Moussa Benhamadi : « 3 G provisional licence to be allotted by mid-September 2013 »

The Algerian minister of posts, information and communication, Moussa Benhamadi, has announced in Algiers that the 3G provisional licence will be allotted to the successful bidding mobile phone operators as early as September 15th 2013.

He indicated that the submission operation of the book of specifications pertaining to the launching of the third generation (3G) of mobile telephony in Algeria kicked off last Thursday.

“The final 3 G licence will be allotted before the end of December 2013 once all the supervisory operations regarding the fulfillment of the required criteria and conditions by the parties concerned were carried through”,  Mr Benhamadi affirmed.

The minister further said that the launching of the 3 G was intricate as it has a nationwide dimension, adding that the operation had witnessed a lengthy delay mostly because of the lingering unresolved tax issue weighing on the Algeria-based mobile phone operator Djezzy.

Mr Moussa Benhamadi explained that the Algerian authorities had wittingly put off the launching of the 3G in the general interest as they didn’t want to strip Djezzy, which counts over 17 million subscribers in Algeria, from the most ambitious third generation market.