Bulgaria Expects Expression of Interest in Tender for Fourth Wireless Licence until Oct 9

The Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) has announced plans on its website to hold a tender for awarding a GSM frequency permit with national coverage and invited all interested parties to express their opinion in a procedure that CRC calls public discussion.

If investors declare interest by October 9, the commission will call a tender, a CRC official who declined to be named told SeeNews.

A tender was supposed to be held earlier this year but CRC cancelled the procedure halfway through in August, citing irregularities in the sole non-binding bid it received for the 20-year wireless licence from Liechtenstein-registered TelCo. The CRC set the starting price in the tender at 38 million levs ($30.3 million/19.4 million euro) at the time.

Eight companies - Turkey’s largest wireless operator Turkcell; Globul, the Bulgarian unit of Greek wireless operator Cosmote; TelCo and five Bulgarian firms bought tender documents, but only TelCo filed an offer.

Besides Globul, two other wireless operators are active in the market of 7.6 million people: Mobiltel, a unit of Telekom Austria, and Vivatel, owned by Bulgaria's dominant fixed-line operator BTC.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)