A consortium led by the UAE's Etisalat won a 45 million euro ($58.6 million) licence to operate Sudan's second fixed-line phone service, Etisalat said on Sunday. "The National Telecommunication Commission, Sudan's regulatory authority, confirmed midweek that (Etisalat-led) Kanartel was selected ... and would begin operations within a year," an Etisalat statement said. Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates will manage, operate and maintain the network of Kanartel, in which it has a 40 percent stake.
"The second fixed-line licence in Sudan is a huge success for our efforts to roll out our premium services ... across the Middle East and North Africa region," Etisalat CEO Mohammad Omran said.
An Etisalat-led consortium won a licence worth more than $3 billion in August for Saudi Arabia's second mobile telephone network.
The UAE this year cancelled the monopoly of Emirates Telecommunications Co (Etisalat) - 60 percent owned by the UAE government with UAE investors holding the rest.