Oct 14 2006 |
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Yemen: Syriatel enters alliance with Unitel
HITS-Unitel Company is entering a new partnership with Syriatel Company, to run the third GSM operator in Yemen. Syriatel will have a 10 percent share of the newly formed company. The alliance, composed of HITS (House of Integrated Technology and Systems) of Saudi Arabia and Unitel, is headed by Saudi-based Al-Dar Telecommunications, which has the largest share in Unitel.The size of Al-Dar's investment will reach US $335 million, including the $149 million licensing fee. Al-Dar owns a 75 percent stake in the company, and Yemeni investors own the remaining 25 percent. In its statement, the company said it is working on improving its construction, human resources, and technical abilities, to bring them up to international standards.
The alliance is considered the first of its kind in the region said Fahad al-Shamimari, a representative of Unitel in Riyadh. All the partners in the alliance have good reputations in the telecom field. "Absolutely, this alliance will improve telecom services in Yemen," al-Shamimari said. The company received the official license from the Yemeni Ministry of Telecommunications during a visit by the Al-Dar company, where the final agreement was drawn up. "We at HITS-Unitel are proud to create a Gulf-Yemeni alliance in field of Arab investment work," he said.
The company managed within a short time to finalize all technical and financial obligations to run the third GSM operator, he said. The new alliance has finalized the process of selecting qualified people to run the company's affairs. It will use modern technologies to support the telecom market in Yemen, and create real change for GSM users in the country.
Al-Dar took leadership of the alliance in the middle of this year, after it acquired the Unitel Company, which had received the license to be the third GSM operator in the country. After this alliance, the capital of the company reached $335 million, which made the project one of the biggest investments in the country. The Saudi partners have begun holding talks with international companies to select the best main operator for the company's network, he said.
The company expects to begin its services by the second quarter of 2007. Al-Shamimari said that the company would bring European and Arab experts to observe the development of international technologies that will serve subscribers perfectly. Al-Dar is happy that several gulf partners support the alliance. The Kuwait Finance and Investment Company, for example, has a 12 percent share in the alliance.
Recently, the Ministry of Telecommunications said that Unitel had paid its financial obligations to the Ministry. Last year, the Ministry announced the awarding of the third GSM mobile phone operating permit to the Unitel, for which it paid the government US $149 million. The company will join mobile phone operators Sabafon (Yemen Company for Mobile Telephony) and Spacetel Yemen, which was the first GSM operator in Yemen to provide reliable GSM mobile service covering all 21 governorates of the country.
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