(Adds details on tenders)
ANKARA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Britain's Vodafone andTurkish firms Avea and Turkcell were thehighest bidders in tenders for Turkey's fourth-generation (4G)network, the tender commission chairman said on Wednesday.
The 800 Mhz bandwidth to be used for the 4G network has beendivided into packages, to be divided up broadly equally betweenthe operators.
Vodafone offered the highest bid of 390 million euros($447.17 million) for the A1 package and Avea the highest withthe same amount for the A2 package, Deniz Yanik announced in thecapital Ankara.
Turkcell's offer of 372.93 million euros was the largest forthe A3 package, with the final results of the tender processexpected later on Wednesday.
The tender was postponed in May, weeks after PresidentTayyip Erdogan urged Turkey not to "lose time" with 4G and tomove straight to 5G, for which technical standards do not yetexist.
4G and 5G refer to the latest technology standards formobile devices. Fourth-generation technology - which wentmainstream worldwide around 2010 - enables users to watch videosand download big documents on their phones.
Fifth-generation is not expected to be ready for widespreadcommercial rollouts until 2020.($1 = 0.8721 euros) (Reporting by Tulay karadeniz in Ankara, Leila Abboud in Parisand Eric Auchard in Frankfurt, writing by Jonny Hogg; editing bySusan Thomas)
Vodafone (VOD)
