THERE are now four bidders for South Africa’s third cellular network licence with the bid of Khoroni Telecommunications Consortium, made up of smaller newcomers to the industry. The bid is sketchy, lacking discussions of which technologies it will use, no hint of competitive strategy, and not naming any technology partners. Khoroni is led by SA Communications (Sacom), a black-owned multimedia firm. The rest of the consortium is made up of 21 empowerment groups with a membership of four million. The groups represent women, the disabled, youth and other groups. All the bidders involve empowerment groups, since the winning consortium must be at least 25% black-owned.