Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Telecom Company (STC) Saud Daweesh said the company is optimistic on winning the third mobile phone license award in Syria, but has not yet been informed of the date of the re-auction.

Saudi Telecom and Qatar Telecom "Qtel" are the final bidders after the withdrawal of three other companies; France Telecom, UAE Etisalat, and Turkcell of Turkey in March because of dissatisfaction with some of the terms of the license.

Syria launched a tender to sell the third mobile operator license last September.

The Saudi Telecom said in April that the final phase of the auction will be held on April 27.

“Officially, we have been informed that they will inform us next date for opening the bids and starting the auction.”  However, we are still waiting, we are very optimistic, and link Syria with the rest of our portfolio which is 70-80 percent of the Muslim world.