The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on Monday amended the 3G mobile service guideline reducing the annual spectrum charge for
operators which will win the 3G licences.
According to the BTRC amendments to the 3G Cellular Mobile Phone Services Regulatory and Licensing Guideline 2013, the spectrum charges will be calculated under a formula where each tariff unit will be Tk 70.
The tariff unit, which will be multiplied by some components of the formula to set the annual spectrum charges, was $1 in the original guideline.
With the new calculation, the annual spectrum charge will come down significantly as the current dollar rate is just over Tk 78.
The BTRC is scheduled to hold the 3G auction for awarding four 3G mobile service licences as per the guideline on June 24.
The telecom regulator 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 the 3G licence by default.
The BTRC’s latest amendments came after the mobile phone operators placed a number of demands and sought clarification on various aspects of the 3G guideline.
The amendments clear the dollar rate for licence acquisition fees and spectrum charge saying that the dollar rate on the auction result date will be the standard of 3G payments.
The earlier provision said the standard rate of dollar would be considered the rate on the date operators make the payment.
The 3G licence winners have to deposit 60 per cent of the auction winning price in taka or equivalent US dollar within 30 working days from the auction result notification and remaining 40 per cent in 180 days.
The amended guideline also shortens the bank guarantee period to 3.5 years from previous 6 years.
It also says the licence acquisition fees of Tk 10 crore will have to be paid within 30 days from auction result notification date whereas there was no time mentioned in the previous guideline.
The amended guideline also says that the market competition factor for 2G licence holders will not be applicable for any 3G auction winner if the company obtains 2G licence. Any new entrant 3G auction winner is eligible to take 2G licence and has to apply for the licence within 60 days after receiving the notification of 3G bid wining.
The guideline has omitted the payment provisions for unsold blocks which will remain after the auction is over.
A total 40 MHz of spectrum will be auctioned for eight blocks where a single bidder will be able to bid for maximum two blocks. The operators could get one additional block if any block remains unsold.
The minimum allocation for a spectrum block is 5 MHz with base price of $20 million for each MHz.
The validity period for a 3G licence will be 15 years.
The latest BTRC amendments to the 3G guideline, however, did not include some major demand by the operators including the VAT collection and related issue for the licence.
The operators demanded that VAT should be included within the fees and charges. Otherwise, they demanded full rebate on VAT they would pay.
The BTRC amendments also did not endorse the demand of the operators that the provision of the 3G guideline that said all kinds of dues of the mobile phone operators have to be paid before participating in the auction should be omitted.
-With New Age input
