Algeria’s government has authorised telecoms watchdog the Regulatory Authority for Post and Telecommunications (Autorite de Regulation de la Poste et des Telecoms, ARPT) to launch a tender for 4G mobile broadband licences on 7 January 2016. According to the Algerie Presse Service (APS), ICT minister Imane Houda Feraoun disclosed that the successful bidders will be revealed on 17 May. Going forward, the government will grant the licensees a period of three months to obtain the required equipment, with the launch of commercial 4G services expected to take place in the last quarter of 2016. Further, the minister added that under the licence terms and conditions, the cellcos ‘must provide a minimum coverage of 10% in the provinces of their choice in the first four years, and expand to the southern regions of the country within three years’.