Canadian firm TIW, which is interested in buying a third licence for providing GSM mobile services in Slovakia, has said the government's June 2002 sale date is too late given how quickly existing operators are capturing market share.
Current operators Globtel and Eurotel have reported rapid growth in client numbers in the last 12 months. Both have seen numbers of registered users almost double since September 2000.
More Slovaks own mobile phones than fixed lines, and some economists have predicted more than 40% of the population will own mobile phones by the end of the year.
