Mobile networks tender cancelled

Extension of current contracts most likely

The Department of Tenders has canceled the mobile management tender as the fair competition prerequisite has not been met.

Only two operators have submitted their bids to manage the two mobile networks, Alpha and MTC, said a source at the Central Inspection Board, in charge of the Department of Tenders.

Kuwait’s Zain Group and France-based Orange S.A. were the only remaining bidders after Egypt’s Orascom Telecom told the Department of Tenders that it will not participate in the tender, the source said.

Zain and Orascom Telecom currently operate Lebanon’s two mobile phone networks and their contracts will expire by the end of 2015.

The source, who declined to be named, said the decision is now in the hands of the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Council of Ministers. The most likely option is to extend the contracts of the two operators for at least three months even if a new tender will be held, he said.

The terms of reference of the new tender should be carefully set in order to avoid the difficulties that the cancelled tender had witnessed, he said. Three companies, from Turkey, Malaysia, and the UK have withdrawn from the tender, without explanation.