MTN to bid for Tunisie Telecom stake

South African wireless holding company MTN will bid for a stake in Tunisie Telecom, making it the 15th company to have so far expressed an interest in the 35% stake. Others known to be interested include Etisalat, Batelco, France Telecom and Telecom Italia. Tunisie Télécom was established in 1996 and by the end of March 2005 had installed 1,214,000 fixed lines across the country, up from 1,164,000 at the end of 2003.