SOFIA, Bulgaria-Five companies have submitted applications to bid for a 15-year GSM license in Bulgaria. The minimum price for the license, to be awarded Dec. 15, is $40 million.
Vodafone Bulgaria, a partnership between Vodafone Group plc and United Bulgarian Bank; TIM International, the mobile business of Telecom Italia; Fintour Holdings B.V., a consortium made up of Finland’s Sonera and Turkey’s Turkcell; Turkish consortium Rumeli Telsim; and Greece’s Ote Telecom are among the list of bidders.
Bulgaria’s state telecom monopoly, BTC, is set for privatization next year. An earlier attempt at privatization that linked the sale with a mobile-phone license collapsed.
Bulgaria currently has two wireless operators, GSM carrier Mobiltel, which had about 193,000 subscribers at the end of March, and Mobikom, an NMT 450 operator with about 168,000 customers at the end of March.
