Seven groups bid for second mobile phone license

The deadline set for bidding for Morocco's second mobile phone license wound up on Tuesday with seven groups competing for winning the project, the Moroccan telecommunications regulation authority (ANRT) said. The second GSM phone license, is estimated by experts at $ 400 million.

Bids will be opened and the telecoms operators' offers will start to be examined this Wednesday and the winner will be known end of next July, ANRT said.

The seven bidders are French-U.S. group, France Telecom-Motorola, U.S. GTE-Bell Atlantic, Italian Telecom Italia Mobile, Spanish-Portuguese Telefonica-Portugal Telecom PTCO,IN, French-U.S. Vivendi-SBC Communications and UK-U.S. Vodaphone Airtouch and UK-based Orange.

The selected operator will manage basic infrastructure, exploitation equipment and the distribution network at $ 400 million, ANRT said.