The President of Angola, Joao Lourenco, has signed an order to relaunch the tender for the country’s fourth mobile network operating licence, following the cancellation of the contest, which had ostensibly been won by domestic start-up Telstar before the President stepped in and annulled the result on the grounds of non-compliance with application procedures. The ‘Unified Global’ licence permits fixed and mobile voice/data/TV services. The Ministries of Finance, ICT and the Economy have established a working group to relaunch the tender.

According to the Minister of Telecoms and IT, Jose Carvalho da Rocha, meanwhile, the 45% stake up for grabs in government-owned Angola Telecom has been valued at around USD500 million. Quoted by Mercado, the minister noted that the price represents real estate assets alongside telecoms infrastructure and holdings in companies in the telecoms and other sectors including banking. Angola Telecom holds the country’s third Unified Global licence, although it is yet to launch mobile services in competition with Angola’s existing two cellcos Unitel and Movicel. The 45% stake in the fixed line operator has been earmarked for sale by the end of this year.

Source: TeleGeography