CAIRO: Telecom Egypt (TE) and Telecom Italia will submit a joint bid for Egypt s third mobile license, TE officials said on Tuesday. Telecom Egypt announced an agreement with Telecom Italia to work together to take part in the tender for the third Egyptian mobile phone license, officials told official news agency MENA. The officials said the step was a natural development following a long history of cooperation between the two firms, adding if they succeeded the two firms would establish a new firm, majority owned by TE, to run the license. TE and Telecom Italia will submit their bid on May 4, the deadline for submissions, the officials said. By April 3, 21 firms had bought the prospectus for the license. Telecom Italia has previously said it was considering making a bid for the license in Egypt, which has a population of 73 million. The two present mobile networks, operated by Vodafone Egypt and MobiNil, had close to 13 million subscribers between them by the end of December. Norway s Telenor has said it would submit a bid in partnership with Egypt s National Telecommunications Holding Corporation. Kuwait s Mobile Telecommunications Co. and Emirates Telecommunications Corp. have said they will bid and Turkcell has said it would seek to pre-qualify for the tender of the license. In related news, Malaysia s biggest phone company, Telekom Malaysia Bhd, said on Wednesday it would help provide certain services to Saudi Telecom Company in a bid for the third license. Telekom said its TM International Sdn Bhd unit had signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Telecom to provide certain marketing and technical services to the bid vehicle. Saudi Telecom, Saudi Arabia s second-largest listed firm, is among the world s top 15 telecom firms. If STC is awarded the third mobile license in Egypt, it will, together with its consortium partners, establish a company, Telekom said in a statement. The company will then enter into a management services agreement with TM International. If TM International meets the performance targets, it will have an option to acquire some equity interest in the company, Telekom added. Telekom said the deal would give it an opportunity to enter Egypt s emerging telecommunications industry whilst limiting its upfront capital commitment. Telekom shares closed unchanged at 9.75 ringgit ($2.70). Reuters
