France Telecom Orange, Zain and Portugal Telecom are among the future bidders who have acquired specifications for the tender.
All nineteen Mozambican and foreign operators are required to submit their bids no later than 21 June 2010.
Conditions include the payment of 25 million US dollars within ten days of the license being awarded, the confirmation of more than 30 million dollars worth of net assets and annual revenues of at least 50 million dollars.
Also, bidders can get the documentation needed against a bank guarantee of two million dollars, which will be returned to unsuccessful bidders.
The entry of a third operator was approved by the Mozambican government in July last year.
Currently, the country has two mobile operators, state-owned Mcel, owned by Telecomunicacoes de Mocambique and Vodacom Mozambique, Vodafone’s unit. Together, the two operators have almost 6 million subscribers, 3.5 million Mcel customers and 2.5 million Vodacom customers respectively.
