Etisalat may bid for Kuwait mobile licence

UAE incumbent Etisalat may bid for Kuwait’s third mobile phone licence in a move designed to guarantee future growth opportunities, according to Etisalat chairman Mohamed Omran. On 10 July Kuwait invited international telecoms firms to participate in the first stage of the tender for the country’s third mobile phone licence. ‘We are exploring the possibility to bid for that. We are evaluating the conditions. Once we see it can create value for us, we will decide to bid,’ said Omran, adding that Etisalat’s subscriber numbers in Egypt were growing faster than expected, with nearly a million customers signing up since it launched just two months ago. ‘Our expectation for the end of the year is three million and we still feel we can achieve that or do even better. In three years, we expect to reach ten million,’ he said.