Govt to hold open auction for 3G licence
The government has slashed the licence renewal fee of four mobile companies to around Tk 7,800 crore from the proposed Tk 12,118 crore.
A high-powered meeting on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, decided to set the renewal fee for 2G (second generation) licence for four mobile companies at Tk 150 crore for one megahertz of band-width.
The meeting also decided to issue 3G (third generation) licences to private mobile operators through open auction next year.
Officials of the Bangladesh Tele-communications Regulatory Commission said that as per the newly set fees, Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell would have to pay the government around Tk 7,800 crore in total for renewing their licences.
The BTRC initially drafted a guideline proposing to reconsider the ‘utilisation factor’ to determine the fees, according to which the companies were supposed to pay Tk 12,188 crore.
A meeting of the finance ministry with the telecommunications ministry and BTRC later came up with the idea of setting a flat rate of Tk 150 crore per Mhz of band-width.
Tuesday’s meeting, also attended by LGRD minister Syed Ashraful Islam and finance minister AMA Muhith, set Tk 150 crore as spectrum fee for both the 900 Mhz and 1,800 Mhz bands.
The BTRC had earlier proposed that the fee for the 900 Mhz spectrum should be twice the fee for the 1800 Mhz.
The meeting decided to set Tk 80 crore for each Mhz of CDMA (code division multiple access) spectrum used by the Citycell.
Telecommunications minister Raziuddin Raju told reporters at the ministry that the meeting had also decided to set a social obligation fee of 1.0 per cent of the total revenue collected by each mobile operator.
Raju said that the mobile operators have to pay 49 per cent of the total licence renewal fee by November this year and the rest within two years in three instalments.
‘Today’s decision is final, it won’t be changed in any circumstances,’ said the minister. ‘We will be able to renew the licences of the mobile operators by mid-September.’
The licences of all the four operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell — will expire on November 10 this year.
Referring to the meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office, the minister said, ‘We have decided to give 3G technology licence through open auction for the development of the telecom sector.’
Raju said that at first the 3G technology would be used on a test basis by Teletalk, the state-run mobile operator, this year.
After completion of successful testing of 3G technology by Teletalk, the government will hold an open auction for other operators next year.
The government will appoint a consulting firm soon to hold the auction for 3G licences.
-With New Age input
