Takes last minute preparation, clarifies rules to operators
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission will hold a mock auction of 3G service licences tomorrow as four mobile phone operators are set to bid for 40 MHz spectrum on September 8. The operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel — are poised to get licences as the telecom regulator are awarding four licences through the auction.
BTRC officials said the commission completed the last minute preparation for the 3G auction on Thursday after the operators were given the final demonstration on the auction software on Wednesday.
‘We have completed all the preparations for the auction and everything is expected to go as per schedule,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age.
He said that the mock auction would be held at the Ruposi Bangla Hotel, which is also the venue of the actual auction, at 3:00pm tomorrow.
‘The operators sought clarification on one of the clause of the auction process
related to cancellation of the auction which we have made clear to them today (Thursday),’ he said.
He said in the clarification the BTRC mentioned that the auction would be cancelled if any of the bidders does not make any call in the auction.
BTRC officials said there could be a possible syndication among the commission high-ups and the mobile phone operators as four operators would bid for 40MHz spectrum where commission is encouraging each operator to take minimum 10MHz.
They said equal number of licences and participants made the situation most favourable for the participating operators.
‘The existing mobile companies were behind the 3G guideline engineering which discouraged the foreign operators to participate in the auction. That instigated the syndication fear,’ a BTRC official told New Age.
He said the fear grew further after Citycell failed to submit $20 million bid earnest money and paved the way for more favourable condition for other four operators.
BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose recently told reporters that all participants would get 3G licence.
He also said if bidding amount goes too high, it will create problem for the industry.
‘There is no point in selling the spectrum at higher prices, which eventually make the 3G services of mobile operators unviable. We should focus on generating more revenue for the government by revenue sharing from the operators,’ Sunil claimed.
In a separate meeting with some journalists Sunil Kanti said that they would discourage operators from taking a single block of 5 MHz as with 5 MHz spectrum for 3G services it would fail to ensure service quality.
BTRC officials said if the commission high-ups discourage anyone to take 5 MHz, probability of syndication rises even higher.
‘If you discourage anyone to take 5 MHz, there will be syndication as the total spectrum is 40MHZ which will be allocated to four operators,’ he said.
-With New Age input
