Bidders line up for Cameroon licence

Published on 03.02.2012

BhartiAirtel, Monaco Telecom, a unit of Cable & Wireless, and Vietnam's Viettel are reported to be in talks with Cameroon's ministry of telecommunications to buy the country’s third mobile licence, according to local news reports.
The new firm will join MTN Cameroon, and Orange Cameroon to operate in the West African nation's fast-growing mobile telephony business.
MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroon have 7 million mobile phone subscribers among the country's 20 million inhabitants, according to government figures.
"We're already at the final phase of the negotiations and anytime from now," Cameroon's Telecommunications Minister Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam told reporters. No final date has been given yet for the announcing the winner.
The Cameroon government launched tender for the third mobile licence in May, a decade after MTN and Orange acquired the first licences.
Meanwhile, Viettel is also reported to be working on a plan to build a telecom network in western Africa’s Mali with US$270m in total investment.