With Alpha Telecom Mali, which secured the country’s third mobile network operator licence back in 2012, still to launch commercial services, Les Afriques reports that the government is preparing to offer another concession. It is understood that the Malian authorities are aiming to launch a new international licence tender before the end of March 2016, with a person close to the matter cited as saying that the country had ‘lost a lot of time’ waiting for the company to inaugurate its network.
As noted in TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Alpha Telecom submitted a winning bid of XOF55 billion (approximately USD104 million) for its concession, but in November 2014 it was revealed that a prosecutor for the Ministre de l’Economie et des Finances (Ministry of Economy and Finance) had begun a preliminary investigation into the licence award, following criticism of the process by the country’s Office of the Auditor General at the start of that year along with the ongoing delays in the introduction of a commercial service and litigation linked to the payment of the fees for the concession.