Eleven telecoms companies have filed bids for the tenders of three 3G licences in Russia.

The deadline for submissions was Monday.

The applicants include the country’s top three mobile operators, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), VimpelCom and MegaFon, all of which operate GSM networks.

A number of small regional operators and foreign companies also submitted bids: Tele2, Smarts, under the guise of etwork Telecommunications Company, New Telephone Company, Astelcom, Avrora-Telekom, Investelektrosvyaz, Summa Telecom, and Komtel Plus.

The results of the tender are expected to be announced on April 20.