Warid wins licence in Bangladesh December 7, 2005
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Farid Ahmed, Dhaka: The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission has decided to award the country’s sixth mobile phone operation licence to Warid Telecom International LLC of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The 40th board meeting of the regulatory commission approved the offer from Warid, a concern of UAE’s Dhabi Group, the New Age daily reported Tuesday.
Omniah of Jordan was the other bidder competing for the licence, but its offer was not accepted.
Dhabi group, the owner of Warid, had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Board of Investment in September to invest around $1 billion in various sectors in the country including telecom, tourism and pharmaceuticals.
The regulatory commission had invited proposals on Oct 5 from Bangladeshi companies, joint ventures with local partners or overseas companies with 100 percent foreign investment to set up, maintain and operate GSM telephony for general public use.
The objective of the invitation was to ensure reasonably priced, reliable, competitive and market-based mobile phone environment with a view to improving teledensity in the country.
“The commission will award the licence to the company after finalising the procedures,” said the official.
The licence will be given for an initial period of 15 years, covering the entire country. After that, it may be renewed by the commission subject to satisfactory performance.
Warid in 2003 bought a GSM mobile licence in Pakistan through auction for $291 million.
Currently, there are around 7.5 million mobile users in Bangladesh provided for by five mobile operators - GrameenPhone, Aktel, BanglaLink, CityCell and the state-owned Teletalk. Industry insiders said that Bangladesh was likely to see around 17 million subscribers by the end of 2007
TWA Cable from Karachi to UAE completed. December 7, 2005
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e-marine lays new cable linking UAE- Pakistan
Dec 6, 2005 - 08:02 -
Abu Dhabi, 06 Dec. 05 (WAM)– Emirates Telecommunications & Marine Services FZE- e-marine- a subsidiary of Etisalat, has announced the completion of a new submarine cable connecting UAE and Pakistan, branching to Oman.
The project to lay over 1200 kms of submarine cable, awarded to e-marine by Tyco and owned by Trans World Associates (TWA), Pakistan, was completed ahead of planned schedule.
Omar Jassim Bin Kalban, CEO, e-marine, said: “Our vessels and people have once again shown their expertise and leadership in our field by completing the project successfully in a record time. This project saw our Cableship Umm Al Anber landing the cable at Fujairah before proceeding to lay the cable till Karachi.
A branching unit was included and another cable laid connecting Al Seeb in Oman to the main cable.” “This cable will boost the available bandwidth between the UAE and Pakistan, and will result in convenience and benefit for telecom and Internet users. With recent additions to bandwidth, we are positive that users across the region will be able to enjoy the benefit of fast and efficient connectivity through submarine cables”, he added.
