Sudan launched a tender on Tuesday for a second mobile network to operate in the African country alongside the Sudanese Telecommunications Company.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Sudan’s Information and Communications Minister Maghdi Ibrahim said operations for the new network will begin in early 2003.
Sudan’s first mobile phone operator, Sudatel, began in 1999 and has established a mobile phone network that reaches 17 major cities in Sudan, including the capital Khartoum, serving 130 000 subscribers.
Sudatel’s general manager, Abdel Aziz Othman, welcomed the latest tender, telling reporters that this would increase mobile phone subscriber numbers.
Sudatel was privatised in 1993, but the government still holds the majority stake. – Sapa-AP