Irancell: They think it’s all over… but it isn’t

Despite supposedly being done and dusted, the Irancell saga continues to hog deadlines in Iran and Turkey this week, with various sources claiming that an agreement between major foreign investor Turkcell and the Iranian government has still not been reached. Officially, after 38 months of legal and political wrangling, the Irancell consortium was granted Iran’s second GSM mobile licence last week, after Turkcell confirmed that it would retain its much-reduced 49% stake in the venture. According to Iran’s official IRNA news agency, Turkcell ratified its participation in Irancell just hours before the 4 September deadline imposed by the Information and Technology Ministry. However, IRNA and others are now claiming that there are problems – too numerous and tedious to report here in full – that could yet scupper the deal and pave the way for pan-Arfican cellco MTN to replace Turkcell in the consortium.