All four participants in the auction for 3G mobile services will get licences, said Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission chairman Sunil Kanti Bose on Tuesday.
‘As four operators were in the final race for four licences, all of them would get a licence but they would compete for the spectrum allocation,’ he told reporters at his office in Dhaka.
The BTRC is scheduled to hold the 3G auction on September 8 for 40 MHz spectrum, which was divided into eight blocks of 5 MHz each with a floor price of $20 million a MHz.
A BTRC official said the syndication fear between the telecom regulator and mobile phone companies intensified further as a quarter within the commission was trying to make sure that each operator could get 10MHz at floor price.
The fear among some officials about a syndication intensified after the regulator virtually blocked the entry of any foreign operator and Citycell dropped out of the race, paving the way for four other operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel — who deposited $20 million last Thursday.
Sunil also told reporters that they would discourage operators from taking a single block of 5 MHz as any operator taking 5 MHz spectrum for 3G service would fail to ensure the service quality.
‘After awarding the 3G license we will go tough on service quality, which will create problems for the operator who would avail only 5 MHz spectrum,’ Sunil told reporters.
An official of the commission, however, said that in any auction there was possibility that a mobile operator with large subscriber-base would want to take a 15 MHz spectrum.
‘But in this case, if any operator takes a 15 MHz spectrum through auction, one of the three others will have to take a 5 MHz spectrum. If you discourage anyone to take 5 MHz, then there is bound to be a syndication,’ said the official.
He said it will encourage most of the operators to divide the total spectrum to 10 MHz each at the base price instead of going for fighting in the auction which will be costlier.
Another BTRC official, however, said that 5 MHz spectrum will not necessarily hamper the service quality.
‘It depends on the customer base. If the customer base is small then 5 MHz will not be a problem but if the customer base is huge then 10 MHz might hamper service quality,’ he said.
-With New Age input
