The sealed-bid tender for Bulgaria's fourth mobile licence, scheduled by the telecoms regulator for July 29, apparently will not happen, as only one company has submitted an offer.

A total of eight potential bidders bought the tender documents, but only Telco AG, a Liechtenstein-based firm with voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) licences, put in an offer before the submission deadline expired on July 11.

The outcome was not surprising as most of the interested bidders dismissed the guide price set by the regulator as excessive. Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) had set the starting bid at 38 million leva. Network development costs were estimated at a further 80 million to 100 million leva.

Local alternative telco Max Telecom, which was the first to request a mobile frequency allocation, backed out after purchasing the tender papers. From the outset, Max Telecom CEO Krasimir Stoichev said that the validity of the licence, 20 years, was too long in light of the usual lifespan of such technology.

Stoichev told Dnevnik it was a foregone conclusion given the unclear pricing method employed by the regulator and the fact that it has requested a price tag twice as high as that for the mobile licence issued to Globul and six times that for the licence handed to Vivatel, the second and third mobile operators in Bulgaria, respectively.

A CRC member said the companies that stopped short of filing bids were aware of the vacant frequency resource and would most likely await a new licensing procedure. Under Bulgarian law, no competitive procedure is required if there is only one bidder for the frequency band.

The regulator will put together an advisory committee to check the paperwork submitted by Telco AG and should it meet the tender criteria, the company will be invited to pay the licensing fee.