Mali’s ministry of communication and new information technologies will send out the initial version of the bidding document for the sale of a third global licence by the end of this week.
The global licence holder will be able to provide fixed, 2G/3G…
Mali’s ministry of communication and new information technologies will send out the initial version of the bidding document for the sale of a third global licence by the end of this week.
The global licence holder will be able to provide fixed, 2G/3G and data transmission services as well as international telecoms services for 15 years.
The ministry is advised by a consortium consisting of Linkstone Capital, Bird&Bird and the SOGREAH technical consultancy.
The final version of the bidding document will be sent out the week commencing 11 October and final bids are due by 14 November. The process is due to close on 28 November. Technical bids will weigh for 30% in the evaluation of the bids, while financial bid will account for 70%.
In an information notice, the ministry said: “A new operator will be able to intervene in under-exploited aspects of the markets such as remote banking, tele-payment and mobile Internet, which call for financial and marketing investments which the existing operators have not especially achieved to date.”
There are currently two mobile operators in the country: Malitel, the mobile unit of Maroc Telecom-owned incumbent Sotelma, and Orange. The latter operates a 3G network in Bamako and Kayes, while Sotelma’s 3G network is currently being installed.
According to the operators, there were some 80,000 fixed line subscribers and between six and seven million mobile subscribers at the end of last year.
Sotelma had a 95% fixed line market share and controlled 36.3% of the mobile market, while Orange had 63.7% of the mobile market at the end of 2010.
At the end of last year, Mali had a population of 15.4 million.
