Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission will sit with the mobile phone operators today to discuss the auction procedure of the upcoming 3G auction scheduled for September 2.
BTRC officials said the commission will detail out the auction plan to the operators in today’s meeting.
The commission is all set to hold the auction in time and the venue for the auction has already been booked.
‘We are now working on details like the guests’ list, accommodation and other things besides the auction process,’ said a BTRC official.
He said the mobile phone operators had been pressurising the BTRC for resolving the 2G licence VAT rebate and SIM tax issue but the commission could not do much about it.
‘The chairman already conveyed the operator’s message to the higher authorities. The tax issue will be resolved by the National Board of Revenue. So, the BTRC is now focused on the auction procedure,’ said the official.
He said the BTRC would convey this message to the operators in today’s meeting.
The NBR recently offered the mobile phone operators to resolve the tax related dispute outside the court through Alternative Dispute Resolution.
The operators, however, showed less interest in the offer and during the hearing of the SIM tax dispute last week all the operators sought more time.
‘The mobile phone operators are making things complicated. They are requesting us to resolve the tax dispute before August, 1 which is the last date for 3G
application submission, but also seeking time when we speed up the process,’ said an official familiar with the procedure.
BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose earlier had said that the auction had been delayed twice because the commission was not finding a suitable consultant for the 3G auction.
In early July the BTRC appointed a UK-based telecom expert as the consultant who joined the office last week.
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 of 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
