27/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 27 October, the European Commission authorised the proposed acquisition of sole control of BICS, a Belgian carrier of international telecommunications services, by Belgacom of Belgium. Belgacom already part owns BICS: in the proposed transaction, it will acquire sole control over BICS from Switzerland's incumbent telecommunications operator, Swisscom (which will retain a minority shareholding). Then, BICS will acquire the activities of the MTN company, which operates mainly in Africa, in the international wholesale services area. The Commission did not discover any major competition concerns, given the very small market share of BICS in the global market for wholesale telecommunications services and the existence of several strong competitors for the international telecommunications traffic to Africa. (C.D./transl.rt)