45,000 mobile phone subscribers signed up in southern Iraq (20/07/04)

It has been reported that there are now 45,000 mobile telephone subscribers in Iraq and they will soon be linked to other parts of the country. This information came from Ali Al Dahawi, the deputy director of Atheer Tel, which services the area.

Atheer Tel users will be able to talk to people on other networks in Iraq

"Atheer Tel subscribers will be able to make calls to other networks elsewhere in the country within a few days," Al Dahawi told Jordan's Al-Dustour newspaper. Atheer Tel is a joint venture between a private Iraqi company and Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co. (MTC).

It was selected by the interim Iraqi authorities in October to set up a mobile phone network covering 13 cities in southern Iraq, with Orascom Telecom Holding of Egypt being awarded a licence to operate in central Iraq. A third company, Asia Cell, was granted a licence for northern Iraq.

In April, it was announced that an Iraqi-Kurdish company, Sana Tel, had been awarded a licence to operate in the northern Sulaymaniyah province. According to Dahawi, Atheer Tel is awaiting the pullout of foreign troops from Iraq in order to expand its network. "We now cover 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) from Basra to Salman Bak," just south of Baghdad, he said.

"We will continue expanding our network as soon as our technicians are allowed to enter areas controlled by the US occupation forces," Al Dahawi added. It is also expected that the number of Atheer Tel's subscribers will increase to 150,000 by the end of the year and will double within two years.

Source: AFP