France Telecom and leading Turkish mobile phone company Turkcell have bid in a tender for a Tunisian mobile and fixed-line services licence sale, the government in Tunies said on Friday.

"A part of the international tender for the award of a licence to new operators, two bids had been received from France Telecom and turkish operator Turkcell in partnership with Tunisian companies and investors," the Communication Ministry said in a statement.

The licence involves the installation of network infrastructure as well as providing 2G and 3G services.

Tunisia had launched the tender in December and has said it expected to pick the winner in the second quarter of the year.

Tunisia has a population of 10.5 million people and mobile penetration of 83 per cent as of the first quarter of this year.

Tunisiana Telecom, a joint venture of Kuwait's National Mobile Telecom and Egypt's Orascom Telecom, has a 51 per cent share of the mobile market and Tunisie Telecom has a 49 percent share, Turkcell said.

State-controlled Tunisie Telecom has 100 percent of the fixed-line market, which has a 10 per cent penetration rate.-Reuters