AsiaCell, the Wataniya Telecom led consortium, signs licence for Northern Iraq

The licence, awarded by the Iraqi Ministry of Telecommunications on 7 October 2003, appoints Asia-Cell to provide GSM services to Iraq's Northern region for the first year and to expand to the rest of Iraq in the second year.

Initial services are already available in Sulaymaniya. Today Wataniya will launch commercial services in Kirkuk and within two weeks Mosul will follow. Asia-Cell customers will be able to enjoy national mobile telecommunication in the central and southern regions of Iraq using their Asia-Cell lines in the future. Asia-Cell will be expanding its network coverage ahead of its license obligations to provide much needed telecom services to the people of Iraq.

"We are very happy to mark the official start of the Northern Iraq license, as it is a vital step in the reconstruction of Iraqi telecommunications." said Faisal Al- Ayyar, Chairman, Wataniya Telecom. "We are committed to take an active role in bringing Iraq's mobile telecommunication to international standard."

Rapid mobile adoption is predicted, with an estimated 500,000 new customers expected to take-up new lines in the first year of operation. The consortium is now able to provide the much-needed services immediately due to the existing network infrastructure of its local partner, Asia-Cell Telecom. Asia-Cell Telecom has already an active subscriber-base of well over 70,000 customers. Our customers are now served by a state-of-the-art Siemens and Huawei infrastructure that is already deployed in Kirkuk and Mosul in addition to Sulaymaniya. The network infrastructure has been designed to provide network expansion for up to 400,000 subscribers in the North quickly and without compromise on the stability of services.

The Iraq license has been significant for Wataniya Telecom in its strategy to expand and develop its regional presence. The company's regional portfolio of mobile operations now includes; Kuwait (Wataniya Telecom), Tunisia (Tunisiana), Iraq (AsiaCell) and Algeria (Wataniya Télécom Algérie). Wataniya Telecom has a proven track record of bringing competition to markets, quickly deploying solid GSM networks with value-added services and providing affordable mobile services to consumers.