Invita, a Bahrain-based multi-lingual contact centre, plans to expand throughout the GCC region, with its Kuwait operations due to start shortly, the company's top official has said.

Invita chief executive Rahul Bhalla told the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication, that after Kuwait, which will be up and running by the third quarter this year, the firm plans to expand to Saudi Arabia, Qatar as well as Kurdistan in Iraq.

Bhalla said the firm's strategy was to look for local partners who would provide them with local contacts rather than going it alone.

He was responding to a query from the GDN on its plans after the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority yesterday announced through its gazette that Invita, Zubara International Trading and Rawabi Next Generation Network Solutions had requested their "value-added services" licences be revoked.

The regulator said it would receive objections, if any, to the revocations till the end of this month.

Bhalla said Invita, which began operations in 2000 as a business unit within BBK, had taken the licence in 2006 at a time when there was a lack of clarity in telecom policies.

Invita became an independent company in January 2006. "We have been paying BD2,000 ($5273) as annual fees for a licence we did not need as we are not call or SMS originators and are using the telecom services provided by operators," explained Bhalla.

The management had discussions with the TRA and it was decided that Invita would seek revocation of the licence.

Al Zubara International Trading and Rawabi Next Generation Network Solutions could not be reached for comments.

The TRA defines "value added services" as "enhanced or value-added telecommunications data and/or voice services that act on the format, content, code or protocol of information in order to provide the user with additional or different information or that involve subscriber interaction with stored information, including computer and data processing services, data information and exchange services, credit card verification services but excluding transmission services to or over the Internet.-TradeArabia News Service