BTRC to announce list today
The telecom regulator would announce today the names of eligible cellular phone operators for 3G auction after scrutinising the applications, said officials.
Country’s six cellular phone operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel, Citycell and state-owned Teletalk — on August 12 applied for participating in the 3G bidding scheduled for September 8.
The panel of experts of the regulator has already completed the evaluation of the applications, the officials added.
‘All the operators are getting the opportunity to participate in country’s first ever spectrum auction for third generation or 3G cellular phone service, as they (operators) have applied complying with the rules,’ said an official of legal and licensing division of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
‘We will announce the operators’ names officially tomorrow so they (operators) could deposit bid earnest money on August 26,’ he added.
According to the final 3G/4G/LTE licensing guideline, each eligible operator has to deposit $20 million as bid earnest money to participate in the bidding.
Taking to BSS, BTRC officials and industry people said they are apprehending that country’s oldest cellular phone operator Citycell may face trouble in the bidding due to financial crisis, as the operator is yet to make the payment of last instalment for 2G licence renewal fee.
The commission will issue five ‘Cellular Mobile Phone Services (3G/4G/LTE) Operator Licence’ including assignment of spectrum through open auction. Among the five, one licence had been kept for new entrant, but no new operator applied for the licence.
Besides, another four licences would be issued among the existing six operators, of which state-own Teletalk would be given the licence without its participation in the auction. So, five private operators will run for rest three licences. Teletalk is now offering 3G service on trial basis.
Officials said as any new operator didn’t apply in new entrant category the licence would be awarded to the existing operators.
Earlier, the regulator had deferred the auction date for the 3G thrice. The 3G auction was originally set for June 24, but it was refixed on July 31 before being rescheduled for September 2.
Other deadlines for the auction procedure have also been rescheduled. As per the new time, the list of qualified applicants for the auction would be published on August 18 while the consultation on auction procedure on August 19, submission of Bid Earnest Money on August 26, the letter of acceptance or rejection on September 1 and notification of winning applicants on September 8.
On Feb 12, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication finalised the licensing policy for the 3G services by fixing the value of spectrum $20 million per MHz.
-With New Age input
