OREANDA-NEWS. December 2, 2010. On Dec 1, Ukraine’s commission for communications regulation (NKRZ) has announced  its plans to hold a 3G license auction by Feb 2011.

Millennium Capital regards this news as NEUTRAL for Ukrtelecom. Starting from 2008, the government had repeatedly scheduled license auctions, although all the Cabinet of Minster’s attempts failed, primarily because of the President’s non-supportive stance (Yuschenko being at odds with the Government headed by Tymoshenko, blocked the migration of the radio spectrum from military use to the mobile phone networks). This time if Ukrtelekom, the sole 3G licensee, goes private in late Dec, Millennium Capital sees higher chances for the auction to materialize as the state loses the motivation to support the telco incumbent through the 3G rationing policy. However, we do not regard 3G sales as a peril for Ukrtelecom in view of a long 3G rollout period.