Georgia's Telecom Invest Georgia Gets Licenses for 3G Services

TBILISI, May 23 (Prime-Tass) -- Georgian company Telecom Invest Georgia has won at an auction frequencies for third generation (3G) mobile services, an official with the National Communications Commission told Prime-Tass Tuesday.

The company has bought a license to operate in frequencies from 1,950 Megahertz (MHz) to 1,965 MHz, from 2,010 MHz to 2,015 MHz, and from 2,140 MHz to 2,155 MHz for 18.68 million lari, the official said.

The starting price of the license was 8.5 million lari.

Other bidders for the license included Georgian GSM mobile operator Geocell and an Italian individual, the official said.

Geocell was bidding for 3G frequencies for the third time, but again did not succeed. The winners of the first two auctions were Georgia?s Argotex, which paid 19.9 million lari for the license, and Georgia?s MagtiCom, which paid 26.13 million lari.

Telecom Invest Georgia took part in an auction for a GSM license in Georgia in February, but failed to win the license.

Dimitri Kitoshvili, the commission?s chairman, said that the regulator did not plan to auction any more licenses in the next two or three months, but may resume auctioning licenses starting September.

The Georgian mobile market is split between two GSM operators and one CDMA operator. GSM operators Geocell and MagtiCom control about 55% and 44% of the market respectively, while CDMA operator Iberiatel controls about 1%.

Penetration in Georgia, which has a population of about 5 million people, amounted to about 20% as of early 2006.

(1.801 lari - U.S. $1)

End"

Posted to the site on 23rd May 2006