Russian Government to Award 3G License Through Tender
MOSCOW, Nov 23 (Prime-Tass) -- The Russian government plans to award licenses for third generation (3G) mobile services through tenders, Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing draft rules for holding auctions and tenders of frequencies for mobile services.
The draft rules, prepared by the Russian IT and Telecommunications Ministry, stipulate that licenses for unused frequencies are awarded through auctions, while licenses for frequencies currently in use are awarded through tenders, the newspaper said.
At an auction, the bidder offering the highest price wins, while at a tender, the price offered is among the criteria for choosing the winner.
At the moment, frequencies that may be used for 3G cellular networks are being used by aircraft navigation bodies and some other state agencies, the newspaper said.
"Most frequencies in Russia are used by military bodies, thus, the conversion of frequencies would a considerable expense and entail a large amount of technical work from civil operators," Marina Belasheva, spokeswoman for Russia
Posted to the site on 23rd November 2005