Seven candidates submit bids for second mobile telecommunications license in Qatar

Those submitting bids were:

1. ACE Consortium (includes Airtel)
2. Argos Consortium (includes Verizon)
3. AT&T
4. Batelco
5. Etisalat
6. MTC (Zain)
7. Vodafone

"ictQATAR welcomes the submission of bids by seven very strong candidates. The level of interest shown by the telecommunications industry in this process speaks well for the future of the liberalization of the telecommunications market in Qatar," said an official spokesman of ictQATAR, Qatar's telecommunications regulator.

"ictQATAR is following an open and transparent process which has been carefully designed and conducted to the highest international standards," he added.

Twelve companies and consortia, which had earlier been pre-qualified by ictQATAR were entitled to apply for the second mobile license.

The seven bids that have been submitted will now receive a technical evaluation, including criteria such as prior experience, proposed network roll-out schedule, technology and service offerings, business plans and the level of operator commitment.

Candidates who qualify after the technical evaluation will have their financial proposals submitted to a single round auction process. The license will be awarded to the qualified candidate with the highest bid.

The process to select the winning candidate is expected to be finalized in early November.