Tunisia Provisionally Awards 3rd Mobile License

A consortium made up of France Telecom and Divona Telecom has been provisionally awarded the third mobile license in the North African country of Tunisia.

The license covers both GSM and 3G services, and includes a landline service.

A statement from the regulator warned that the award is temporary pending the completion of the provisions included in the procedures of the international call for tender. The final decision should be confirmed next week.

There are currently two mobile network operators in the country - the state controlled Tunisie Telcom which is the sole landline operator, and Tunisiana, which just operates a mobile phone network. It is not immediately clear if Tunisiana will be offered a landline license, otherwise it would be commercially at a disadvantage to the other two operators.

Figures from the Mobile World analysts show that both operators ended the first quarter of this year with some 4.3 million customers, although Tunisiana has shown faster growth over the past few months. The population penetration level stood at 82%.