The Czech Republic is likely to auction four third generation mobile phone licences early next year, dashing the hopes of the country's existing operators who wanted to pay a fixed fee. The finance ministry has been pushing for an auction and has already pencilled in a minimum of amount of Kc20bn ($485m) of licence revenues into next year's budget, which passed its first reading. The telecoms ministry has instead been calling for the licences to be awarded for a fixed fee, with one new operator chosen by a beauty contest and the other licences granted to the three existing operators.
