The newly appointed minister of Communications and Information Technology said the Third Operator tender will be repeated.
Reza Taqipour stated, "We predict foreign investors are interested in the Third Operator project."
Taqipour was speaking at the minister's introduction ceremony in Tehran on Sunday in which he expressed his plans for his period as minister.
Iran put its third cell phone operator on tender in December 2008. Since then, some international firms, including Russia''s MegaFon, UAE''s Etisalat and Kuwait''s Zain had been announced as winners in different periods, but they have backed away from obligations having reviewed the tender terms. Due to factors related to conducting business in Iran the companies refused to work on the project.
According to Press TV, the two mobile service providers in Iran are subsidiaries of state-controlled Iran Telecommunication Company and MTN Group - sub-Saharan Africa's most prominent cell phone operator.