Five companies are bidding for Samoa's second Global System for Mobile Communications Licence.
They include three local companies: Computer Services Limited, Ah Liki/Feo Nemaia, and Pro-Com.
The other two contenders are Blue Sky Communications of American Samoa and Amalgamated Telecom Holdings of Fiji.
The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Palusalue Fa'apo II has told the Samoa Observer newspaper that that bids are now being reviewed and he expected the license to be awared by January.
GSM enables users to access phone services in many parts of the world as well as their own country.
The minister told the paper the government wants to open up the market for competition and help help bring costs down for consumers.
Sources have told the Samoa Observer that a delegation from China was in Apia recently to sign an agreement to build a GSM network.
The project is estimated to cost US$7 million.
Palusalu said negotiations with the company should be finalised by the end of December and construction should begin in January
