By Reuters
Morocco’s telecoms watchdog launched a tender on Tuesday to select an adviser for the process of auctioning at least one 4G license by the end of the year.
The Telecommunications Regulatory National Agency (ANRT) set an August 23 deadline for the submission of bids as Morocco continues its 10-year plan to provide high-speed internet access for the entire population.
The adviser will help ANRT to set the terms and conditions of 4G licensing and to organise deployment the network. It will assist in the decision on how many licences will be up for grabs in the tender, set for the fourth quarter.
ANRT officials told Reuters in May that it planned to award licences at the start of 2013 and expects them to be operational by the end of that year at the earliest.
Morocco’s telecommunications market is dominated by Vivendi’s Maroc Telecom, France Telecom affiliate Medi Telecom and Wana, owned by a holding company controlled by the Moroccan monarchy and Kuwait’s Zain.
Mobile penetration is around 110 percent of Morocco’s 33m population and there were 3.2m internet subscribers at the end of 2011, up 70 percent from 2010.
Many Gulf carriers reported flat earnings at home and are looking to overseas markets to boost their revenues.
The UAE’s Etisalat in April reported a flat first-quarter net profit, which was offset by the telecoms operator’s rising international revenue.
Etisalat, which operates in 17 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made a profit of AED1.81bn (US$492.79m) in the three months to March 31, down from AED1.82bn in the year-earlier period.
Domestic revenue fell 2.6 percent to AED6.09bn, but international revenue rose 21 percent to AED1.88bn.
.
