TBILISI (WiMAX Day). The National Communications Commission in Georgia (GNCC) announced this week that it will auction 3.4–3.5 GHz spectrum on 1st December 2006. The announcement did not detail how many licenses will be available, or the amount of spectrum. According to a report from Prime Tass, applications for the auction will be accepted until 9th November. The report further noted that the starting price for a license will be 1.66 million Georgian lari, equivalent to just under US$ 1 million. The GNCC stated that it expects that the most likely bidders in the auction will be the Tbilisi-based GSM operator MagtiCom, and the incumbent fixed-line operator Akhali Kselebi. However it is not certain that either company has the ability to fund a costly WiMAX deployment, and it is likely that they may seek foreign partners, most likely from America or Russia.