Yemen International Telecommunications Co.

Concluded

TeleYemen was a 10-year rehabilitate, operate and transfer concession established in 1989 and renewed in 1999 for another four-years. The joint venture was led by the UK's Cable and Wireless (51%) and Yemen's state-owned Public Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) (49%). TeleYemen was authorized to provide international direct dialling, internet, and cellular phone services. The international services were in place before the establishment of TeleYemen, and were then operated solely by Cable and Wireless. TeleYemen launched a cellular mobile telephone service in May 1992 which covered the major centres of population in Yemen by 1998. The company had around 40,000 International Direct Dial consumers, 12,245 mobile users and 250,000 fixed line subscribers by 1998. In 2001 and 2002, the company initiated a network upgrade that added significant capacity to the system, and by 2002, it had 400,000 fixed lines, and 27,837 mobile users. Cable & Wireless (C&W) officially concluded its concession contract with TeleYemen on December 31, 2003. PTC acquired C&W's shares and became the sole public owner of the company. Six international companies submitted bids by the October 1, 2003 deadline for the five-year contract to manage TeleYemen. TeleYemen provided fixed-line, telex, internet and analogue mobile services to some 70,000 subscribers by end 2003. None None

High