Lebanese-backed telecoms group Africell Holding has been invited by the government of Angola to submit a formal technical and financial proposal in its bid for the country’s fourth Unified Global operating licence, permitting infrastructure-based mobile, internet, fixed telephony and pay-TV services. The Interministerial Working Group overseeing the bidding process disclosed that two other companies registered an interest in the fourth licence, namely South Africa’s MTN Group and Angola’s BAI Investments, but only Africell chose to formalise a bid, news agency Lusa reported. In the preliminary stages of Angola’s fourth licence tender, twelve companies had made approaches, including Bharti Airtel, Maroc Telecom, Telkom South Africa, Orange Group, Vodafone Group and others.
Angola’s mobile market is currently a duopoly of Unitel and Movicel, while state-backed fixed line operator Angola Telecom holds the third Unified Global licence and is planning a mobile launch in partnership with Egyptian-backed Angorascom.
The Africell group operates mobile networks in Gambia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, and also provides internet, pay-TV and mobile money services.