DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 26: The Egyptian government will start a bidding process for the country’s third mobile phone licence within the next two weeks, Egyptian Communications Minister Tarek Kamel said on Thursday.

The licence will be for both second generation (2G) and 3G mobile services, and the new network is expected to start operating by the end of 2006 or early 2007.

“We will ask bidders to apply for the third mobile operator in two weeks,” Kamel said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Earlier this week, Emirates Telecommunications Corp. Etisalat, confirmed it plans to bid for Egypt’s third mobile licence, while Saudi Telecom said it was studying investment opportunities in the Middle East including Egypt’s planned third generation mobile license.—Reuters