April 3, 2003
Windhoek - Namibia will today invite local and international cellular companies to bid for the country's second cellular licence.
Vodacom and MTN, South Africa's top cellular network operators, have reaffirmed their interest in bidding for the licence.
Vodacom has said it would bid very aggressively.
Namibia would fit into subsidiary Vodacom International's Africa growth strategy, with a target of generating 30 percent of Vodacom's operating profit by 2004.
MTN said Namibia was its natural market, alongside others like Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
MTN's main focus outside South Africa is Nigeria, the continent's biggest market, with 124 million people, where it clinched a digital cellular licence for $285 million.
The Mobile Telecommunications Commission, in which the government has a stake through the state telecommunications corporation Telecom Namibia, is now the country's sole cellular provider.
Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab told parliament on Tuesday that R1
.64 million was made available this year to a consultant appointed by the Namibian Communications Commission "to drive the process of the allocation of Namibia's second cellular licence".
A further R610 000 would be used for advertising, printing, consultancy fees and sitting allowances for Namibian Communications Commission members.
Gurirab said: "Granting a second cellular licence will create jobs for Namibians and improve telecommunications services, especially in rural areas, and promote price competitiveness.
"If everything goes according to plan, the second operator will be in place towards the second half of the year."
Telecom Namibia has about 120 000 lines connected and Mobile Telecommunications has more than 25 000 cellular connections.
Namibian telecommunications minister Moses Amweelo said although the country envisaged 2004 as the year for the liberalisation of the telecommunications industry, protective measures would be lifted sooner. - Independent Foreign Service
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