Slovenia to Flog More 3G Licences

March 17, 2004 -source: BWCS

The Slovenian government is planning to sell two more UMTS licences, according to the country's Technology Minister Pavel Gantar, at a price of around Euro 37.8 million each. While this may seem a mere snip compared to the Euro 92.4 million paid by state-owned mobile operator Mobitel for its UMTS licence back in 2001, the offer looks like an increasingly desperate effort by the government to introduce more competition in the market.

Twice before, 3G licences have been on offer, yet so far there has only been one taker. Si.Mobil, a Mobilkom Austria subsidiary, pulled out of the bidding in the first licence auction in 2001 because of the excessive cost of the licences. Despite the lower price tag this time round, the operator, which has a 24% market share in Slovenia, says it still considers the licence to be too expensive. Another previous contender, Slovenia's third mobile operator Vega, also decided to give the licences a miss.

Mobitel launched its 3G service on 12 December 2003, though it has not revealed how many of its 650,940 mobile contract customers have so far signed up for UMTS.

It has, however, reported that its 3G portal Planet UMTS has attracted 9,000 users to date. The most popular 3G content on the portal, according to Mobitel, is novelties, followed by sports, erotic videos, cinema, weather and radio. The company says that more than 80 percent of its UMTS subscribers use video telephony.