India’s Reliance Communications (RCOM) may be considering bidding for Iran’s third mobile phone service licence. The Wall Street Journal quoted an unidentified Iranian government official who said, ‘Reliance has shown interest to bid for the tender and will compete with firms from Russia, Turkey and Malaysia.’ A spokesman for RCOM declined to comment specifically on a potential bid for the Iran licence.
The third Iranian mobile licence will cover five million customers in the first phase, ten million in the second and increase to 15 million in the third phase with an estimated price tag of around USD1 billion. Bids for the licence tender will be called within a month, and other prospective bidders include Qatar Telecom (Qtel).