Reliance short listed for fixed-line license in Bahrain
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 13 December 2006, 18:30 IST
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New Delhi: The Reliance Empire may well be on its way to conquering new territory. The Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications is amongst the six companies among a total of 11 bids to be short listed for the final round of the two National Fixed Wireless Services (NFWS line licenses in Bahrain). The Economic Times reported this today. According to industry sources, after giving due weight age to technical and financial parameters, Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (BTRA) short listed six players for the final round on Tuesday. The final round will be held on December 13, after the opening of the financial bids of six short listed companies. The two NFWS licenses will be awarded to the highest bidders, and the operators will be able to offer both voice and as well as data services. They will also be permitted to provide local telephony, internet services and international calls. The other companies who are also in the race for the two licenses are ATCO Clearwire Telecom Limited, Batelco, Etisalcom Wireless Co WLL, Mena Telecom WLL, MTC-Vodafone and Bahrain BSC. “These companies have met the qualification criteria of the NFWS licences auction,” BTRA told ET. Qatar Telecom (Qtel), Nuetel Communications SPC, Blue Zone East LLC and Kalaam Telecom Bahrain figure among the companies which failed to make the final cut. In order to avoid any controversy, BTRA had appointed an independent experts panel for reviewing the failed bids. The aforementioned companies failed to meet the technical and financial qualification criteria, industry sources added. Though Reliance stands a good chance of making the final cut, it has made three unsuccessful bids for licenses in foreign countries in the recent past. The company, which had jointly bid with Singye Group lost the race for the second mobile operator license in Bhutan. Prior to that, Reliance Communications—it had formed a consortium with Sweden-based Swedtel for the second national operator’s (SNO) license in Kenya—failed to make the final cut. Earlier, Reliance Communications’ bid to enter the Egyptian mobile market had failed as the Egyptian national telecom regulator disqualified its bid after the completion of technical evaluation, said ET.

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