Iraq Taking Bids for three new Telecoms Licensea

Iraq: Pre-qualification for national mobile telecommunications licences
The Iraqi National Communication and Media Commission (CMC) in Iraq has commenced the
process for the award of up to three 15-year national mobile telecommunications licences.

Under the auspices of the previous Coalition Provisional Authority, three two-year regional mobile telecommunications licences were issued in December 2003.

The licences permitted nationwide rollout once regional obligations had been met. When Iraq re-established sovereignty, the authority to award mobile licences and regulate the telecommunications sector was entrusted to the CMC. On the expiry of these licences, the CMC issued the operators of these licences with Interim Licences, effective until June 30, 2006, and commenced a process to award long term licences.

An initial pre-qualification is to be undertaken based on responses to a Qualification Questionnaire, which is available from the Financial Advisor, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, by e-mail: iraq_mobile_licensing@uk.pwc.com

Interested parties should contact the Financial Advisors by e-mail to register their interest and request a copy of a Confidentiality Undertaking, following which the Qualification Questionnaire will be released.
The deadline for receipt of completed Qualification Questionnaires is May 29, 2007.

The previous process was stopped during the latter half of 2006, following the election of a new assembly, and further interim licences, which expire on June 30, 2007, were issued to the existing operators. The CMC is now relaunching the process, which will be an auction-based process, to award 15-year national mobile telecommunications licences. It is envisaged that these licences will commence at the end of the interim period referred to above.

From ITI Reports