Tunisia Telecom News
Orascom seeks to squeeze Wataniya out of Tunisiana (From itp.net, May 7, 2006)
- Egypt’s Orascom
Telecom has announced that it will file a request for arbitration against Kuwait operator Wataniya
Telecom to enforce what it claims to be a contractual right to acquire Wataniya’s 50% stake in Tunisiana, Tunisia’s second mobile
operator.
Orascom owns the remaining 50% of Tunisiana,
having sold Wataniya a 50% stake in October 2002
at a cost of US$113.5 million, including an immediate cash payment of US$90
million. Wataniya had unsuccessfully bid for the
concession to operate Tunisia’s
second mobile operation in its own right, and later accepted teaming up
with Orascom to run Tunisiana.
Tunisiana counted 2.388 million subscribers at the end of
March 2006, translating to a 44% market share where market penetration
reached 55% in Tunisia.
Orascom states that it has been unable to reach an amicable
resolution of its claim that Wataniya has
materially breached an agreement, and will therefore request for
arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce’s
International Court of Arbitration.
“Wataniya has noted the public announcement made by Orascom Telecom,” Ahmad Haleem,
CEO of Wataniya International told CommsMEA. Reading
from a company statement, Haleem said it was Wataniya’s belief that the arbitration should
have remained a confidential matter and that the Kuwaiti operator was
disappointed by Orascom’s decision to make
the matter public. “Wataniya remains of the
firm belief that the grounds for the arbitration are entirely without merit,”
Haleem added.
Six companies bid to acquire 35% stake in Tunisie Telecom (March 9, 2006)
TUNIS (Dow Jones) -
Six companies have placed a bid to acquire a 35% stake in Tunisia's largest
telecommunications carrier Tunisie Telecom, the
Tunisian Communication Ministry said Wednesday evening.
The
partial privatization of Tunisie Telecom
estimated at around EUR1.5 billion has attracted bids from French companies
France Telecom and Vivendi Universal; South
African group Mobil Telephone Networks; United Arab Emirates' Etisalat and Tecom Co. - all
of whom have put in separate offers. Telecom Italia and Saudi Oger Ltd. have made a common offer, the Ministry said.
Financial
offers will be examined in the second half of March in the presence of all
the bidders but the name of the winner will only be known in about three
months, the Ministry said. There could also be an auction if the offers are
within 10% of each other, the Ministry added.
The
Tunisian government was originally planning to seal a deal by Dec. 13 but
has constantly delayed the bidding deadline.
Tunisia picks 13 firms for telecom sale
(From the
Gulf News, October 10,
2005)
TUNIS
- Tunisia
has selected 13 companies for the sale of a 35 per cent stake in Tunisie Telecom, the Telecommunications Ministry said
yesterday.
Tunisia
expects to take in as much as $1.7 billion (Dh6.23 billion) from the deal
as it spurs competition in the industry.
Fourteen companies had
applied after the government launched the tender on August 29, the ministry
said in a statement.
It did not say which
company it had rejected but named Spain's Telefonica, France Telecom, Telecom Italia
and Portugal Telecom among the 13 firms.
"The quality and
the number of operators highlighted the strong interest aroused by the
Tunisian telecoms industry and the whole country's economy," the
ministry said.
The other companies
are: France's
Bouygues
Telecom, Bahrain's
Batelco, Etisalat of
the UAE, T-Mobile, Mobile Telephone Networks, Saudi Oger,
Saudi Telecom Company, Telecom Dig and Vivendi
Universal.
Tunisie
Telecom has a monopoly in fixed-line telephony and in the mobile market it
competes with Tunisiana, a joint venture of Kuwait's
National Mobile Telecom (Wataniya) and Egypt's Orascom Telecom.
Telecom
Italia, Tunisia Telecom in alliance to
supply company services (October
6, 2004)
MILAN (AFX) - Telecom Italia SpA and state-owned Tunisia Telecom said they launched
a partnership to supply voice and data services to companies in the
Mediterranean region.
Chinese telecom firm wins 3G
telecom equipment deal in Tunisia (July 3, 2004)
(MENAFN)
- The leading Chinese telecom company Zhongxing Telecom Equipment (ZTE)
recently won a 3G telecom equipment deal in Tunisia, Xinhua
News Agency reported.
By an agreement between ZTE and the Tunisian Ministry of Transportation and
Communications, the telecom firm will provide full WCDMA equipment for two
3G networks in two Tunisian cities
The networks are scheduled for operation in late
2005. Besides the traditional end-to-end WCDMA network, ZTE will also
unveil WCDMA+WI-FI, a combination of the WCDMA and wireless technologies.
Tunisie Telecom's new GSM tariffs:
Prepaid strategy or churn prevention measure? (From menareport.com, March 19,
2003)
- On February 28, 2003, Tunisie
Telecom announced a restructuring of its mobile GSM (Global System for
Mobile Communication) tariffs. The new tariffs indicate a clear focus by
the incumbent on enticing new subscriber additions, and even portions of
its own contract subscriber base, to its prepaid service, according to IDC
global market intelligence and advisory firm.
"As expected, Tunisie Telecom lowered its
prepaid activation fees in response to the lower activation fees of the new
entrant, Tunisiana. And to continue capitalizing
on the growth momentum in the prepaid market, Tunisie
Telecom reduced its prepaid per minute fee,"
explained Mohsen Malaki,
senior analyst in IDC CEMA's Telecommunications
Group.
But the incumbent's per-12 second billing structure, from the first 12
seconds, is an aggressive move that has not yet been undertaken in the
region, particularly this early on in the growth phase of a duopoly market,
according to an IDC report.
"Many of the markets that have reached a relatively advanced level of
penetration and experienced price competition have moved on to billing by
the second after the first minute of use, but none have been so aggressive
as to charge by the fraction of the first minute," continued Malaki.
The reasoning for this has been that the majority of outgoing mobile calls
are less than a minute in duration, implying a significant revenue loss for
any operator charging by the fraction of the first minute. Tunisie Telecom's competitive new prepaid price
structure may be a fix for the operator's own internal ailments, as much as
it may be a response to competition.
It is well known that Tunisie Telecom's contract
GSM customers have long complained of billing problems by the operator.
First, its customers receive their bills every six months, creating a sticker-shock
each time a customer receives a copy of the bill, while also increasing the
likelihood of perceived billing errors by the customer.
This results in customer dissatisfaction and possible churn to the
competitor. Second, and equally as important, is the strain that a
six-month billing interval places on Tunisie
Telecom's cash flow and liquidity. Third, the incumbent suffers from a high
frequency of late or unpaid bills. Finally, Tunisie
Telecom is notorious for repeated errors in billing, which have infuriated
many a customer.
Seen in this light, the new tariff structure is designed to entice new
gross subscriber additions towards prepaid rather than contract, while also
creating a churn of Tunisie Telecom's own
contract subscribers to its prepaid plan. This should preserve Tunisie Telecom's market share and prevent churn of
contract subscribers to the competitor, and thereby avoiding the negative
impact of its poor billing system and cycle.
The quick fix, in the form of aggressive prepaid tariff reductions
implemented by Tunisie Telecom in the face of its
poor billing infrastructure, has in effect cannibalized the market for
contract subscriptions. This might be a short-term solution for Tunisie Telecom's billing problems, but could be
detrimental to the medium-term growth potential for contract subscriptions.
"The cannibalization of the contract market by Tunisie
Telecom will have a lingering effect on the balance between prepaid and
contract in Tunisia over the next five years, as the new entrant, and
eventually the incumbent, struggle to entice high-revenue prepaid
customers, including many business customers, to switch to contract
subscriptions," asserted Malaki.
Given the aggressive moves to dominate the prepaid market, IDC expects Tunisie Telecom to continue maintaining its market
share leadership, even with the freezing of new subscriber additions during
several months of 2002.
IDC believes Tunisiana (the commercial name of Orascom Telecom Tunisie) will
respond quickly to the new tariffs being offered by its competitor, and
attempt to focus on the prepaid market for now, while gradually trying to
identify and then entice high-revenue prepaid customers to opt for
contracts.
Therefore, IDC's forecasts assume a competitive market focus on service
quality on the contract side, and on usage tariffs on the prepaid side.
"Both operators realize that the real revenue growth potential from a
rapidly expanding subscriber base will not be in usage, but rather in
activation fee revenue," said Malaki,
"and thus we do not expect a rapid deterioration of activation fees
over the next two years."
IDC expects activation fee revenue to be as high as 26 percent of total
operator revenue (services plus activation revenue) during 2003, tapering
off rapidly, to one percent by 2006.
Tunisia drops mobile tender as offers too low (July
29, 2001)
TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia
said on Friday it had abandoned attempts to tender a second GSM mobile phone
license because it was not satisfied with the $381 million offered by the
highest bidder.
"The tender was abandoned. Studies are underway to
find the best way to set up and run the second GSM network in Tunisia,"
the Telecommunications Ministry said in a statement.
The leading contender was a consortium of Spanish
telecom operator Telefonica and Portugal's
Telecom, which outbid the second contender, Telcom
Italia Mobile, the mobile division of Telecom Italia, which teamed up with
unspecified partners.
The ministry had postponed the tender for the sale of
the second GSM licence, initially set for May 5,
to May 19.
It said on Friday it began examining the offers on June
9 when the Telefonica and Telecom consortium
emerged as the highest bidder with $333 million. The consortium increased
its offer from $333 million to $381 million on June 23.
Asked
consortium to up offer
The ministry said it then asked the consortium to up
their offer, setting July 19 as the deadline before extending it to July
27. "The ministry received a written answer from the consortium
underlining that it cannot increase the price on the grounds that the
telecom sector is encountering difficulties worldwide," the statement
said.
The ministry did not say what Telcom
Italia Mobile had bid but added that both bidders were informed that their
offers were not satisfactory.
It did not disclose what price the ministry was looking
for. Tunisia
launched the tender on March 23 as part of the government's efforts to
liberalize the telecom sector.
Officials were not immediately available to comment on
the ministry statement that the authorities were considering the "best
way" to set up and operate the second GSM network and whether it meant
they were still seeking a foreign operator despite the tender failure.
The first mobile phone license, awarded in 1998, is held
by state-owned Tunisia Telecom, which has more than 150,000 users, and the
firm intends expanding its network capacity to more than 400,000 by the end
of 2001.
Authorities
say thousands of Tunisians have applied for mobiles, but they have to wait
for the end of a government expansion plan or the setting up of second
network.
Tunisia puts off GSM phone tender date to May 19 (May
5, 2001)
TUNIS (Reuters) - The
Tunisian Telecommunications Ministry has postponed the tender for the sale
of a second GSM phone license, initially set for next Saturday, to May 19
at 1 pm (12:00 GMT), a senior official said on Friday.
"The Ministry decided to
put off the closing date to May 19, in response to demands raised by some
operators, who wanted more time to complete their applications," he
said.
The official said the ministry
would issue a statement on Saturday to announce the postponement.
Tunisia launched the tender for the sale of a second Global
Mobile System telephone license on March 23 and set the initial tender
closing date for Saturday, May 5 at 12:00
GMT.
The tender is part of the North
African country's bid to liberalize the telecommunications sector.
State-owned Tunisia Telecom, which has about 150,000 users, holds the first
mobile phone license, awarded in 1996, and the firm intends expanding its
network capacity to 400,000 by end of 2001.
The ministry said eligible
bidders for the second license must be either:
- A single independent firm,
characterized as a qualified operator, or a firm, whose shareholders
include one or two qualified operators.
- A
consortium including one qualified operator at least, or a maximum of two.
The qualified operator must be the
direct or indirect owner in the last two years of a minimum 51 percent
stake in a telecom license with at least 500,000 cellular phone subscribers
at end 2000.
In the case of a consortium, the
leading bidder should have net assets worth more than $400 million or a
market capitalization of $2.0 billion.
The official said so far "several foreign
operators had already submitted their offers for the tender".
"The number and the quality of the operators which had made offers is meeting the expectations of the authorities," he
added but declined to name any of the bidders or the operators who asked
for more time to join the bids.
Tunisia to award second GSM licence by July (April 6, 2001)
TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia, anticipating huge
interest from major telecommunications firms, will award its second GSM
mobile phone license in July at the latest, a senior official at the
Telecommunications Ministry said on Friday.
The North African country opened
a tender for the licence sale last month and set
a May 5 deadline for offers. "The interest is huge and we see a
successful result for the tender," he said.
"We expect the licence tender process to be concluded in June or the
beginning of July," the top official, who asked not to be named, said.
The tender is open for a single
independent firm or a consortium including one operator or a maximum of
two, provided they satisfy conditions detailed in the tender.
The license lasts 15 years, but the
official said it can be extended for a further five years.
To show authorities' wish for a
speedy sale process, a closed meeting will be held next Wednesday in Tunis between the
ministry's senior officials and experts and the bidders.
The official said several major
telecom players had shown interest in the tender because of what he termed
promising potential in the country’s mobile phone
market.
Egypt's Orascom Telecom and
Portugal Telecom have expressed interest in the Tunisian second phone license
but the official declined to name other interested firms.
Fellow Maghreb country, Morocco,
sold in 1999 a second GSM license for $1.1 billion to Meditelecom,
a consortium led by Spain's
Telefonica and Portugal Telecom.
Population of Morocco is
three times that of Tunisia,
but GDP per capita is around half Tunisia's.
The official evoked what he
described as the "country's stability, a large middle class of nearly
80 percent of the 10 million population, which enjoys relatively high
standards of living and macro-economic growth of more than five percent
over the past decade".
"Every Tunisian is yearning
for a mobile phone and bidders are aware of that. That's why we expect the
competition over the license to be fierce," he said.
Authorities say thousands of
Tunisians had applied for mobile phones but they had to wait for the end of
a government expansion plan or the arrival of the second licensee.
The first mobile phone license,
awarded in 1996, is held by state-owned Tunisia Telecom, which has about
150,000 users but the firm intends expanding its network capacity to
400,000 by end of 2001.
Asked about the current mobile
operator revenues, the official refused to give a figure, arguing that the
information was a key indicator sought by bidders. "The revenue is
significant and the operator or operators who will win the tender will
benefit a great deal. The return would be more than ten-fold the
investment," he said.
The official said the country
had laid grounds for strong growth in telecoms, with a relatively good
infrastructure and new legislation.
A telecoms regulatory body,
known as Telecoms National Authority, was also set up to enforce fair
competition in the sector.
The official added that a
presidential order on interconnection fees is expected to be issued soon,
to avoid any possible conflict between Tunisia Telecom and the new private
operator.
The government says it invested
in 1990-2000 a total 2.36 billion dinars ($1.66
billion) in fixed and mobile infrastructure. "The telecoms sector
annual average growth stood at more than 17 percent over the last five
years, that's three times the average growth rate of the economy," a
government report said.
The number of telephone fixed
phone subscribers jumped from 226,000 in 1987 to 1.2 million in 2000. The
government plans to increase fixed phone penetration to 25 percent of the
population by 2004 from 12 percent in 2000.
Government data shows that GDP
per capita soared from $115.6 in 1966 to $1,922 in 1998 and to $2,800 in
2000, one of the highest in the North African area.
Tunisia opens bidding
for new mobile licence (March 28, 2001)
TUNIS (TAP)- Tunisia
could have a new mobile operator by the end of the year after the
government opened a tender for the second GSM license.
Potential bidders have until 12:00 GMT on May 5th to submit their proposals.
In order to qualify, they must be either “a single independent firm,
characterized as a qualified operator or a firm, whose shareholders include
one or two qualified operators; or a consortium including one qualified
operator at least, or a maximum of two,” according
to the communications ministry.
The ‘qualified operator’ must be the direct or
indirect owner, for at least the last two years, of a minimum of 51 percent
of a telecoms license with a least half a million cellular subscribers.
Any companies leading a consortium should have net
assets worth more than US $400 million, or market capitalization of at
least $2 billion.
By setting the standards for bidders so high, it seems
that the Tunisian government is looking for bidders from outside the
region.
Portugal Telecom declared an interest in the licence earlier this month, saying it would form a
consortium with Spanish operator Telefonica. The
two worked together two years ago to scoop the second Moroccan GSM license,
in a $1 billion deal backed by BMCE Bank and the Afriquia
Group.
At present the only GSM license in the country is
held by state-owned PTT monopoly Tunisia Telecom. Launched five years ago,
it can handle up to 50,000 subscribers.
A $74 million expansion plan is on schedule to be
finished by December, which will add capacity for up to 300,000 further
users.
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