Lebanon is reportedly launching a tender to manage its two state-owned mobile operators, Touch and Alfa.
According to Reuters, the country’s telecoms ministry wants to award contracts for an extended 3-5 year period to run the two companies, which are presently managed by Kuwait's Zain and Egypt's OTMT.
Karim Kobeissi senior advisor to the MoT, said new entrants could win the tender and also confirmed earlier statements that there would be no new attempts to privatise the state owned sector by selling stakes in either operator to investors.
The move forms part of a broader plan to restructure the country’s telecoms sector.
The Lebanese government is said to still be keen on creating a subsea cable link to Cyprus, under the EUROPA cable system announced in November 2011
The government is also reported to be planning to spin off its mobile transmission towers into a separate state-owned business that could be managed by a private company.
