The monopoly of the historical telecommunications operator Comores Telecom has finally ended. The National Information Technology and Communication Regulatory Authority (ANRTIC) has granted the second country's telecom to the Malagasy operator Telecom Malagasy Mobile, better known as Telma, on 1st October 2015.

Through this awarding, Telma showed itself as the best applicant with a 7.1 billion Comorian Francs proposal (USD 16 million) to the call for tenders launched in April 2015 by the Comoros government. The licence is global, including all the technologies the operator might want to deploy, landline as well as mobile, 2G, 3G or even 4G. It has a validity period of 15 years.

In the race for the acquisition of the second telecom licence of Comoros, Telma was competing with the Mauritian operator Mauritius Télécom, Shyam Telecom and Vihaan Networks, represented by Tanzanian Quality Group. To become eligible for this call for tenders, Telma, like its competitors, had to show minimum shareholders' equity of USD 20 million; and a number of subscribers to telecom services (landline or mobile) of at least 1 million.

Like Ethiopia, Comoros was for a long time the recipient of criticism from the International Telecommunications Union (UIT) for the lack of competition in the telecom sector. A competition which would usher in improvement in the quality of services, price drops and an increase in the penetration rate of telecoms in the country. Today, this is all in the past.