Seven telecom groups qualify for Morocco's private GSM license

Moroccan Telecom authorities said Wednesday that seven major international telecom groups were chosen to take part in the final race to obtain Morocco's $500 million private GSM mobile phone contract.

The selected candidates are: French-U.S. group France Telecom-Motorola, U.S. GTE-Bell Atlantic, UK-based Orange, Italia Mobile, Spanish-Portuguese Telefonica-Portugal Telecom, French-U.S. Vivendi-SBC Communications and UK-U.S. Vodaphone-Airtouch, said Morocco's telecom watchdog body (ANRT).

The seven groups should now start withdrawing tender documents around April 20 after which the telecom competitors will have around two months to present their bids to the Moroccan authorities.

Most of these private groups are expected to set up consortiums with local and foreign financial investors to enhance their odds for winning the mobile phone license.

Morocco, which counts 28 million inhabitants, has about 1.4 million subscribers and over 140,000 cellular phone clients.

The projections of growth in telecommunications and the economic development of the country in general, have caused this mobile telephone concession to raise great interest among the major telecommunications companies in Europe and North America.