Airtel, Reliance may bid for Bhutan GSM licence

Category: Reliance | 1 Comment | Posted on August 16, 2006

Business Standard reports that some Indian operators, including Bharti Airtel and Reliance Telecom, have evinced interest in bidding for a GSM-based mobile service licence in Bhutan.

Bhutan started mobile services in November 2003 and has about 50,000 cellular subscribers and over 40,000 fixed-line customers. State-owned Bhutan Telecom is the sole operator until now. This would be the second mobile licence in the Himalayan kingdom, which has a population of just under 7 lakh.

The foreign bidders will have to partner with a Bhutanese company and will be able to take a maximum 49 per cent equity stake in the joint venture…

The licensee can offer mobile virtual network operation (MVNO) services and will be required to abide by mobile number portability.

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