Taking part in what was the biggest spectrum auction in Slovenia to date were telco Telekom Slovenije, the biggest mobile services provider in the country, as well as the second and third biggest mobile operators, Simobil and Tušmobil.

Telekom Slovenije will pay EUR 64.2m, while Simobil will pay EUR 63.87, and Tušmobil will fork out EUR 20.66m, the head of the Agency for Communication Networks and Services (AKOS), Franc Dolenc, told the press on Monday.

T-2, the fourth mobile operator, did not take part in the auction, Dolenc said. He added that AKOS was happy with the auction, which cost just over EUR 1m to carry out. The proceeds of the sale of frequencies will go to Slovenia's budget.

AKOS auctioned off for the next 15 years frequencies on the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2600 MHz bands. The frequencies will be allocated to the operators by the end of June.

The highly anticipated auction is of great importance for the future development of telecommunication in Slovenia, especially for the fourth generation mobile telecommunications technology (4G).

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.