France's Vivendi and SBC to bid jointly for Moroccan phone tender

French group Vivendi allied recently with giant American telecom group SBC to enhance their chances of winning the $500 million Moroccan private GSM tender.

The two groups decided to make a joint bid and said that they will set up a joint venture in Morocco to consolidate their presence in the north African country.

The groups made the announcement Wednesday in Casablanca, Morocco's economic capital, after the bids made so far by some 15 international firms which showed their interest in the Moroccan mobile phone market.

France Telecom, French Cegetel, U.S. GTE, and Southern Bell Corporation (SBC), Hong Kong Hutchison, German Deutsche Telekom, China Telecom, Telefonica, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and many other companies are all engaged in the race for getting the private Moroccan SGM network.

Morocco, which counts 28 million inhabitants, has about 1.4 million phone subscribers and over 80,000 mobile phones.