The Senegalese government, together with the country’s regulator ARTP, has begun a tender for 4G spectrum.
Potential bidders have until mid-January to state their interest, after which the government will allocate 4G spectrum to be used for “one or more new telecommunications licences”.
There are 3 active operators in Senegal: pan-African groups Orange and Tigo (owned by Millicom), and Express Telecom. The latter is a unit of a Dubai-based group that also provides services in Ghana, Guinea and Mauritania. Orange has around 8.6 million connections while the others each have around 3 million.
Firms will only be entitled to bid if they are registered in Senegal and hold the relevant permits to build and operate a telecoms network for public use. The licence must be valid at the time of applying, with the deadline for applications set at January 18th 2016. No date has been specified for the issue of the licences.
