The board of directors of the Tunisian company for telecommunication enterprises, Sotetel, has recently decided to double the company’s capital from 4.2 million Tunisian dinars (TD) to TD 8.4 million. The board of directors also agreed on re-increasing the company’s capital to TD 12 million in case of immediate need in the future.
Sotetel (Societe Tunisienne d'Enterprises des Teleommunications), a public enterprise created in 1981 under the ministry of communications, installs and maintains most of the cable and mobile networks, public switching, and local and long distance transmission in the country.
In addition to a 51 percent PTT share, other shareholders of Sotetel include public authorities (transport, maritime, electric and construction) and government-owned financing agencies. BIAT, a private bank, also holds a small percentage of shares.
According to a recent report in AL-Iktissad Wal-Aamal magazine, the Tunisian minister of communications, Ahmed Fria’a, said that the ministry is currently developing the local communications infrastructure in order to double the number of available fixed telephone lines from one million to two million lines by the year 2004.
Fria’a stated that an amount of TD 300 millions would be invested in Tunisia’s communications sector in the year 2000 in.
In early June the ministry also started setting up a cellular telephone network. The number of mobile telephone lines is expected to reach 150,000 within a few months time. — (Albawaba-MEBG)
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
