STC Loses Bid for Egypt License

JEDDAH, 12 June 2006 — The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is working toward finding the reasons behind it losing a bid for a license to operate a third cell phone company in Egypt. The STC had submitted a bid jointly with the Malaysian telecom company TMI and the Egyptian company BICO to operate in Egypt. The application was finally turned down on technical reasons, according to an STC statement yesterday. In their statement STC said, “The disqualification is surprising and the company is currently contacting the related agencies in Egypt to know the reason behind this decision.” The alliance had offered a strong bid that would have benefited Egypt and boosted the country’s telecommunication market.