The state telecom commission announced yesterday that the closed-bid auction for the country’s fourth cell-phone licence will take place on Jul 29. Tender documents can be purchased by Jun 27. The starting price is set at BGN 38mn (EUR 19.4mn). The licence will be valid for 20 years. Twelve companies have submitted expressions of interest: Turkey’s leading cell-phone operator Turkcell; Lichtenstein’s Telco AG, which holds a licence for mobile virtual network operator (MVNO); five local alternative telecoms: the WiMAX operators Max Telecom, Carrier BG, Trans Telecom and the wireline operators Eastern Telecommunications Company and Spectrum Net; and five other companies registered in the country with different specialisations in the ICT industry: A&T Inc, Artland, Handy-Tel, Mobile World, and Velocity. The three incumbent cell-phone operators have raised the country’s penetration rate in terms of active SIM cards to 130% of the population as of end-March and the new market entrant will face significant challenges to attract critical customer base.