Seventh heaven for regulator in mobile auction

Seven companies and consortiums have placed bids for the second mobile network operating licence in Qatar, the country’s Supreme Council of Information & Communication Technology said in a statement yesterday. The seven to meet the Sunday deadline were: Bahrain Telecom (Batelco), AT&T, Vodafone Group, Etisalat, Zain Group (formerly MTC), Ace Consortium (led by Bharti Airtel) and Argos Consortium (led by Verizon Communications). Five other shortlisted participants dropped out of the auction, namely: Jordan Telecom, Orascom Telecom, Quic Consortium (led by Omantel and Belgacom), Reliance Telecom and Digicel. The regulator is due to announce a winner next month.