Modibo Arouna Toure, Mali’s Minister of Digital Economy and Communication, has presented the government with a ‘note conceptuelle’ (concept note) regarding the issuance of the country’s fourth mobile licence. Mr Toure pitched the new concession to the Council of Ministers, chaired by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on 5 October, setting out an operational timetable and a projected budget for the new concession.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, plans for a new mobile licence emerged in March this year, spurred on by the slow progress of third licensee Alpha Telecom Mali (Atel), which was awarded its concession back in September 2012, but has yet to launch on a commercial basis. The unsuccessful bidders on that occasion were India’s Bharti Airtel and Vietnam’s Viettel Group.
Pending Atel’s launch, the market remains a duopoly between Orange Mali and Maroc Telecom-backed SOTELMA.