Subject: [NEXTEL-1] U.S. Issues Tender to Build Iraqi GSM Network

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 03:05:27 -0400

U.S. Issues Tender to Build Iraqi GSM Network

The U.S. recently issued a tender for a GSM network to be built in Iraq. The
Arab country would be one of the biggest mobile markets in the region with the
potential to divide airwaves among 124 bands. A national network in Iraq could
take six months to build and would attract at least 2 million subscribers within
first year. A US-led Iraqi administration official stated that the tender would be
for 1.5 to 2-year licenses.

=============================================================================
Iraqi airwaves will be divided among 124 bands
 JUNE 16, 2003

The U.S.-led
administration ruling Iraq
has issued a request for
proposals for a nationwide
Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM)
cell phone network that
would give companies
access to one of the
biggest mobile markets in
the Arab world.

A senior
telecommunications
official with the U.S.
administration said today
that Iraqi airwaves would
be divided among 124
bands, opening up big
opportunities for many to
operate in Iraq, according 
to the RFP, also known as a 
tender, issued on Saturday.

"The tender came GSM as expected, otherwise there would have been a riot. The
whole region operates on GSM,'' he said. GSM the wireless standard used in most of
the world.

A U.S. congressman in March had urged the U.S. government to build a wireless
network in Iraq based on the rival Code Division Multiple Access technology
developed by Qualcomm Inc., a California company (see story).
There are four separate networks operating at present in Iraq -- two in Iraqi
Kurdistan, one in Baghdad and another in the southern province of Basra -- with
around 100,000 total subscribers.

Karim Qader, a senior Iraqi engineer with Asia Cell, the operator in the Kurdish
region of Sulaimaniya, said a national network would take six months to build and
would attract at least 2 million subscribers in the first year. "Iraq has been
without modern communications," Qadar said. "It will be a huge market. The land
network was not up to scratch even in the best of days."

Qadar noted that GSM was the obvious network standard for Iraq.

To communicate in Baghdad, the U.S. military now uses a 10,000-line GSM network
built by WorldCom Inc., which now operates under the name MCI.

An administration spokesman said last week that the tender would be for one-a-half
to two-year licenses.

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,82199,00.html

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