TELECOMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL TO DISCUSS GSM CONCESSION ON 7 SEPT

( Editorial: --> 6310 ) ZAGREB, Aug 27 (Hina) - The Council for Telecommunications will meet on 7 September to make a decision on allocating the concession for the construction and use of the second digital communication network (GSM) in Croatia, the Council said in a statement Thursday. The session will be held in the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Traffic and Communications in Zagreb. The Council for Telecommunications has received four concession bids. The bidders are Zagitel, Rumeli Telekom from Istanbul, VIP-net Croatia and a Croatian consortium Hr Telekom. The company Zagitel is owned by the Croatian oil company INA and Zagrebacka Banka (each with 26% of shares) and Deutsche Telekom and Westel 900 from Hungary (48%). Rumeli Telekom is owned by Rumeli Holding from Turkey (80%) and Gradska Banka from Osijek and Glumina Banka with 10% of shares each. VIP-net Croatia is owned by domestic investors with 51% of shares and foreign investors with 49% of shares. The domestic investors are the daily "Vecernji list", Ingra and Croatian Postal Savings Bank. The two foreign investors are Mobilcom from Austria (30%) and Western Wireless International from Hungary (19%). Hr Telekom is a consortium including the Croatian Power Supply (HEP), the Croatian Transmission Lines, the Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering (FER), the factory of electrical cables Elka, the Electrical Engineering Institute Koncar, Zagreb-based companies Metroholding, Elektroprojekt Inzenjering and Enconet International, Brodomerkur from Split and Novalic from Osijek. Before signing the contract with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Traffic and Communications, the future concessionary will have to pay an annual fee of five million kuna (around US $800,000) and a non-recurring fee amounting to 100 million kuna (around US $15.5 million). The concessionary will also pay an annual frequency fee of around US $15,600 per each two-way channel as well as about US $24 for each mobile station plus construction costs. All bidders have announced to decrease the price of GSM service and impulses. The offers will be analysed professionally and in detail with the aim of ensuring lower prices and a high-quality network which would be able to compete with the Croatian Post and Telecommunications, currently the owner of the only GSM network in Croatia, Council for Telecommunications head Dominik Filipovic said. (hina) rml 271606 MET aug 98