A total of five companies are awaiting a decision from Georgian regulator, the GNCC, after submitting bids for the country’s first UMTS licence. The bidders include four domestic companies: GSM operators MagtiCom and Geocell, state-owned fixed telephony provider Telekomi Elektrokavshiri (Georgia Electrical Communications) and Musical Imedi. The fifth is a foreign applicant, Israeli Multitelecom.
At the end of last month MagtiCom, the wireless market leader, was awarded Georgia’s first CDMA 800MHz concession when it won an auction with a bid of USD14.4 million. The GNCC also plans to issue a third GSM licence later this year.