The UMTS draft licences which the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) adopted on Monday, January 17, stipulate that the future licence holders should provide coverage of international airports and 20% coverage of this country's population within two years after obtaining the licence. The drafts were posted on the CRC website on Monday. Interested operators have until January 21 to put forth their comments. The CRC will hand out one Class A licence with capacity 2x10 MHz+1x5 MHz and two Class B licenses with capacity 2x5 MHz+1x5 MHz. In five years, the future UMTS licence holders should have 55% coverage of the population and should have built a 144-kbps link between Sofia, Plovdiv, Bourgas, Rousse and Varna; they should also sign three-year roaming contracts with GSM operators and should ensure disturbance-free service. Late last year the CRC decided to issue three UMTS licences. Since the number of companies interested in the 3G resource outnumbered the available frequencies, the commission decided to award the licences on competitive basis. The 20-year licences define the terms, technical requirements and stages for the deployment of the networks. They will be part of the tender papers and will be handed out to the tender winners. Bulgaria's dominant wireless operator MobilTel, Greek-controlled rival operator GloBul, Bulgaria's former telecom monopoly BTC, Tele2 of Sweden and British-registered First Place AR are the companies that have notified to the telecom regulator their interest in the 3G licences.