Saudi telecom group Bintel has won a GSM licence in Congo, according to the website of Congolese telecoms minister Thierry Moungalla.
Bintel plans to operate in Congo under the brand name Equateur Telecom Congo and will start building its network…
Saudi telecom group Bintel has won a GSM licence in Congo, according to the website of Congolese telecoms minister Thierry Moungalla.
Bintel plans to operate in Congo under the brand name Equateur Telecom Congo and will start building its network immediately.
It will become the country’s fourth mobile operator, competing against market leaders Zain and MTN as well as the Dhabi Group’s Warid Telecom, which was recently acquired by Essar Kenya.
Congo has 4 million inhabitants and a high mobile penetration of 70%, with 2.85 million subscribers according to The Mobile World.
In early 2009, Bintel group CEO Alawi Baroum announced that the group would invest US$250m to enter at least three new African countries within the next two years. Since then, the company has launched in Gabon under the brand name Azur.
It already operates in the Central African Republic and the autonomous region of Somaliland, where it is known as Nationlink.
Bintel, which is registered in the UAE and based in Bahrain, also owns a majority stake in the Swiss wholesale traffic and retail provider Telesonique.
At the time of its launch in 2007, the group was owned by the Saudi Binladen Group (60%), Baud Telecom Company (25%), Saad Binladen (7%), Converged Technologies (5%) and Jameaah Holding (3%).
