Zain wins Lebanese mobile management agreement tender

By offering the most competitive price to run the network, Zain, through mtc touch in Lebanon, is committed to increase its customer base by an additional 400,000 as part of a rapid and committed government-funded expansion plan. Currently mtc touch has over 800,000 active customers.

Commenting on the successful tender, Dr Saad Al Barrak, Chief Executive Officer of Zain, stated:

"We are delighted to have won and look forward to consolidating the commitment to Lebanon we started more than four and half years ago. We look forward to the privatization of the mobile sector and are hopeful that we can secure a long term license to operate in this promising country."

In June 2004, Zain commenced a 4-year agreement with the Lebanese government to manage one of the country's two existing mobile networks (Mobile Interim Company 2 - MIC2). In November 2004, the operation was branded as mtc touch and today it is the only one of Zain's 22 operations not owned by the Zain Group.

With a strong level of commitment to the local workforce, 100% of mtc touch's employee base is comprised of highly-qualified Lebanese. mtc touch has dominated the Lebanese mobile market with a 60% share and an ongoing commitment to provide Lebanese customers with diversified portfolio of services, such as Credit Transfer, Roaming on Aircrafts, Data Roaming, electronic auction on special numbers, EDGE Technology covering all Lebanese territories and Blackberry facilities.