CAIRO, Egypt-Orascom Telecom said its subsidiary SyriaTel was awarded a new GSM license in Syria. The GSM 900 MHz license will cost about $20 million.
SyriaTel won one of two contracts granted by the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment.
The 15-year contract to build, operate and transfer a GSM network requires a revenue-sharing agreement of 30 percent of SyriaTel’s revenues of the first three years, 40 percent of revenues of the second three years and 50 percent of revenues of the remaining period of the contract to the Syrian government.
Orascom said it plans to invest more than $60 million in the network’s first year. It expects more than 75,000 subscribers within the first year.
SyriaTel currently operates one of two trial networks serving more than 11,000 subscribers and covering the cities of Damascus, Allepo, Homs, Hamah, Tartous and Latakieh.
