Syria awards its long-delayed third mobile licence to Wafa Telecom

In February 2022 Syria awarded its long-awaited third mobile licence to Wafa Telecom, ending more than twenty years in which the market had been served by two operators.

The significance is structural rather than dramatic. A third entrant has to build where the incumbents already have coverage, which means new sites, new transmission and new power at every one of them, rather than incremental capacity on an existing footprint. Third entrants also tend to compete on coverage in underserved governorates first, because that is where the incumbents are thinnest.

For the supply chain, a greenfield operator is the most equipment-intensive event in a telecom market: antennas and radio units, backhaul, towers and civil works, and site energy including rectifiers, batteries and increasingly solar hybrid systems for locations with weak grid supply.

Ramico has supplied and installed for the Syrian mobile sector across fibre, site power and solar charging for communication sites.

Suppliers in radio, transmission or site energy can talk to us.