The Agency for Communication Networks and Services (AKOS), previously known as the Agency for Post and Electronic Communications (APEK), published the call for bids on 31 December.

The auction will include frequencies on the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2600 MHz frequencies, which will be awarded for a 15-year period.

The auction is expected to begin in late March and may last from one week to a month or more. Spectrum will then be assigned by the end of June at the latest.

AKOS expects all four telecoms operators with infrastructure in Slovenia - Telekom Slovenije, Simobil, Tušmobil and T-2 - to take part in what will be the biggest spectrum auction to date.

EU members were supposed to have provided a share of the 800 MHz frequencies freed up by the transition to digital TV broadcasting for mobile communications by the start of 2013.

Only a handful of countries managed to do so due to delays in licence assignment procedures.