ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) has issued policy directive to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for conducting an auction of single block of 10 MHz paired spectrum in the 1800 MHz band within the current financial year.
The government has set the base price of the block on offer at $ 295 million after thorough analysis based on the market demand study of the PTA and international technology and market bench-marking.
In the policy directive, the PTA has been directed to design the auction process in a manner to fulfill policy objective of optimal outcome. The PTA will conduct the auction within this financial year. Payment terms and conditions will remain the same as were in 2014 NGMS auction.
All existing mobile operators as well as new entrants will be eligible to participate in the auction. New license for provision of NGMS services will be issued to successful bidder for a period of 15 years. Provisions of Telecommunication Policy 2015 related to sharing of infrastructure and national roaming will be applicable.
An informed source said that two out of three mobile operators have purchased the 4G spectrum from the government while the third one has used legal loop to get hold of the spectrum while only one remains out of the sphere. So practically the bid would be single bid event like the previous one held last year.
According to the statement of MOIT, due to rapid growth and escalating demand of mobile broadband services requirement of more frequency spectrum, which is a critical input for high quality mobile broadband services, was foreseen. The penetration of mobile broadband services have quickly grown from a paltry figure of less than 3 per cent in 2013 to more than 27 per cent of the mobile phone user in wake of the successful and transparent spectrum auctions.
