Today is the deadline for registering in the privatization tender and requesting the information memorandum. According to earlier information nineteen potential bidders have so far shown an interest in the memorandum, among them nine telcos. Only six investors have as yet signed the secrecy agreement, including France Telecom, Vodafone, Swisscom, Cerberus, TDC and Telefonica; TeliaSonera and Telenor backed out. The deadline for preliminary bids is February 3.
In other news, four telecoms operators are interested in frequencies for mobile networks allowing fast internet access, to compete with the CDMA service. T-Mobile, Eurotel, Czech On Line and Ceske radiokomunikace have reportedly picked up the documents from the Czech Telecommunication Office. Bids should be submitted by February 4 and the licence should be assigned by March 1.