January 16, 2004

By Reuters

Johannesburg - MTN and Vodacom yesterday were among the shortlisted consortiums for the second cellphone network licence in Iran, but Vodacom appeared uninterested in pursuing its initial overture.

According to Reuters, the two local operators were shortlisted, along with Austria's Mobilkom, Egypt's Orascom Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and Turkey's Turkcell, for the Iranian licence.

The six bidders are expected to submit business plans by February 9. The winning bid will be announced on February 23.

Iran has demanded an initial payment of $380 million from the winning bidder, which will also be required to give the Iranian government a share of revenue. 

Alan Knott-Craig, Vodacom's chief executive, said: "Notwithstanding its previous interest ... Vodacom has decided not to participate in the Iranian cellular market."

Phuthuma Nhleko, MTN's chief executive, said MTN continued to identify expansion opportunities. "We cannot offer further comments on specific activities as the company is under cautionary," he said.

Khulekani Dlamini at Investec Asset Management said he was not sure if the local firms would be in a position to deal with the social dynamics of Iran.

MTN added 25c to R27.35.