The government of Mali is preparing to launch a tender for the country’s fourth mobile licence. The government aims to award the new licence by the end of March. Les Afriques writes that the short timetable reflects the government’s impatience with Alpha Telecom's Atel Mali, which won the third licence in 2012 but has still not launched its service. A person close to the matter told the magazine, "We have lost a lot of time with this operator. We are starting the international tender for the fourth licence. The vitality of our telecom market makes it necessary."
Atel told reporters in March 2015 that it had nearly completed the build-out, and had paid its XOF 55 billion licence. The following month the company secured a XOF 10 billion loan from the West Africa Development Bank toward the purchase of Huawei network equipment. Yet 3 years later the service is still not available in a market controlled by Orange Mali and Sotelma/Malitel.
