| Shunning Western bidders, Iraq has awarded two-year GSM mobile phone contracts to three Arab firms: Orascom, Atheer Tel and Asia Cell. The licences are among the most potentially lucrative and high-profile contracts to be offered in post-war Iraq. The country did not have a public mobile phone network during Saddam Hussein's rule and much of the land-line network was destroyed in the war. âThe companies that will bring Iraq world-class mobile communications are, in the northern region, Asia Cell consortium, in the central region, Orascom, and in the south, Atheer Tel,â said the interim telecommunications minister, Haidar al-Abbadi, in Baghdad. The three consortia will pay a total of $5 million as a fee for the two-year licence, with each consortium's share determined by its potential subscriber base. The licence is relatively cheap, partly because of the high investment costs now facing the winners. |