Orascom Telecom to bid for 'triple play' licence

CAIRO, EGYPT: Egypt's Orascom Telecom will likely bid for one of two "triple play" licences on offer even if it completes the sale of its LINKdotNET Internet unit, an executive told Reuters on Sunday.

The government announced in late September it would invite bids for combined cable television, telephone and Internet licences which it expects will generate $1 billion in new investments within five years.

It later barred state-owned fixed-line monopoly Telecom Egypt from bidding for LINKdotNET and another Orascom internet unit, eliminating one of two remaining telecom firms with a presence in Egypt from the process.

"If we own it, for sure we will bid, but if not we will have to see the conditions of both the sale and the licence," the firm's chief operating officer, Khaled Bichara, said in a telephone interview.

"We believe we are really well-positioned. They (the government) want the local players and international experience, and we believe we won't need to go out of the group to make the bid," he said, adding that Orascom's parent company Weather provided fixed-line services and television delivered via Internet infrastructure in Italy and Greece.

The "triple play" bid document is expected to be published by mid-October and bids are due in January.

Orascom had announced in February that it was looking to sell the two subsidiaries to mobile operator Mobinil, which is part owned by Orascom, and then said in July that it would sell LINKdotNET to the highest bidder.

Bichara denied media reports that Orascom had canceled the sale process, but said the firm would only sell LINKdotNET if bids submitted are attractive.

"If we don't get the right price we won't execute the sale," he said, adding a decision would be made by the end of the year.