Bulgaria Calls Tender for Fourth Mobile Operator Licence

The starting price for the 15-year UMTS licence is set at  49.5 million levs ($33.8 million/25.3 million euro), the Communications Regulation Commission said in statement on Friday.

Potential bidders will have to pay a deposit of 2.0 million levs to take part in the tender. They will be able to submit their bids by 5 p.m. local time (1500 GMT) on November 14.

Tender documentation cost 4,000 levs. They can be bought once the tender notice is published in the State Gazette and no later than October 21.

Based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication standard, UMTS is a third-generation broadband transmission of text, digitised voice, video, and multimedia to mobile computer and phone users.

There are three players on the mobile telecommunications market in Bulgaria: Globul, part of Greek mobile phone operator Cosmote, Mobiltel, a unit of Telekom Austria, and the mobile arm of local operator Vivacom.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)