Serbia invites bids for second landline operator

BELGRADE Nov 20 (Reuters) - Serbia has invited companies interested in a licence to be the country's second landline phone operator to submit bids by Jan. 12, hoping competition will boost service levels.

Qualified firms must have a 200 million euro ($298 million) turnover in 2009 and a million registered users, according to an advertisement in the daily newspaper Politika.

Companies that do not meet those conditions can become qualified bidders if they have a 10 million euro deposit in the central bank or provide bank guarantees.

The winning bidder will be selected on Feb. 10 at auction if at least two companies express interest.

Telekom Srbija, 20 percent owned by Greek OTE (OTEr.AT), has a monopoly in landline telephony. Its mobile arm MTS is one of Serbia's three cell phone operators.

A lack of competition has left Serbs complaining of poor service, which is partly analogue and partly digital.

Long waiting times for landline installation meant penetration was around 41 percent in 2008, while GSM penetration was 128 percent, according to Serbia's independent regulator.

In 2006, Norwegian operator Telenor (TEL.OL) bought a local operator for 1.5 billion euros, while Mobilkom, the mobile telephony arm of Telekom Austria (TELA.VI), paid 320 million euros for the licence for a third operator. (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Adam Tanner and Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.6722 euro)