Malawi’s communications authority Macra has launched a tender for a fourth mobile licence.
Bids must be submitted by March 19 and tender documents come with a fee of US$690.
Macra then expects to declare the fourth operator within six months of opening…
Malawi’s communications authority Macra has launched a tender for a fourth mobile licence.
Bids must be submitted by March 19 and tender documents come with a fee of US$690.
Macra then expects to declare the fourth operator within six months of opening the offers.
This is the second time that Malawi has invited bids for a fourth mobile licence. A first beauty contest, launched in June 2008, fell through because the regulator eventually awarded two mobile licences instead of only one, prompting the government to investigate and annul the process in December 2009.
Previous tenders had attracted the interest of several global operators. These included Singapore’s Lacell and Sudatel’s Expresso – which had been awarded, then withdrawn, a licence last year – as well as Econet Wireless and US-based Millennium Global Telecom.
A newcomer will compete with Zain and Telecom Networks Malawi as well as GAIN, which won the third mobile licence in 2008 and has yet to launch.
are the two other operators in the southern African country.
