Macedonia to Tender Three More 3G Licenses

Macedonia's Ministry of Transport has announced plans to tender for three further 3G licenses in the country. Earlier this year, the regulator granted a 3G license to Cosmofon, but it has not launched its service yet. Following the completion of the 3G licensing tender held by the Agency of Electronic Communication (AEC), Cosmofon was allocated 2x15 MHz plus 1x5 MHz spectrum.

The reserve fee for the licenses has been set at €10 million - which is also the price paid by Cosmofon in January.

As part of the market liberalization, the country's three existing operators launched Mobile Number Portability at the beginning of this month.

The country currently has three operators, and figures from the Mobile World subscriber tracking database reports that their market shares at the end of June are: T-Mobile (59.5%), Cosmofon (30.5%) and VIP (10%).

If all three extra licenses are awarded, the country will see the arrival of a new entrant into the market, which is already saturated with just over 100% population penetration.

Posted to the site on 4th September 2008