Zain Scheme to Take Over Iraq

Kuwaiti telecoms company Zain has said it plans to coverage to the whole of Iraq by the end of this year. The announcement follows its earlier purchase of the Iraqi unit of Egypt's Orascom Telecom. Since then Zain has been steadily building up its network coverage in the country.

According to local press reports, the Kuwaiti operator now claims some 7.5 million mobile customers in the swathes of mid and southern Iraq where the company already has coverage. Zain is currently constructing a new network to cover the areas around Diyala, Tikrit, Anbar and Sulaimaniya.

The operator, which is the third-largest Arab telecom company by market value, purchased Iraqna from Orascom last year for US$1.2 billion after the Egyptian operator had failed to win a licence to continue the operations it began after the US-led invasion of 2003.