Kuwait’s sole provider of cellular telephone services, Mobile Telecommunications Co expects to raise profit by more than 10% in calendar1996 because of expanding operations. It is about to award a multi-million dollar contract for installation of the European Radio Message System, an improved pager system for which US-based Glenayre Electronics Inc and Finland’s Tecnomen Oy are the main bidders, industry sources in the area said. Also the Gulf state’s only provider of pager services, Mobile which is 49% owned by the government and the rest by private Kuwaiti investors, made net profit of $97.6m in calendar 1995, up 23.8% from 1994. It is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange and is one of the exchange’s most highly-valued stocks. About 125,000 of the country’s 1.8m population carry its mobile handsets and a further 140,000 carry its pagers.
