Iraq Telecom News
Asiacell to invest $300 million in Iraq (From Gulf Daily News, August 20, 2007)
DUBAI - Asiacell Communications Co., an affiliate of Qatar
Telecommunications Co, could spend as much as $300 million a year to expand
its Iraq network, a
shareholder said yesterday. Asiacell paid $1.25
billion for one of three mobile licenses sold last week and could consider
a bid for the Iraq assets of Egypt's Orascom Telecom, which dropped out of the auction at
the eleventh hour.
Orascom and two Kuwaiti
operators, Mobile Telecommunications Co (MTC) and National Mobile
Telecommunications Co, set up networks in Iraq after the US-led
invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Qtel bought a majority
stake this year in National Mobile Telecommunications, which set up its Iraq operations through a
separate affiliate, Asiacell Cayman Islands.
MTC and Kurdish operator Korek
won the other two licences.
Asiacell Communications is
looking to raise conventional or Islamic debt to fund expansion in Iraq, said Basil Al Rahim, managing partner of UK-based investment bank Merchant Bridge, which holds a 19pc
stake in Asiacell Communications.
"The rough ratios of what you spend per
subscriber per year is anywhere between $120 to $127 per
subscriber. Then you have the upgrade of old equipment and security,
so it could be $200 to $300m a year."
Rahim declined to comment
on what the new debt would mean for Qtel, which
owns 30pc of Asiacell and is facing a surge in
financing costs for $3.7bn deal to buy into National Mobile, also known as Wataniya.
"We looking to keep the facility as
simple as possible," he said.
"Possibly, a long-term loan or it could
be structured in a bond or sukuk," he said.
Wataniya owned 40pc of Asiacell Cayman Islands, which is in liquidation at the
behest of its majority shareholder.
Qtel said yesterday Asiacell Communications, of which it owns just over 30pc,
had bought the Iraq assets of Asiacell Cayman.
Rahim declined to say how
much Asiacell paid for the assets.
Asiacell will consider buying
Orascom's Iraqna
subsidiary, which the Egyptian company said may be put up for sale.
"If the opportunity comes up, we will
look at it," Rahim said.
$300m needed for Iraq
telecom sector (The Peninsula, April 5, 2004)
DOHA - Investments to the tune of
$300m is required to develop the telecommunications infrastructure in Iraq, which was destroyed during the
US-led invasion of the country, a senior official at the Arab Regional
Office, Cairo, of the Geneva-based
International Telecommunications Union (ITU), said here yesterday.
Speaking to The Peninsula, Ebrahim Al Haddad, the
ARO's coordinator, said several
telecommunications companies in the Arab world were eager to invest in Iraq's telecom sector, alone or in
joint venture projects with regional and international firms. He pointed
out that despite the security risks, Iraq already has three mobile
telephony providers, including Al Watania Telecom
of Kuwait and Orascom.
He said the 6th Arab Telecom and Internet Forum (ATIF), which will be held
at the Sheraton Doha from May 30 to April 1, would have a session dedicated
to the development of telecom infrastructure in Iraq, during which issues
such as the current situation in the country's telecom sector, experiences
of the various mobile services operators, projects for investments, the
right methods to penetrate the Iraqi market and regulations and
legislations specific to Iraq, would be discussed.
Ebrahim said at a press conference yesterday that
the ITU could not force countries in the Arab world to liberalize their
policies regarding Internet access by doing away with censorship. The ITU,
which consists of some 108 member nations, can only make recommendations
regarding the use and proliferation of the Internet to various countries.
"The Article-1 of the ITU recognizes the sovereignty of every country
and hence, each one has the right to enforce local laws to govern the use
of the Internet," he added.
The ITU official conceded that the Digital Divide, or the disparity in IT
proliferation between the developed and the Arab states, was growing and
blamed the financial situation of people living in the region as the main
factor.
He said that due to lower incomes in several Arab countries, people were
unable to afford Personal Computers (PCs) for Internet access, use the
World Wide Web and other state-of-the-art telecommunications services.
High tariffs in some countries, he said, were also an impediment. In some
countries, telecom firms were forced to provide a slew of services
stipulated by the licensing authorities. Hence, such companies were forced
to target their products and services towards the affluent sections of the
society, often neglecting those with limited resources.
Iraq's
telecommunications sector set to be region's best (From The Daily
Star, March 20, 2004)
- The Iraqi telecommunications sector is quickly heading
from a destroyed and underdeveloped industry to a modern and liberalized
one, vying to become the best in the region, according to the Iraqi Communication
Minister Haydar al-Abadi.
Speaking during the Iraq Economic Forum held in the
Phoenicia Inter-Continental Hotel in Beirut, Abadi
said even though the economic revenues from this sector will remain very
low in the short-run, there has been much interest in operating mobile
licenses in the country because, "we all expect lucrative revenues in
the medium and long run."
Kamal Shehadi, the managing
director of Connexus Consulting - a Lebanese
consulting firm that specializes in privatization - told The Daily Star on
the sidelines of the conference that no one can speak of
telecommunications' liberalization in Iraq today because there isn't yet a
government that has the legitimacy to give long term contracts and
licenses.
"The solution that was chosen for now was an interim one since there
are only three operators with two-year licenses. To speak of liberalization
you need a stable constitution, a stable legal system and a stable
regulatory framework. However, what is clear is that the minister (Abadi) has a commitment to liberalize this sector in
the near future, to have a strong private sector participation, to use the
latest available technologies and services and they are definitely
committed to creating a regulatory framework following best international
practices," said Shehadi.
"We in Lebanon should learn from the Iraqi
experience. We need to give priority to liberalizing telecommunications
instead of only seeing it as a major cash-cow for the government, which it
is not when the benefits of liberalization are taken into account," he
added.
In October 2003, the Iraqi Communication Ministry awarded
three licenses to operate public GSM telecommunications networks. These
licenses were awarded as follows: Asiacell in Northern Iraq, Orascom
in Central
Iraq
and MTC in Southern Iraq. The license bids were underpinned by the decision of
the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to delegate the issuing of mobile
network licenses in June 2003 to the Iraqi Communication Ministry, thereby
bringing the bidding and award process directly under the supervision of
Iraqis experienced in managing the country's unique and challenging
environment.
"In the new Iraq we are aiming for a
telecommunications sector that is liberalized. But in order to bring this
project to fruition, we have been working on a clear plan and policy that
takes into consideration the status of the telecom at the moment, the
available human resources and the financial donations that have been
granted," said Abadi.
Iraq had expected to receive some
$1.2 billion in grants allocated to the telecommunications sector. However,
only $350 million was granted - an amount "which is much less then we
anticipated," said Abadi.
"This is one of the main reasons why we are very much looking forward
for the private sector's participation, especially in terms of
investments," the minister added.
General Manager of MTC, Saad al-Barrak, said the
Communications Ministry's policy is excellent and opens the way for a
competitive and state-of-the-art telecommunications industry.
"In my view, liberalization has already started in Iraq since the interim government has
been following the right track. And if aspirations are met, then the
telecommunications environment in Iraq will become the best in the
region," said Barrak.
MTC expects to achieve the 300,000 customer milestone within 24 months,
representing a 5.7 percent penetration rate in Southern Iraq. The company will invest
approximately $120 million over the 24-month license period.
"The total subscribers in Iraq today only reaches 150,000, but
we see a 25-30 percent (6-9 million) market penetration within 5 years,
resulting in the need of $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion of investment in Iraq's telecom industry within the
next five years," said Barrak.
Cellphones set to
outpace fixed lines in Iraq
(From Khaleej Times, March 18, 2004)
DUBAI - Asiacell, Iraq's established GSM mobile network
operator has predicted that the meteoric growth in demand for GSM mobile
services in Iraq will see the number of mobile
lines in Iraq exceeding fixed lines by
year-end.
"We are seeing all sorts of forecasts on telecommunications in Iraq and I think many of these are
speculative," said Asiacell board member
Ahmad Haleem. "However, based on Asiacell's solid experience of operating the most
advanced mobile network in Iraq, we believe that current growth will see
more GSM subscribers this year than there are lines in the fixed line
network."
The prediction comes as the company formally launched a White Paper
outlining the past, present and future of telecommunications in Iraq: 'Building GSM Network
Operations in Iraq.'
The document outlines the history of telecommunications in Iraq, quantifying the country's fixed
line network and documenting the enormous challenges that have been faced,
many of which remain, in operating a national telecommunications
infrastructure that is intended to serve some 25 million people.
"There are currently something in the region
of 1.1 million subscriber lines in Iraq, although some of these are not
currently operable. Three licensed GSM networks are in existence now, each
with something like a third of the country as its initial area of
operations."
"According to the White Paper, while work is underway to rebuild and
modernize the ravaged fixed line network, the three mobile licenses have
paved the way to building out services much more quickly than could
possibly be achieved with a fixed line infrastructure."
Iraq
Telecom to build commercial foundation (From menareport.com, March 14, 2004)
- Middle East telecommunication
consultancy Technology Partners has won the $10 million bid to build
network management and subscriber services infrastructure for Iraq's national
telecommunications network.
Technology Partners leads a consortium of companies that will deploy
billing, network management and information systems connecting the 250
service and exchange sites across the country, allowing Iraq Telecom to
start functioning as a commercial entity and supporting the reconstruction
and development of the Iraqi national fixed line telecommunications
network.
"Iraq currently has over
one million subscribers to its landline network, a number which is expected
to grow very quickly in a population of more than 24 million,"
explained CEO of Technology Partners, Omar Barzanji.
"This contract supports a national telecommunications information
platform that will immediately and effectively leapfrog the 15 years of
technological development which has bypassed Iraq."
The project will equip each of Iraq's 250 telephone
exchanges centers with PC-based workstations and trained CRM operators
linked through to the central server farm in Baghdad which will handle
CRM, billing, network services, and fault reporting and engineering
resource management. Over 1,500 workstations will be installed across the
country to equip operator positions.
Iraq's network is based
on a heterogeneous mix of switching technologies, including digital and
analogue exchanges from a number of vendors. The task of integrating the
new system to such a complex mix of exchanges is being undertaken by Lucent
Technologies, which has also recently been involved in a major project to
rebuild damaged exchange facilities by installing containerized switching
in 12 locations, bringing Iraq's switched network back
up to its pre-war capacity by replacing some 260,000 lines of switching.
Technology Partners is an international telecommunication consultancy and
systems integrator with offices in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates (UAE) and Baghdad, Iraq. Founded in 1997,
Technology Partners specializes in the development and management of IP
based telecommunications, broadband networks and other infrastructure and
IP services projects in the Middle East.
Iraq's
GSM subscriber base to grow to 1.5mln by year-end (March 14, 2004)
(MENAFN) - Iraq's GSM subscriber base could grow to 1.5
million by the end of the year, as all three operators active in the
country keep signing on new clients, Gulf News daily reported.
In the past few weeks the three operators led by Orascom,
MTC and Wataniya have launched full GSM services
in the market, something that was lacking during the Saddam era.
In the immediate future, Iraq and Saudi Arabia will represent the biggest
opportunities for GSM handset manufacturers.
Iraqi cellular operators currently enjoying a
period of rapid increase in subscribers (From the Daily Star, March 10, 2004)
- Mobile phone operators in Iraq are projecting the
number of subscribers this year to reach the one million mark and overtake
fixed landlines in 2005 as Iraqis buy up mobile phones that were once
banned during the era of Saddam Hussain's fallen
regime
Officials from the three mobile phone companies who signed two-year license
agreements with the interim Iraqi authority at the end of last year told
participants at a telecommunications conference in Beirut on Tuesday that
the rapid growth in subscribers was only being hampered by security
concerns and uncertainty about the shape of the future Iraqi government.
"We will easily reach one million by 2004, but we
need visibility to understand how our operations will be next year,"
said Najib Sawiris,
chairman of Egypt's Orascom Telecom, which is
co-running the mobile phone operations in Baghdad and central Iraq.
He was speaking at Iraq Telecom, a two-day conference held at the UN House
in Beirut.
The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) had delegated Iraqi
Telecommunications Minister Hayder al-Abadi to choose last year three companies to run mobile
phone operations in the north, center and south of Iraq.
Abadi picked three Arab companies: Iraqna, a joint venture between Egypt's Orascom and Iraqi partners operating in Baghdad and
central Iraq; Asiacell, a joint venture between
Kuwait's Watanyia, Bahrain-based United Gulf Bank
and Kurdish company Asiacell operating in
northern Iraq; and Atheer, a joint-venture
between Kuwaiti telecommunications group MTC, Kharafi
National and Iraq's Dijla telecommunications
operating in southern Iraq.
"Mobile phones will overtake land-lines in the next six months,"
said Ahmed Haleem, chief financial officer of Wataniya Telecom. "Iraq's mobile phone penetration rate
could reach 10 percent or 2.4 million by the end of the two-year
contracts."
But mobile operators say two years is too short a period to get a good
return on their investments. They said uncertainty about the future Iraqi
government and the lax security situation has impeded them from expanding
their networks and pooling more investments into their networks, which they
had to build from scratch.
"The only limitation is the two-year term, which hinders our
capability of installing a system that will overtake landlines," said Saad al-Barak, director
general of MTC group. "We should have had at least five years and
there is no reason for having just two years, it is something that has to
do with the US presidential elections."
American occupation forces want to hand over power to the Iraqis by June 30
next year, but investors fear a new Iraqi government could change the terms
of the licenses when the contracts expire.
So far the three companies have a combined subscriber base of around
300,000: Orascom's Iraqna
has 100,000 subscribers, Asiacell has 125,000 and
MTC's Atheer has
40,000.
All three companies are each investing about $120 million in the network
and have only paid an annual license fee to the telecommunications
ministry, which has not asked for any royalty fee.
Despite the uncertainty, the mobile companies are forging ahead in
expanding the network and expect to meet their contract obligations before
the end of this year and overtake the 1.1 million subscribers to fixed
land-lines. "We will complete the two-year commitment within six
months," Barrak said, adding that his
company intends to have 300,000 subscribers by the end of this year.
The license agreement restricts all three companies to
offering services in their regions, but they can go national and offer
services outside their territories once they meet their obligations.
"We are already ahead of schedule and we expect to
have at least half a million subscribers by the end of this year," Sawiris said, adding that the company is expected to
make $100 million in revenue in 2004.
Asiacell, which has operated in northern Iraq inside the no-fly zone since
1999, expects to have 400,000 subscribers by this year's end and double
that figure in the second year of operation. They are also working on
introducing GPRS (General Package Radio System) to accommodate internet
usage.
"We are already operating in Suleimaniya,
Mosul and Kirkuk, and the only reason we are not
yet in Dahuk, Tikrit
and Irbil is the security situation. I
expect we will offer our services in all three by June this year,"
said Haleem.
Both Asiacell and Atheer say that they hope they will break even by the
end of the two-year contract and are counting on the new government to
renew their license. But not all telecommunications officials feel the
three companies are getting a bad deal.
"They are adding subscribers at a rate of 10,000 a
week, we are happy with that," said Arthur Bresnahan,
deputy senior advisor to the Telecommunications Ministry. He argued it was
not up to the CPA to extend the maturity of the licenses, which is
ultimately an Iraqi decision.
"It is a little bit of a wild west in terms of
regulatory authority," Bresnahan said.
"We are working with the ministry of telecommunications on setting up
a regulatory authority within a month.
Bresnahan defended the decision to grant
short-term contracts, but added the CPA was not setting up institutions
that "will shut down on June 30."
Basil al-Nakeeb, an Iraqi
economist and member of the Independent Iraqi Democrats, criticized the
CPA's management of the mobile phone network, accusing it of favoritism in
handing out the licenses.
"The CPA awarded three companies the highly prized rights
to Iraq's airwaves for negligible fees
and without offering the Iraqi public the opportunity to participate,"
Nakeeb said. "The few shareholders were
either non-Iraqis with powerful US business connections or Iraqis
with strong ties to certain members of the Governing Council that were
appointed by the US …"
Atheer
Telecommunications launches service in southern Iraq
(From menareport.com, March
8, 2004)
- Atheer
Telecommunications, appointed by the US led Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) as the GSM telecom service provider for the southern region
of Iraq, has announced that
the service had now gone live and was already providing communications for
the people, and business community in the region.
Atheer's network coverage extends from Iraq's southern borders
of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia up to the border of
the Central region and includes the cities of Al-Basra, Az Zubyr,
Umm Qasr, Safwan, Al-Nassiriyah, Al-Amarah, Al-Qurnah, Majar Al-Kabair and Samawah. A network
of authorized distributors and retailers has been put together to support
the distribution of eeZee, Atheer's
pre-paid service.
The Atheer Vision is one of fast and optimum
deployment of a fully independent GSM network with capacity for up to
300,000 customers by 2005. A roll out of coverage of voice and other value
added services with Atheer are available now to
approximately 40,000 customers.
Atheer's investment is estimated at little over
$120 million across the 24-month license. Through deployment of, and
subcontracting to, local businesses and the local workforce, in
coordination with local industry and the ITPC, Atheer
believes it will support the stimulation of engineering, sales and
merchandising sectors. The sale of handsets, eeZee
scratch cards and accessories would be managed through outsourcing to
qualified Iraqi distribution companies.
Atheer Telecommunications was selected to develop
and operate the GSM network and service in the Southern region of Iraq by the CPA last
year. Atheer is operated and managed by MTC, the
leading mobile telecommunications operator in Kuwait.
Japan promises to rebuild Iraqi telecom infrastructure (March 3, 2004)
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan pledged to help
rebuild Iraq's telecommunications system, linking the capital Baghdad with
the southern city of Basra and the city of Mosul
in the north.
Japan's minister of public management,
home affairs, posts and telecommunications, Taro Aso
made the pledge Wednesday when he met with Haydar
al-Abadi, the Iraqi minister of communication, in
the transitional governing council.
"Minister al-Abadi
talked about how the damage done to Iraq's telecom
infrastructure has disrupted police activities, medical services and
education in particular," said the Japanese official who attended the
meeting.
Aso and al-Abadi did not discuss details such as how much Tokyo was committed
to spend to rebuild Iraq's
telecommunications systems, however.
News reports have said that Japan was prepared
to spend about 10 billion yen (91 million dollars) out of the 1.5 billion
dollars that Tokyo has promised
for Iraqi reconstruction.
Japan has pledged to
give five billion dollars to Iraq over the next
four years, including 1.5 billion dollars in grant aid to be released in
2004.
Al-Abadi, who
arrived in Tokyo late Tuesday
for a five-day visit, was due to pay a courtesy call on Japanese foreign
minister Yoriko Kawaguchi later in the day.
Nokia gets GSM network deal in Iraq
(February 6, 2004)
(MENAFN) - Nokia has concluded a supply agreement with
Future Communications Company International (FCCI) to supply GSM core
network equipment to Atheer Telecom for its
network in Iraq, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Atheer Telecom, a consortium led by the
Kuwait-based mobile operator MTC, won a license last autumn to provide GSM
service in southern Iraq, including Basra. MTC awarded FCCI an exclusive
contract for the supply of the Nokia GSM core network equipment for the
two-year period of Atheer Telecom's license.
The deal represents Nokia's first supply of GSM equipment to Iraq and its first GSM core network
deal with MTC.
Under the agreement, FCCI will be providing a full Nokia core network,
including the Nokia Connect MSC switch, part of the Nokia Connect GSM
solution for new growth markets.
LogicaCMG wins Iraq contract – UAE (From Khaleej Times, January 5, 2004)
DUBAI - LogicaCMG has announced it has been chosen to provide
an all-IP Next Generation Messaging architecture, which includes the
state-of-the-art Short Messaging Service Centre (SMSC) to Asia Cell
Telecommunications Company Ltd., one of the three service providers to be
awarded a GSM license in Iraq.
Asia Cell will deploy LogicaCMG's
Next Generation Messaging infrastructure enabling it to offer high quality
messaging services, starting with SMS, as it launches its GSM services.
LogicaCMG won the contract
after being selected by Siemens Mobile Networks.
The global leadership position of LogicaCMG in
the messaging infrastructure marketplace and its experience of developing
and deploying advanced messaging technologies for operators across the
globe played a key part in Siemens Mobile Networks and Asia Cell selecting
the company.
Bhanu Sud, Director and
General Manager, LogicaCMG Wireless Networks,
Middle East & North Africa, said: "With the current marketing
penetration of mobile phones at almost zero, Iraq is set to be the
fastest growing market in the Middle East as it's infrastructure is rebuilt. We are confident that
Asia Cell and its subscribers will benefit from the world class messaging
solution being implemented. We welcome our role working with Siemens Mobile
Networks and Asia Cell to play a part in providing mobile communications to
Iraq."
Ziad Shatara, CEO of
Asia Cell, said: "We are delighted to have been awarded one of the
three GSM licenses available in Iraq. By working with
leading service providers such as LogicaCMG and
Siemens Mobile Networks we are confident that we will be able to meet the
Coalition Provisional Authority's challenging deadlines and bring Iraq's mobile infrastructure
online. LogicaCMG has provided us with a cost
effective Next Generation Messaging solution and a focused approach to
support our ambitions in Iraq. We now will be able
to provide the best possible services for our subscribers."
Iraq
denies corruption in cellphone deals (December 22, 2003)
BAGHDAD
(Reuters) - Iraqi authorities denied on Monday that there was corruption in
the bidding for national cellphone contracts,
which are under investigation by the Pentagon.
"There were sour losers in the bidding
process. Signing the license agreements today proves the falsehood of these
rumors," Telecom Minister Haidar al-Ebadi said after signing license deals with three Arab
consortia, allowing them to start operations in Iraq.
Iraq's U.S. administration
awarded the three groups two-year tenders to operate in the country in
October. The winners were led by Egypt's Orascom Telecom, Kuwait's National
Mobile Telecommunications (NMTC.KW) and MTC (TELE.KW) of Kuwait.
The Pentagon said last week it had
launched an investigation into the award of the cellphone
contracts and this has cast a shadow over preparations to start cellphone service around January 1.
Baghdad's main
landline telephone exchanges remain destroyed after U.S. bombing during
the invasion.
The U.S. Defense Department did not
reveal the focus of the investigation but a Western source in Baghdad, familiar with
the probe, told Reuters the Pentagon might investigate allegations that
Iraqi and Western officials involved in awarding the contracts had taken
bribes.
Ebadi said he knew
of no Iraqi or U.S. official in Iraq that was being
investigated. "I am not aware that anyone from the ministry or the
Coalition Provisional Authority is under investigation," he said.
Naguib Sawiris, head of Orascom Telecom,
said his company's network had already gone on air in Baghdad and the first
subscribers were expected to be signed up in January.
"We did nothing wrong," Sawiris told Reuters. "Let them investigate. The
person who takes a bribe from me has not been born."
Siemens Mobile to build GSM network in Iraq by year’s end (From menareport.com, December 17, 2003)
- Siemens Mobile has won a
$8.6 million contract to provide equipment to mobile operator Asia-Cell to
expand its GSM network in northern Iraq and enhance the
mobile infrastructure with new installations.
The new partnership was introduced by Asia-Cell's partner Wataniya Telecom, headquartered in Kuwait, who has already
teamed up with Siemens as its preferred vendor in Kuwait and Tunisia.
As well as the core network and radio equipment, the contract also includes
delivery of an Intelligent Network which will increase Asia Cell's
competitiveness in the voice and data convergence arena and enable delivery
of new value add services to its subscribers.
Asia Cell already operates a commercially running GSM network in North Iraq, enabled by its
second partner Huawei.
Iraq mobile operators eye big bucks, insecurity a
double-edged sword (December 1,
2003)
BAGHDAD, (AFP) - Mobile phone operators
are expecting hefty profits from licenses awarded by Iraq, as it will be
the only cheap alternative to the damaged land-line system for some time,
but persistent insecurity promises risks as well as rewards.
The insurgency that has plagued Iraq ever since the
US-led spring invasion will have a double-edged effect, industry experts
say.
It heightens interest in reliable
communications from people who want to stay in continual touch with their
loved ones, but the relay installations are likely to become targets for
the insurgents.
"Commercially, it will be a
success," said Mohamed El-Roubi, managing
partner of IandD Iraq Law Alliance, which
represents several telecommunication companies.
"The land-line network in Iraq was a big
system, it will take a long time to fix," he said.
The Thuraya
mobile satellite system is currently the only reliable way of being
connected, but it has many limitations. It is expensive for a population
that mostly earns salaries below 150 dollars a month.
The handset costs 600 dollars and the
communication charges average one dollar a minute. The user has to have a
line of sight to the satellite, which often means that he has to be
outdoors.
"Because it is cheaper, the GSM
system will spread far beyond the Thuraya,"
said El-Roubi, whose clients include mobile
operators and equipment suppliers.
He estimated the number of subscribers
to Thuraya in Iraq at 60,000.
GSM subscriptions will be driven by
businesses as much as individuals and the availability of the
cost-effective short message service -- SMS -- will make it even more
attractive.
"It will be less of a headache
when my daughter goes to university," said ophthalmologist Abdullah
Abdul Sattar, who also counts on the new networks
to put some order in his appointment schedule.
But El-Roubi
said the mobile phone system "is also likely to draw unwanted interest
from elements who want to destroy the infrastructure and maintain the
atmosphere of insecurity."
The system in Baghdad will be
launched in mid-December with an installed capacity of 125,000 subscribers,
to be boosted to about 400,000 after two months, industry sources said.
The licenses were given for 24 months,
and El-Roubi said the break-even point for the
investment will be met "way before expiry."
The three operators selected for the
licenses "have hopes of renewing their licenses after the initial
term," he added.
Orascom of Egypt has
been chosen for the central region which includes Baghdad, AsiaCell for the north, and AtheerTel for the south. The last two companies are
partially owned by Kuwaiti mobile phone operators.
Last week, Kuwait's Mobile
Telecommunications Co. (MTC-Vodafone) said its southern network has been
delayed for security reasons, but insisted the project will go ahead.
Orascom and
MTC-Vodafone have said they will invest at least 100 million dollars each
in their Iraqi networks.
US company MCI has been running since
last July a mobile phone service around the capital restricted to about
10,000 civilian and military personnel of the US-led coalition, as well as
aid workers and selected Iraqi officials.
Until the new systems are up and
running, Iraq remains the only country in the Middle East and North Africa
not to have a mobile network.
The population has relied on high-range
cordless telephones operating on radio frequencies, known locally by the
most common brand name, Senao.
VHF radios, or walkie-talkies, became
common after the occupation, used mainly by contractors and the media.
The Iraqi telecommunications network is
the only infrastructure that the coalition has admitted to deliberately
targeting during the six-week invasion, because of its dual military and
civilian use.
Land connections have been restored
within provincial cities, but in Baghdad, 12 out of 38
exchange switches, serving 240,000 lines from a total 540,000, are out of
service, according to the US Agency for International Development, which is
supervising the reconstruction.
And even if re-established, the
land-line system will remain fragile and its capacity way below the needs
of the 26-million-strong population.
interWAVE secures $1.4 mln GSM order
in Kurdish Northern Iraq (From
menareport.com, November 20, 2003)
- US-based interWAVE
Communications has received an initial order from Kurdish Sanatel totaling $1.4 million for a GSM-based wireless
infrastructure to link eight cities in northern Iraq.
Sanatel, owned by Halabja
General Trading Company, is one of three wireless operators officially
licensed to provide cellular services in Kurdistan.
Prior to its ownership of Sanatel, Halabja General Trading had purchased an existing GSM
network in the city of Sulaimaniah, Kurdistan. Since Halabja's purchase of Sanatel,
the firm has doubled the networks subscriber base, and is now expanding the
capacity of the network to include eight additional cities -- one of which
being Halabja.
interWAVE Communications
is a provider of compact network solutions and services. The
company’s highly portable mobile, cellular networks and broadband
wireless solutions provide communications capabilities for customers in
over 50 countries.
Motorola moving fast to set up Iraq
mobile network (October 24, 2003)
CAIRO (Dow Jones) - U.S. telecommunications-equipment
supplier Motorola Inc. is moving fast to set up infrastructure for the
central Iraq mobile-phone network, due to
start operation in less than two months.
Motorola Thursday
signed a two-year contract worth up to $40 million with Cairo-based Orascom Telecom Holding, 63% owner of Orascom Telecom Iraq,
which is preparing to operate the network under the brand name "Iraqna."
Motorola will provide
Global System for Mobile
communications, or GSM, base stations and transmission equipment for the
network, one of three being set up in the country. Training for 23 Iraqi
engineers began as long as six weeks ago, even though Iraqi network
licenses were awarded only two-and-a-half weeks ago.
"You begin to do
the pre-work in advance," said Adrian Nemcek,
president and chief executive of Motorola's Global Telecommunications Solutions
Sector.
Advance preparations
were possible, "since we have an ongoing working relationship with
networks," Nemcek told Dow Jones Newswires
after a Thursday night signing ceremony.
The Egyptian-led
consortium was rumored to be one of the license winners in Iraq
for several weeks before the official announcement, which came Oct. 6. But
Motorola was confident of landing supply orders with or without Orascom.
Motorola officials
said their company had been "well- placed" prior to the license
awards, without confirming links had been forged with more than one bidding
consortium.
Orascom
Telecom Chairman Naguib Sawiris
said timing was a vital consideration in choosing the technology supplier
for the planned Iraqi network. "If we were ... to set up this network,
we knew the time allotted. It was 60 days," Sawiris
said at the signing ceremony. "We haven't done that beforehand."
In choosing Motorola,
"we were considering the fastest supplier in the market," he
said. "While we signed the contract today, the equipment is already
being shipped to Iraq."
Nemcek,
too, stressed Motorola was chosen because of its strength as a GSM
technology supplier. He denied the U.S.-based company had any political or
social objectives in Iraq.
"Our commitment
in this affair is purely commercial, based on our agreement with Orascom," he said.
Motorola supplied all
the base stations for Fastlink, an Orascom-owned network in Pakistan,
and nearly 60% of the stations for MobiNil, an
Egyptian network owned jointly by Orascom and Orange
SA.
Originally, Motorola
owned 35.3% of MobiNil, but the U.S.
firm sold its shares to Orascom Telecom and Orange,
via France Telecom, at the end of 2000.
While the companies
maintain a close working relationship, Motorola will be subject to penalties
if it fails to meet deadlines stated in the Iraqi GSM contract, Jeff Cherif, Motorola's general manager for the Middle
East and Africa,
said.
Nemcek
and Cherif declined to comment on whether
Motorola would also supply base stations or other components for the
northern or southern networks. Announcements on those regions might be
forthcoming another time, they said.
Sawiris
conceded that security concerns would add to the cost of project
implementation. The central network region covers the "Sunni triangle,"
where anti-U.S. attacks have been heaviest.
Nemcek,
however, was reluctant to characterize the central area as more difficult
in which to set up a network than the other two regions.
"Each region has
its challenges," he said. "The first challenge is getting a
strong supplier agreement."
Iraq
awards three GSM mobile phone licenses (October 6, 2003)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said on Monday
it had awarded three GSM mobile phone network licenses to consortia led by
an Egyptian and two Kuwaiti companies, ending months of speculation about
which technology would be chosen.
The Iraqi
Communications Ministry said the three sought after contracts had been
awarded to a group including Egypt's Orascom Telecommunications, another group including Kuwait's National
Mobile Telecommunications (NMTC.KW) and a consortium including Kuwait's MTC
(TELE.KW).
Egypt's OT will help
build and run a mobile phone network in Baghdad and central Iraq, while MTC's consortium has won the contract for southern | 
