The body managing the tender for the Solomon Island's first competitive mobile license tender has announced that it has received three applications. The applicants are Digicel, bemobile and Milestone Developments.

The Evaluation Committee has begun reviewing the applications and will be making further announcements in due course as provided in the Request for Applications.

The country currently has just the one telecoms operator, Solomon Telekom (trading as Breeze GSM).

Solomon Telekom is estimated by the Mobile World subscriber database to have ended Q1 '09 with just over 35,000 subscribers - representing a population penetration level of just 6%.

Digicel was granted a license in 2006, but Solomon Telekom successfully sued to block the network launch pending a review of its monopoly status.