The past week has seen a stunning succession of decisions, statements, appointments and resignations that illustrate the piling up of government pressure on Rami Makhlouf to silence him once and for all and restructure Syria’s telecommunications sector.
Three board members of MTN-Syria resigned this week as government pressure continues to impact the telecoms sector.
Preliminary results indicate that Syriatel and MTN-Syria maintained their respective shares of the mobile phone market after seeing revenue growth of around 20 percent.
The Ministry of Finance has frozen the assets and bank accounts of MTN-Syria and of several of its board members, a decision that signals that it wants to put pressure on one of the country’s largest companies.
The Syrian authorities are putting more pressure on Syriatel, the country’s largest private sector company, The Syria Report has learned.
Syria’s two mobile phone operators have posted a significant increase in their 2018 profits, largely thanks to the lower annual license fee paid to the government.
Damascus and Tehran are negotiating again the award of a mobile phone license to an Iranian company.
MTN-Syria has received a preliminary approval to list its shares on the Damascus Securities Exchange, potentially opening the way for the sale of the stakes of some of the company’s main shareholders.
Syriatel has received the initial approval to list its shares on the Damascus Securities Exchange.
The half year results posted by Syria’s two mobile phone companies confirm the growing gap between them as Rami Makhlouf’s Syriatel now holds more than two thirds of the market.
China’s Huawei is considering withdrawing from Syria, posing a serious challenge to the country’s telecommunications sector, and highlighting the unwillingness of Chinese companies to take the Syria risk.
Turk Telecom has reportedly established a customer service centre in the Euphrates Shiel Area, further entrenching the Turkish presence there.
Syriatel and MTN-Syria have announced a new increase in their revenues last year as they continue to be important contributors to the government’s finances.
The revenues of Syriatel, one of the country’s two mobile phone operators, surged in the first half of this year to more than twice those of its sole competitor, while the launch of a third Iranian-led operator appears to have been postponed.
The revenues of Syria’s two mobile phone companies surged last year helped by a hike in communication rates imposed by the government.
The Syrian Telecommunications Establishment has announced a sharp increase in broadband subscription rates to meet rising costs.
Syriatel has appointed two new directors to its board as it prepares to list in the Damascus Securities Exchange.
The revenues of the Syrian Telecommunications Company, a rare state entity that is profitable, remained stable last year.
The Syrian government has signed a contract with a Russian entity to build what it called an electronic government.
An Iranian company, in partnership with a leading regime crony, is expected to win the license to operate a mobile phone network in Syria.
