Cell Phones for Iraq
We aren’t generally in the business of commenting on business, except, perhaps as it relates to arms sales and security issues. Cell phones, to be sure, do not.
We aren’t generally in the business of commenting on business, except, perhaps as it relates to arms sales and security issues. Cell phones, to be sure, do not.
However, the decision by Iraq’s provisional Communications Minister to announce three winners of bids for cell phone service at just about the time the Turkish Parliament announced it would support a request by the U.S. to send troops to Iraq to aid in stabilization is an eyebrow-raiser. Partly because the Turks were cut out of one and denounced for the other; neither being a good way to start what should be a new and healthy phase of Iraqi-Turkish relations.
One big winner in the cell phone sweepstakes is Orascom Telecom (OT), an Egyptian company largely backed by the French Alcatel, with Motorola and Germany’s Siemens playing some part. The financial side of this deal is odd, to say the least. OT is broke and says it will pay no licensing fee to Iraq, which alone should have invalidated its bid. Furthermore, it has finagled the suppliers, primarily Alcatel, into financing the setup costs, estimated at $100 million. According to an investment analyst cited by Reuters, “OT is suffering from high short-term debt … (they) will just receive cash from the subscribers.”
Why should a troubled Egyptian company be allowed to bail itself out with new Iraqi dinars? More importantly, Egypt was Saddam’s largest trading partner during the period of international sanctions against Iraq, and a leading voice against the coalition. Alcatel is French. We don’t blame all French companies for the French government’s recalcitrance in making Saddam live up to his UN obligations, or France’s continuing opposition to constructive participation in reconstruction, but we will point out that Alcatel itself is partially government-owned.
The point is that countries and companies that helped Saddam stay in power, and countries and companies that made a profit from the Ba’athist regime on the backs of the Iraqi people should not have the inside track on reconstruction contracts. As a matter of principle, they should be excluded in favor of countries and companies that were and are on the right side.
Like Turkcell, for example. Turkcell is a Turkish concern with American and Iraqi partners, and it had been in the final running for one of the cell phone contracts. But the same day the Iraqi Provisional Council announced it didn’t want Turkish troops in Iraq, the Communications Ministry announced Turkcell wouldn’t get anything.
The conspiracy-minded part of us believes an Arab-French alliance (the other companies are both Kuwaiti, one of which has been operating in the Iraqi north) made common cause with the government to snub the Turks just as the Turks were mending fences with the U.S. The rest of us hopes that Iraq’s interim leaders aren’t so shortsighted. The Iraqi people have much to gain from rewarding those who stood against Saddam’s dictatorship and who are prepared to work for a free and prosperous country. Including Turkey.