SUVA: Six companies have been short-listed by Fiji’s ministry of commerce for licences to operate in the country’s recently deregulated mobile phone industry.
The companies will be further assessed before the final decision is made, Fiji Live reports.
These companies were part of the 15 companies that had tendered their bid last August.
Caribbean-based Digicel Pacific was one of the 15 companies that placed its bid.
Interim minister Taito Waradi said only a few companies that meet the requirement would be granted licences because Fiji could only allow a few companies to operate given the capacity of Fiji’s bandwidth.
He said to date, as far as licensing was concerned, no company in the country including Vodafone Fiji had any licence.
“The short-listed companies are currently being assessed and should be completed soon.
“Now, we are waiting for the talks (compensation talks with parent telecom company Amalgamated Telecom Holdings Ltd) to end this weekend (last weekend) before we can table the names of the companies and the outcome of the meeting to Cabinet when it meets next,” Waradi said .
He would not reveal the name of the short-listed companies nor the number of licences that were likely to be issued.
Cabinet is expected to be informed of these developments when it meets tomorrow. – PNS