A consortium of Iranian companies is seeking to enter the tightly-controlled Syrian telecommunications market, according to a daily closely linked to the Bashar al-Assad regime.
A source told Al-Watan on Wednesday that the Iranian companies have set their sights to become the third mobile services operator in the war-torn country, after the South African-owned MTN Group and the locally-owned SyriaTel.
Both of these providers hold 20-year operating concessions that went into effect on January 1, 2015, however reports have circulated since then that the Syrian government was looking into opening up a stake for a third mobile provider.
The source did not go into details on the Iranian consortium, other than saying it “will enter the Syrian market under one brand-name” which has yet to be decided upon.
The state-run Syrian Telecommunications Establishment will own approximately 20% of the shares of the new Iranian-owned operator, the source also said.
Source: https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/567514-iran-consortium-seeks-syria-telecom-stake