The winner of Malawi’s new mobile licence will be offered spectrum for GSM and 3G services, Mike Kuntiya, who heads telecoms services at the country’s communications authority, said.
Kuntiya said the licence was likely to be valid for 15 years. He added…
The winner of Malawi’s new mobile licence will be offered spectrum for GSM and 3G services, Mike Kuntiya, who heads telecoms services at the country’s communications authority, said.
Kuntiya said the licence was likely to be valid for 15 years. He added that the winning operator would be required to pay a fee of US$100,000 per year, in addition to spectrum and base station links payments.
Macra will also claim a 5% share on the operator’s net operating revenue, Kuntiya, formerly acting general at Macra, said.
The tender is open to international and local operators and bids must be submitted by March 19. No external party is advising Macra on its decision.
Despite its reputation for having one of the continent’s most laggard telecoms sectors, Malawi has made fast progress in recent years. Its mobile penetration has grown seven-fold since 2004 to reach 18% and the country has 15 licensed ISPs, according to data from Budde Communications and The Mobile World.
The country’s low competition – it has only two mobile operators, Zain and Telecom Networks Malawi (TNM) – and planned links to undersea cables such as Eassy and Seacom also holds attractive promises.
According to Kuntiya, mobile operator Telecom Networks Malawi (TNM) recently received backing from the World Bank to extend its fibre optic backbone and expects to be linked to Seacom in roughly a year’s time.
In the fixed-line sector, the ongoing launch of the locally owned Access Communications will also add competition by challenging the former state monopoly MTL. Access could also rival mobile players by offering fixed wireless services using CDMA technology.
This is the second time that Malawi invites bids for a fourth mobile licence. A first tender, launched in June 2008, was cancelled after Macra awarded two mobile licences – to Singapore’s Lacell and Sudatel’s Expresso – instead of only one, prompting the government to annul the process.
Global operators including Econet Wireless and Millennium Global Telecom have previously shown interest in Malawi’s licence tenders.
A newcomer will compete with Zain and TNM, the former state operator which was privatised in 2005 and listed shares on the local exchange in late 2008. It would also compete with GAIN, a locally-owned company which won the third mobile licence in 2008 and has yet to launch.
