Some BTRC officials fear syndication in bidding
Mobile phone operators have mounted pressure on the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to change further 3G auction procedures. But BTRC officials attributed the pressure to an apparent bid to manipulate the bidding.
Officials of four operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel — in a pre-auction meeting on Monday opposed BTRC’s auction process that sets bidding criteria for unsold spectrum block.
According to BTRC draft auction process, participants who bids for 10 MHz spectrum will be allowed for bidding for the unsold spectrum.
The participant who bids for 5MHz will not be eligible for bidding the unsold block, it said.
Meeting sources said the operators opposed the rule saying that it would increase the competition. But a BTRC official said the operators stood against the rule as it would put an end to any possible syndication.
‘It appears that the operators are in a syndication to manipulate the 3G auction which will not be possible if this auction method prevails,’ a highly placed official of the commission told New Age after the meeting.
If only 10-MHz bidders are allowed to bid for the unsold block, there will be an uneven distribution of the spectrum which will foil any possible syndication by the operators, he said.
‘From the beginning the operators are trying to eliminate the competition factor. The BTRC tried to bring an international operator to keep the competition on but the operators managed to bar the move by lobbying with some senior government officials,’ he said.
He said a Japanese company was the last foreign operator who was in the race but dropped out recently following pressure from the local operators.
‘At first the 3G guideline offered 2G licence to the foreign or new entrant as the interested firms said that in order to compete with other operators they will need the 2G licence. But the operators oppose the move and forced to cancel it,’ he said.
He said following operator’s pressure the BTRC imposed 70 per cent fees on the 2G licence for the new entrants.
‘Japanese NTT was ready to invest both for 3G and 70 fees for 2G which was still risky for the local operators. So they managed to change the rule again which leads new entrant of 3G auction to pay full amount for 2G. Finally, the NTT dropped and the government lost huge amount of investment,’ he said.
‘Now they will start lobbying again for changing the auction process and make the unsold block free for all,’ he said.
He also said the government was very keen to conduct the 3G auction as it would bring huge amount of money ahead of the national elections.
Senior officials of a mobile company said that in the meeting the allocation of the total 40 MHz ‘was distributed verbally following the BTRC auction method.’
‘One company will get 15 MHz, two will get 10 MHz each and one will get 5 MHz of the total spectrum if the auction process remains like this,’ he said.
He said the operators took three days time to give their opinion on the draft auction process.
‘We will discuss the issue in our forum and inform the BTRC about it,’ he said.
The BTRC called for application for the 3G auction on Monday, sticking with the previous deadline of August 1.
The BTRC 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 3G licence by default.
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
