Kuwait's government issued an ultimatum Sunday, August 5, to the emirate's largest mobile telephone company that it had to sign an accord with its only competitor to regulate the market and end dual charging.
"Today, we sent an official letter to Mobile Telecommunications Co. (MTC) to come and sign the accord," on Monday, undersecretary at the commerce ministry, Hamad Khajah, told AFP.
The signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between MTC and National Mobile Telecommunications Co. (Watania Telecom) has been delayed three times after the MTC representative failed to attend, Khajah said.
The MOU will regulate the mobile market between the two companies and put an end to charging both callers and receivers, saving consumers some 25 million dinars ($82 million) a year.
Khajah said the ministry was determined to apply the law to serve the interests of consumers and warned that punitive measures would be taken against MTC if it failed to sign the deal. "The measures will be legal, technical and practical," he said, adding that Watania Telecom had submitted an official letter saying it was willing to sign.
The two companies have agreed to end double charging and regulate their services, but MTC is objecting to a reference made in the MOU to a 1996 law, saying it was unconstitutional. The government has a 24 percent stake in each of the two companies, which both trade on Kuwait Stock Exchange.
Watania began operations in late 1999, breaking a 16-year MTC monopoly, and since then, prices of mobile services in the emirate have dropped dramatically. According to Khajah, the two companies operate 700,000 mobile lines in Kuwait, the equivalent of one-third of the emirate's 2.15-million population. ― (AFP, Kuwait City)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
