Tunisiana, a Tunisia based telephone company, announced yesterday it has been granted licensing for both 3G and Fixed Telecommunications services by the Tunisian Ministry of Communication Technologies.
Boasting over six million subscribers, Tunisiana is a national leader in mobile telecommunication solutions. However, this is its first venture into the world of landline-based communications as well as next-generation 3G networks.
Recent studies show that opportunities in 3G mobile communications are blooming. Minister of Communication Technologies Mongi Marzoug expressed his feelings of optimism, stating: “The granting of this license will reduce the digital divide, by improving coverage of telecommunication services and access to these services.”
Tunisiana’s purchase of Tunisia-based Internet providers FAI Tunet helped it become eligible for the license. Just in time, too; Orange and Iliad were both forced to withdraw after failing to meet certain requirements for the license, and Tunisiana very well may have been next. Although the company is one of the largest in Tunisia in the way of subscribers, they have never been able to deliver the landline or 3G services in which competitors offered – until now.
While Wataniya Telecom owns the majority of Tunisiana, the government owns about a quarter of the company. Contracts with Chinese manufacturer Huawei have been signed, allowing for the deployment of the 3G networks across the country.
Tunisiana’s current GSM network is also getting a makeover from Nokia Siemens so 3G services will actually be available for the devices.
“We are swapping the radio equipment from another vendor to Nokia Siemens Networks in some areas using the ‘multiradio’ concept and improving the quality of the network,” said Tunisiana CTO, Hatem Mestiri. “In some cases we are improving the coverage by 3db.”
These up-to-date towers are also estimated to save up to 30 percent on power consumption, compared to the previous GSM technologies.
Edited by
Braden Becker
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