According to details published by the Ministry of Transport and Communications in Guinea-Bissau, the government is once again revisiting plans to sell off an 80% stake in monopoly fixed line PTO Companhia de Telecomunicacoes da Guine-Bissau (Guine Telecom), along with an 80% indirect interest in mobile services arm Guinetel. News agency Lusa reported that the details were released by the Ministry in an announcement of the privatisation plan.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database writes that in September 2021 it was announced that Guine Telecom and mobile services arm Guinetel, which was declared bankrupt by the government and effectively ceased operating in 2013, was set to resume activities in the country. On 14 September, seven years after it was declared officially bankrupt in 2014, Guinetel was awarded a mobile operating licence by the National Regulatory Authority of Information and Communication Technologies (Autoridade Reguladora Nacional das Tecnologias de Informacao e Comunicacao, ARN). A week later Guine Telecom received a new concession – Single Individual Licence No. GNB01SFT2021 – from the Communication Minister Augusto Gomes, to operate as a network and infrastructure operator and fixed line telecom service provider throughout Guinea-Bissau. Gomes explained that the resurrection of the national PTO reflects ‘the state’s desire for sovereignty in telecommunications, particularly concerning the security of communications and national data’.