Saudi Arabia's telecoms agency announced on Saturday that it had selected 10 companies as candidates to compete with existing state monopoly Saudi Telecom Co (STC) in offering landline services.
Among those selected were Verizon of the US, Pakistan's Worldcall, India's MTNL, PCCW of Hong Kong, Korea Telecom and China Telecom, the agency said.
A review of the tenders will be made in the coming weeks before selection of an unspecified number of licensees, agency spokesman Sultan bin Mohammed al-Malak was quoted by the official SPA news agency as saying.
No further details were given, although it was expected that STC would retain its monopoly until next year.
STC was partially privatized in 2002. It has been competing since that same year in the mobile telephony market with Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates.
Separately, Qatar's telecommunications regulator is seeking bids from fixed-line and mobile phone companies wishing to win new licenses in the Persian Gulf emirate to compete with former monopoly Qatar Telecom QSC (Q-Tel).
The Supreme Council of Information and Communications Technology, or ictQATAR, started a "consultation period" with prospective licensees that will end on March 31, it said in a statement posted on its Web site last Tuesday.
"We welcome the opportunity to hear from those operators interested in entering our recently-opened telecommunications industry," said Hessa al-Jaber, ictQATAR's secretary-general, in the statement.
Qatar is the last of six Gulf Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to open its telecoms market to competition after the United Arab Emirates awarded a second mobile license last year. The regulator will publish details of the licensing process in the second quarter and aims to issue new licenses by the end of the year, the statement said.
Emir Sheikh Hamad al-Thani issued a decree ending the monopoly of Q-Tel in November. Qatar will probably license only one new company "in the initial stage," al-Jaber said at the time.
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