The scope encouraged mobile operators to buy low sprectrum: BTRC officials
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s auction for 3G service licences flopped because of the BTRC’s decision to allow mobile phone companies to offload cellular data to WiFi network just before the auction, said officials.
BTRC officials said all the operators bought lowest possible spectrum in the auction held on September 8 because the telecom regulator in June this year allowed mobile phone companies to offload their cellular data to WiFi network, a low-cost network which allows smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras and all other WiFi-enabled devices connect to the internet using radio waves.
In the 3G auction, four operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel— bought 25 MHz spectrum from available 40MHz without any competition by paying only $21 million for each MHz whereas the opening base price was $20 million a MHz.
The government had expected that it would net in revenue worth at least $800 million from four licences but it could only get $525 million as GP took 10MHz at $210 million, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel took 5 MHz each at $105 million an operator.
After the 3G auction BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told reporters that the operators who took 5MHz spectrum would not be able to ensure 3G service quality with such low spectrum.
But mobile operators on different occasions said that they would be able to ensure 3G service quality.
‘It is not possible for the mobile operators to provide optimal 3G service with the spectrum they bought if they cannot share it to WiFi network,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age.
He said that the BTRC’s approval for offloading data to WiFi network would allow mobile operators to offload 2G or 3G data traffic into the WiFi network which is one of the cheapest networks in the world.
‘Allowing operators such privilege just before 3G auction eased the pressure of purchasing high spectrum for 3G service. Why will someone buy million-dollar spectrum if they can offload additional data to WiFi network in whatever amount they want?’
Another BTRC official said that in terms of subscribers’ base all mobile phone companies bought same amount of spectrum though it looked like that Grameenphone bought higher spectrum compared to others.
‘Banglalink and Robi each have subscribers little more than 2 crore and they bought 5MHz spectrum each while GP has 4.2 crore subscribers and it bought 10MHz spectrum. So, the companies bought 5MHz spectrum for every 2.2 crore subscriber,’ he said.
He said that the mobile phone companies were confident about 3G service quality as they were recently awarded facility of offloading cellular traffic to WiFi network.
‘In the developed market, regulator imposes usage cap or charges additional money for offloading cellular data to WiFi network to sustain the value of mobile network spectrum. But in our country we did the opposite,’ he said.
Robi’s chief technical officer AKM Morshed at a press briefing on Monday admitted that they were going to offload additional 2G and 3G data users to WiFi network.
‘It is a standard practice all over that world. But it does not mean we will not be able to serve our 3G customers with 5MHz spectrum,’ he said.
CTO of another mobile company told New Age that there would be two possible ways of offloading the cellular data to WiFi.
‘One way could be user-driven where users will be notified about the network shifting and such a shift will be subject to users’ permission if it has separate billing system. Another way could be operator-driven where the mobile company can shift the users without informing,’ he said.
There was a criticism that the BTRC high-ups changed the auction process several times to favour mobile phone companies and to do away the competition factor which made the 3G auction competition less.
-With New Age input
