mobile phone system. Other requirements are that it must be listed on the national stock exchange and have a market capitalization of at least $1 billion.
