An UK-based telecom expert, Abdullah Ferdous, was selected as the individual consultant for the coming 3G auction for mobile phone operators scheduled on September 2.
BTRC officials said the committee which was assigned for evaluation of the proposals finalised the selection on Tuesday from eight other applicants.Abdullah is the managing director of the Priyo Communications (UK) Limited and served as consultant of the BTRC from June 2007 to March 2009 during telecom policy formulation.
BTRC officials said the 3G auction was rescheduled several times as the process
of appointing a consultant faced complexity.
‘Now there is no apparent reason for delaying the auction any further. Although the mobile companies are pressurising the government to resolve the 2G VAT rebate issue as a condition to attend the auction, but the matter is pending before the court,’ said a senior BTRC official.
The BTRC in two phases called expression of interest from parties willing to manage the 3G licence auction scheduled for July 31, but the firms or individuals who applied for the job failed to fulfil required qualifications.
The BTRC in April rejected five firms — PricewaterhouseCoopers, e-Procurement Technologies Ltd, Webb Henderson, Telecell Communication and Detacom Asia-Pacific — who applied for the consultancy job of the 3G auction but failed to meet the criteria set by the commission.
After the five companies were rejected, the BTRC called interested individuals to appoint one local and one international consultant for the job but failed to find any suitable person.
Later, the commission formed a 16 member committee for the 3G auction management by its officials. The commission also decided to appoint a local consultant to assist the committee.
The BTRC will award three licences to three out of five mobile companies operating in the country and one to any foreign firm. Another local operator, the state-run Teletalk, has already got 3G licence by default.
A total 40 MHz of spectrum will be auctioned for eight blocks where a single bidder can bid for maximum two blocks.
The minimum allocation for a spectrum block is 5 MHz with base price of $20 million for each MHz.
-With New Age input
