July 12 (SeeNews) - North Macedonia's Agency for Electronic Communications (AEK) received four expressions of interest from telecommunications operators in participating in a planned auction for the allocation of frequencies for 5G networks, it said.
Makedonski Telekom, A1 Makedonija, Neotel and Bitstream Mobile showed interest in licences following a public debate on the planned 5G auction, AEK said in a statement last week.
Makedonski Telekom, A1 Makedonija and Bitstream Mobile expressed interest in licences for national coverage in the 700 MHz and the 3 GHz spectrums. Neotel's expression of interest concerns licences for regional coverage in the 3 GHz band.
AEK invited telecommunications operators to express interest in participating in a planned auction for the allocation of frequencies for 5G networks on June 1.
The agency plans to grant three licences for the use of radio frequencies in the 700 MHz spectrum, seven in the 3 GHz band and four licences in the 26 GHz band. Ten of the licences will be issued for national coverage, whereas the remaining four will be granted for regional coverage.
The licences will be issued for a period of 15 years and may be extended by up to five years.
AEK set a starting price of 6 million euro ($7.1 million) for the licences in the 700 MHz spectrum, 3 million euro for those in the 3 GHz band and 300,000 euro for the licences in the 26 GHz spectrum.
($ = 0.8419 euro)