Firms 'banned' from Iraq mobile bids (most Europe & ME Co.s)

[Nambe]

BBC World Edition

The US plans its own mobile tender phone licences in Iraq by the US authorities in Iraq could bar many of Europe's biggest telecoms companies - and almost all those in the Middle East - from bidding.

The rules - issued by the coalition authorities ahead of a bidders' conference in Jordan on Thursday - ban governments from "directly or indirectly own(ing) more than 5% of any single bidding company or single company in consortia".

That rules out - among others - Orange and T-Mobile, two of Europe's biggest operators, because the French and German governments still own significant stakes in their parent companies.

Experts said the rule could give US companies an advantage - as could another rule which demands evidence of five other contracts or licences held.

US licences are handed out on a regional basis, so even a company operating only in the US could well have a handful of licences to put on its application.

Most other countries issue them only on a national basis, therefore meaning that bidders would have to have operated in five separate countries. ---

The rules also mean that neighbouring Arab companies may well be out of the running - including Batelco, the Bahraini telecoms company which until earlier this week was running an unofficial GSM-based mobile network in Baghdad.


Very Good Voter’s Guide

[hunter]

1. I'm sorry, Dick Cheney already sold that!

Tough luck. You weren't invited to the meeting before the war where the members of the BFEE decided who got what in Iraq.

[FlashHarry]

2. Don't tell me---they'll ditch GSM

Even though all the surrounding countries use it. Yeah. Makes sense.

[NYC]

3. Does no one have the ability to stop this greed?

?