Voex & international partners seek licenses for operating wireless network in Iraq

This comes after the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which is the current governing structure in Iraq, released a tender calling for bidders to establish wireless services in Iraq's southern, central and northern regions.

Responding to the tender request made sense to VoEx, which last month opened three communication centers in Baghdad, Iraq to offer residents affordable telephone, facsimile, e-mail and Internet services. The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company provides Internet based voice and network services worldwide.

"Through our communication centers, we have seen thousands of Iraqis communicate with friends and family freely for the first time in years," said VoEx Chief Executive Officer Haydar Haba, an American citizen and native of Iraq. "Broadening to wireless services will enable us to better connect Iraq to the rest of the world and provide the citizens a true ability to begin competing economically and garnering the services Iraq needs to grow."

Haba said his group has developed a proposal to service any of the three regions designated by the CPA. "We believe this is a compelling opportunity for VoEx to provide vital communications services to a long-neglected population," he said.

VoEx has partnered with Iraqi telecommunications and business leaders to develop its proposal for establishing wireless services in Iraq. The costs of providing such services are estimated at approximately $200 million per region. Results of the bidding process will be announced on September 5.

Currently, a limited availability of unaffordable satellite telephones is the only alternative to an almost completely devastated fixed-line network that did not survive years of war and a tumultuous government.

VoEx is in the process of establishing a $100 million investment fund to support the building of Iraq's telecom infrastructure.

VoEx Inc. is a privately held, U.S.-based international provider of telecommunications services such as voice, fax and e-mail over the Internet. VoEx deployed and operates the first fully managed IP softswitch in North America. The company provides a low-cost carrier IP network, linking voice and Internet services, revolutionizing telephone communications throughout the world.