Turkcell submitted the highest bid of 358 million Euro in the tender for 40 MHz 3G mobile communication system.

Turkish-Italian GSM operator Avea and British GSM operator Vodafone are the other bidding companies in the tender held in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

Vodafone withdrew from the auction in the first round, Avea offered 348 million Euro in the second round and withdrew in the third round.

Thus, Turkcell was awarded with the tender for Type A licence.

The tender will be concluded after it is ratified by the relevant authority.

In the tender for the Type B (35 MHz) license, Vodafone gave the highest bid of 250 million Euro.

Avea won the tender for Type C (30 MHz) licence with its bid of 214 million Euro.

The tender for Type D (25 MHz) licence was cancelled as none of the three operators submitted bids.

The third-generation (3G) networks enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Additional features also include HSPA data transmission capabilities able to deliver speeds up to 14.4 Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink. 3G networks are wide-area cellular telephone networks that evolved to incorporate high-speed Internet access and video telephony.

The companies that will get a license in the tender will also get new-generation mobile system licenses that would be produced in the upcoming 20 years.

Thus, they will not have to bid for tenders again to get these licenses.

AA