Moroccan government approves sale of 2nd GSM license to Medi-Telecom

The Moroccan government approved Thursday the sale of the 2nd GSM mobile phone license to the consortium led by Spain's Telefonica (TEF.MC).

The consortium dubbed "Medi-Telecom" gained the license after bidding around $1.8 billion doubling the international tender launched by the Moroccan telecom authorities.

The Telefonica-led consortium -- which includes Portugal Telecom, Moroccan BMCE-Bank and gas distributor Afriquia -- was among seven groups which competed for the second Moroccan GSM- license. Morocco, a nation of 28 million inhabitants, counts around 1.5 million phone subscribers and over 500,000 mobile phone users.

The North African country, which is determined to go forward in the liberalization of its telecom sector, is planning to sell up to 40% of the capital of its telecom operator "Ittisalat Al-Maghreb" for around $1 billion.