Vodafone’s Kuwaiti partner, MTC, will today go head to head with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the Saudi billionaire, in a $5 billion (£2.5 billion) race to provide mobile services in Saudi Arabia.

The two players are among seven who will compete in a public auction in Riyadh, for a new mobile licence for the Saudi market.

Fierce competition for the licence, for which MTC is the front-runner, is expected to see the winning bid top $5 billion. Price expectations have been further raised by the failure of Orascom, the Egyptian operator, to qualify despite offering a rumoured $5.5 billion.

Other bidders at the ceremony, which will take the unusual form of operators’ offers being released from sealed envelopes, include the Indian operators, Bharti and Reliance.

Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Co is part of a consortium bidding with Turkcell, Turkey’s main mobile group.

A combination of Saudi Arabia’s relatively low mobile penetration compared with other Gulf nations, and its young population has made it a natural target for growth-seeking mobile operators.

Mobile penetration in the kingdom — a mobile monopoly until just two years ago — stands at just under 70 per cent, while the average revenue per user spend is about $33 a month.

The licence is likely to be the last mobile licence to be auctioned off in the country and is expected to trigger further rapid mobile growth.

MTC is expected to be the most aggressive bidder because of the synergies a licence for the country could offer.

The Kuwaiti group, which has 27 million active customers, already offers services in five markets bordering Saudi Arabia — Iraq, Bahrain, Sudan, Kuwait and Jordan. Its presence in neighbouring countries will also enable it to conduct a rapid rollout of the service if it wins the licence, it promises.

The group, which has been Vodafone’s partner since 2002, lost out in the bid for Saudi’s second mobile licence.

Representatives from each of the bidding companies will attend the Riyadh ceremony. It will be overseen by the country’s reglator, the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC).

It will open the envelopes and submit the results to its board before naming the successful bidder.

Orascom, the Egyptian mobile operator, and MTNL, an Indian player, failed to qualify for the bidding.

Extending coverage

- Until two years ago Saudi Arabia had just one mobile operator, the incumbent Saudi Telecom Company

- A second licence was awarded to Etihad Etisalat, a UAE consortium, in 2005. It offers services under the Mobily brand

- Mobile penetration in the country is low relative to other Gulf countries — less than 70 per cent compared with more than 100 per cent elsewhere in the region

- Saudi Arabia is the Middle East’s largest economy, with a GDP of nearly $350 billion. It has a population of 26 million

- More than 55 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s population is aged under 25

- The average monthly mobile spend in the country is $35

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