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The two Indian companies have tough competition from the likes of Vodafone, Verizon Communications, AT&T and Egypt’s Orascom.

Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi, July 3

Reliance Communication and a consortium led by Bharti Airtel are among the 12 companies shortlisted by Qatar telecom regulator to bid for a mobile licence in that country.

Qatar had earlier invited companies to bid for the licence, which will end the monopoly of Qatar Telecommunications Co. The two Indian companies, however, have tough competition from the likes of Vodafone, Verizon Communications, AT&T and Egypt’s Orascom.

Indian operators have been on the look out for acquiring new licences in foreign countries. Bharti, Reliance, MTNL have been bidding for licences in countries like Saudi Arabia and African countries. But so far the Indian telcos have not had many successes with aggressive bidding by foreign players.

For instance, Kuwait Telecom had bid a $6.1-billion for a third mobile licence in Saudi Arabia. Both Bharti and Reliance had also bid for the licence in Saudi Arabia. While Bharti has managed to get into Sri Lanka, Jersey Island and Seychelles, MTNL has had success in Kenya and Nepal until now.

Reliance is yet to bag an overseas licence. While MTNL is looking at overseas markets as it is restricted in India to offers services only in Delhi and Mumbai, the private operators are looking to go global.

The 12 bidders for the Qatar mobile licence are Bharti Airtel, Verizon Argos, AT&T, Batelco, Digicel, Etisalat, Jordan Telecom, MTC (Kuwait), Orascom Telecom, Omantel-Belgacom, Reliance Telecom and Vodafone. A total of 17 firms had applied for the licence in April. The winner is due to be announced in October.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Overseas Investments | Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd | Reliance Communications Ltd

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