Parivodić and Ilić announced issuing of third license for mobile network in Serbia

Republic Minister of Capital Investments, Velimir Ilić, said that the Government of Serbia would make decision about introduction of the third mobile operator, independently of solving the status of “Mobtel” and outcome of the arbitration in Zurich. "We will take care of the interest of the State and, if needed, we will introduce the third operator", said Ilić and added that the new co-owner of "Mobtel", Martin Šlaf, had not asked for postponement of introduction of new mobile operator in Serbia.

Minister of International Economic Relations, Milan Parivodić, announced issuing of the license for the third operator, which would strengthen competition and make prices of the services fall. Such sudden decision is kind of strange concerning the fact that the procedure for selection of councillor for telecommunications, which should suggest the first of the telecommunications companies for privatization and the time of the issuing of new license, did not move from the beginning. The Telecommunications Agency has barely formed administrative board recently, which is over two years later than it was planned according to the Law on Telecommunications. The task of the Agency is, by the way, to implement telecommunications platform of the Government, but it has not been passed yet.

The Government of Serbia determined the budget of 1.8 million EUR for selection of the telecommunications councillor and if it decides to introduce the third mobile operator without councillor, it may happen that the selection of the councillor fails.