Tender for Fourth Mobile Operator in Bulgaria Fails
Bulgaria's telecommunication regulator decided to call off a tender procedure for a fourth mobile operator licence as none of the companies that had initially showed interest paid the participation fee.
Six companies bought tender documents which cost 4,000 levs ($2,700/2,045 euro) but they all opted not to take part in the tender, business newspaper Capital Daily reported.
A week ago the three mobile operators in the country announced they were not interested in the tender.
The tender was initiated after 4G Com, a company about which little is known on the local market, showed interest in the licence. The tender was scheduled to be held on December 7.
The Communications Regulation Commission set the starting price for the 15-year UMTS licence at 49.5 million levs with an initial participation fee of 2.0 million levs.
In 2008 another attempt to pick a fourth wireless operator failed as the candidates who had purchased tender documents were not satisfied with the proposed terms and withdrew from the race.
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.