Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007
MANAMA, Bahrain (Zawya Dow Jones)--The award by Bahrain's Telecoms Regulatory Authority, or TRA, of two licenses to operate a national fixed wireless service, or NFWS, has been challenged in the country's high court by ATCO Clearwire Telecom, which bid unsuccessfully for a license.
The two licenses were awarded to MTC Vodafone Bahrain and MENA Telecom respectively.
ATCO Clearwire has applied for a restraining order to prevent or freeze the licenses, arguing that the TRA failed to follow its own legally binding auction rules.
A spokeswoman for the TRA told Zawya Dow-Jones that "We cannot comment, since we have not received any court summons or lawyer's notice."
She said there have already been meetings and written correspondence between the TRA and ACTO Clearwire, following which the TRA stood by its decision on the license awards.
ACTO Clearwire has said it is entitled to one of the NFWS licenses since neither of the two winners offered valid financial bids.
MTC-Vodafone Bahrain won with a bid of approximately 5.5 million Bahraini dinars ($14.6 million), while Mena Telecom won with a bid of approximately BHD4.5 million.
MTC-Vodaphone Bahrain is part-owned by Kuwait-based MTC-Vodaphone. Mena Telecom is majority-owned by Kuwait Finance House.
-By Meera Ravi, Dow Jones Newswires; +973 36684021; moira.varisun@yahoo.co.uk
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-01-07 1801GMT
