A 75 percent state-owned stake in Kyrgyz Mobile Company failed to attract any bids before its 17 August deadline, reportsTazabek.

Kyrgyzstan’s State Property Fund received no applications for the stake, which was due to be auctioned on 21 August. The starting price for the stake was KGS152.5 million (US$3.26 million).

Kyrgyz Mobile Company is a start-up operator which was awarded licences to operate GSM and WCDMA networks in the country in 2011.

The sale of the stake was linked to the Kyrgyzstani government’s decision in February to privatise a number of companies between 2012 and 2014.

Kyrgyzstan currently has eight operators, with Alfa Telecom-owned Megacom and VimpelCom’s Beeline dominating the market with 2.7 million subscribers and 2.4 million users respectively, according to Wireless Intelligence figures.

The overall market is close to 6.6 million users, of which 90 percent are prepaid customers. Only Beeline, Megacom and Nexi (SoTel) currently offer 3G services.