Bulgarian Supreme Administraive Court has suspended the granting of a GSM licence to former state monopoly telecom BTC ruled by the national telecoms regulation watchdog.

The Supreme Court has ruled out the licensing procedure being carried out without tender competition.

The state communications watchdog awarded Bulgaria's third GSM license to the telecom carrier BTC at its meeting on June 7. New BTC's owners, US private equity fund Advent, were handed over the document several days later after it remitted the fee, amounting to BGN 54,160,000.

The issue of Bulgaria's third GSM license has been challenged by the Prosecutor's office and four companies, including Bulgaria's first and second GSM operators MobilTel and Globul.

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