Spain’s Ministry of Public Works, Transport and the Environment has opened the public tender for a second cellular telephone operating licence to end Telefonica de Espana SA’s monopoly in cellular telephone services: interested parties will have until November 14 to submit bids for the licence, and the winning party will have to put up a deposit of $31.2m; Ameritech Corp has teamed up with British Telecommunications Plc and Banco Santander to form the Airtel consortium; BellSouth Corp is working with oil group Repsol SA, eight local savings banks and the builder Dragados y Construcciones SA; AirTouch Communications Inc is in bed with Banco Central Hispanoamercano SA and Spanish electrical companies; the two largest Spanish electric utilties, Iberdrola SA and Empresa Nacional de Electricidad SA have joined with Banco Bilbao Vizcaya SA, Vodafone Group Plc, Generale des Eaux SA, and Mannesmann AG, and General Telecom Inc is in with the biggest retailer El Corte Ingles, two of the top media groups and the two biggest savings banks.
