T-Mobile Awarded 3G License in Macedonia

Macedonia's telecoms regulator, The Agency for Electronic Communications (AEK) has awarded a 3G license to T-Mobile, after the company was the sole bidder for the three available licenses.

Upon payment of the €10 million fee, the regulator will be required to award the radio spectrum by the end of this year. Once the license is awarded, T-Mobile will be required to launch its network within 6 months, and cover 50% of the population within 12 months.

It was not clear which of the three bands the company will be allocated, or if it will have a free choice based on internal preferences.

The license is valid for ten years.

Cosmofon, which is owned by Greece's Cosmote has been awarded a 3G license earlier this year.

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%).

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

Posted to the site on 24th November 2008