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Iraq
Arab firms win Iraqi phone contracts
2003-10-08
Shunning Western bidders, Iraq has awarded two-year GSM mobile phone contracts to three Arab firms: Orascom, Atheer Tel and Asia Cell. The licences are among the most potentially lucrative and high-profile contracts to be offered in post-war Iraq. The country did not have a public mobile phone network during Saddam Hussein's rule and much of the land-line network was destroyed in the war. “The companies that will bring Iraq world-class mobile communications are, in the northern region, Asia Cell consortium, in the central region, Orascom, and in the south, Atheer Tel,” said the interim telecommunications minister, Haidar al-Abbadi, in Baghdad. The three consortia will pay a total of $5 million as a fee for the two-year licence, with each consortium's share determined by its potential subscriber base. The licence is relatively cheap, partly because of the high investment costs now facing the winners.
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#4  No. GSM is crap. Steve Denbeste (an electronics engineer) at denbeste.nu
told why the American system is MUCH superior. To
begin with you can put far more users in a band of frequences.


But the other reason why this bad news is that Arabs have an interest in torpedoing Iraq so they
should be kept as far of its reconstruction as possible.

Posted by: JFM   2003-10-8 3:22:42 PM  

#3  I think this is great, GSM is the better technology and more used around the world. There's no reason that we should try and saddle iraq with the substandard stuff that we use in the states. They can start from scratch rather than completely re-do existing infrastructrue like we would have to.

This was a smart move. Very smart.

-DS
Posted by: DeviantSaint   2003-10-8 1:51:40 PM  

#2  The really interesting thing about this was that each of the three firms has significant local, i.e. Iraqi, ownership. Palm crossing in the traditional Arab style, and, gee, who in Iraq is rich enough to have millions to invest? Baathists and Kurds.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2003-10-8 1:47:00 PM  

#1  The oil, the oil, big bu s i n zzzzzzzz
Posted by: Superhose   2003-10-8 12:50:00 PM  

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