Following a public tender, Mauritania’s Autorité de Régulation (ARE) has finally found bidders for the country’s three available provisional 4G licences.
All three of the country’s major players are acquiring the five-year concessions, with incumbent Mattel paying MRU501 million (USD13.2 million), while market leader Chinguitel – a subsidiary of Sudan’s Sudatel – and Maroc Telecom subsidiary Mauritel each offering bids of MRU500 million. As part of the agreement, the operators will also pay 2.5% of their annual 4G turnover.
The regulator first attempted to sell the 4G licences in October 2018, and found no interested bidders. It relaunched the sale the following year, offering licences for each of the country’s three operators alongside a new concession aimed at introducing a newcomer to the market.
All three players in the market have been fined by ARE for quality of service failures, and the lack of interest in the initial 4G tender has often been ascribed to a protest against this, reports CommsUpdate.
