Malawi Finally Cancelled G-Mobile Operating License:

Malawi's telecoms regulator had won the final stage in cancelling the mobile operator license it had awarded to G-Mobile.

The company was granted a license in April 2009, and was due to have launched its network within a year. The license was finally cancelled in September 2010 following several deadline extensions, but the company appealed to the courts.

The High Court upheld the appeal, but this has now been overturned by the Supreme Court.

The company had tried to argue that it was denied the right to economic activity by the regulator, but the court found that the regulator had not breached the law in cancelling the license following repeated failures to launch the mobile network.

In a fairly blunt comment, the court said that "The right to economic activity is available to honest and serious entrepreneurs not the likes of the respondent."

The country has two active mobile networks, Zain and Telecom Networks Malawi.

Mali Awarded Third Mobile Operator License:

The government of Mali had granted a mobile operator license to a consortium, the Planor-Monaco Telecom International Group - making it the third mobile network operator in the country.

Monaco Telecom is the technical partner in the consortium, which operates through the Malian company, Alpha Telecom Mali, which is understood to be controlled by the local businessman, Apollinaire Compaoré, who owns Télécel Faso in Burkina Faso, and is a shareholder in MTN Côte d'Ivoire.

The consortium paid US$105 million for the 15-year license, which had been expected to be awarded late last year.

The country is currently in the news for other reasons, due to the Islamist civil war in the north of the country and the recent intervention of the French military in that conflict.

The two existing operators are France Telecom-Orange and Maroc Telecom's Malitel.

Libya to Offer a Third Mobile Network License:

Libya is expected to issue a third mobile operator license with three to six months in an effort to shake up the state-owned duopoly of Libyana and Al Madar.

The government wants to decrease its hold on the telecommunications sector to "get the private sector more involved, whether local or foreign," the country's ICT Minister told Bloomberg News.

Talks with the economy ministry and its affiliated investment authority aim to make the license "attractive to the entrant," Siala said, without elaborating.

The previous government attempted to auction off a third license in 2009, but that tender was cancelled.

Following the downfall of the former dictator, Colonel Gaddafi, the new government seized back the stakes in the two state-owned networks which had been controlled by the Gaddafi family.