Bulgaria’s Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) reportedly proposed to repeat a 5G spectrum allocation process after Vivacom mounted a legal challenge to its plan to assign frequencies without an auction.

In a statement, the regulator said it completed an allocation process without conducting a secret bidding auction for spectrum in the 3.6GHz band which was initially planned for today (15 March), after concluding the applications it received were sufficient to allocate the spectrum.

Local newspaper Capital reported CRC had allocated 100MHz to each operator for a period of 20 years.

The media outlet said the decision provoked legal action from Vivacom, which disputed the way the licences were granted: the operator apparently was seeking to bolster its holdings with spectrum in the 3.7GHz to 3.8GHz range.

Capital cited CRC chair Ivan Dimitrov as saying the commission could hold a new secret bidding auction, with operators given until tomorrow (16 March) to decide whether to accept the proposal.