3g Auction On Sept 8
BTRC yet to finalise draft process as operators pressing for change
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is yet to finalise the draft process for the 3G auction scheduled for September 8 as the mobile phone companies are pressing for a change in the draft. BTRC officials said the mobile phone operators were pressing for a change in the draft in their bid to reduce competition factors and turn things into their favour.
‘We are working on the matter and analysing the issues raised by the operators about the auction process. The auction process will be finalised considering the best interest of an effective auction for the people and the operators,’ BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told New Age on Monday.
He said there was still time to finalise the auction process as the operators were yet to submit the bid earnest money totalling $20 million.
The BTRC is scheduled to hold the 3G auction on September 8 at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital for awarding four licences for the third generation cellular phone services. On Sunday, the BTRC cleared all five operators to participate in the 3G bidding.
The BTRC was set to award three licences to the existing mobile phone companies and one to a new entrant. But now the five existing companies will bid for four licences as no foreign firms applied for the 3G licence.
Another local operator, the state-run Teletalk, has already got 3G licence by default.
The BTRC on Monday held a demonstration of the auction software and discussed the procedural details of the auction with the mobile phone companies.
On July 30, the BTRC had informed the mobile phone companies about the auction procedure in a meeting where the operators opposed the procedure claiming that it would increase competition.
According to the BTRC draft auction process, the auction will be conducted in three phases — first phase will be for 10 MHz, second phase for 5 MHZ and the last phase for unsold block, if any.
The participants who will bid for 10 MHz spectrum will be allowed to bid for the unsold spectrum. The participant who will bid for 5 MHz will not be eligible to bid for the unsold block.
The draft auction procedure also recommended raising the price of each call at the auction to $1 million per megahertz from $5,00,000.
It also suggested sale of the unsold block at a lower rate.
The commission officials said the operators opposed the procedure and demanded withdrawal of the slab-based auction process.
The operators claimed such slab-based auction would facilitate the big companies and the small operators might not find enough spectrums for themselves.
They also demanded that the amount of the earnest money should be lowered from $20 million.
The eligible operators will have to deposit the bid earnest money of $20 million by August 26 as per the BTRC auction schedule.
Before submitting applications for the 3G licences, the operators, however, tagged a condition of settling the revenue board’s claim of Tk 3,100 crore in SIM replacement tax before August 26.
The National Board of Revenue in 2012 claimed a total of Tk 1,580 crore from Grameenphone, Tk 774 crore from Banglalink, Tk 664 crore from Robi and Tk 82 crore from Airtel saying that the operators had dodged the amount in SIM replacement tax.
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
