The Lebanese telecoms ministry has extended Zain and Orascom’s respective contracts to manage local mobile operators Touch and Alfa for another month, amid ongoing political uncertainty.
The Lebanese telecoms ministry has extended Zain (KW:ZAIN) and Orascom’s (LSE:OTMT) respective contracts to manage local mobile operators Touch and Alfa for another month.
The ministry’s efforts to tender the contracts collapsed last month after only two bidders – Zain and Orange (EPA:ORA) participated.
Telecoms minister Boutros Harb was quoted telling local newspaper the Daily Star that if the government “fails to take action” he would consider extending the contracts further still. He had been scheduled to meet Prime Minister Tammam Saeb Salam, with a view to making a decision on whether or not to relaunch the tender early in the New Year.
It was also reported today that parliament had postponed a session to select a president until 8 February. Because no candidate has secured sufficient parliamentary backing, Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014, leaving Salam to assume presidential duties in the meantime.
When the tender process was first announced in August, an industry source told TelecomFinance that given the political stalemate, there was a 50:50 chance that the cabinet would approve the result of the tender.
The telecoms ministry first brought up the possibility of opening up the tender process in 2013, having in the past renewed the contracts on a near annual basis.
Lebanon’s two-player telecoms sector has in the past been criticised as home to the world’s highest mobile tariffs, and for being corrupt and slow to implement upgrades such as 3G.
