The government is going to auction the last spectrum of 4G mobile internet at a minimum price of over $210m in May-June, according to media reports.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) consultant has conducted a survey to judge the demand for the acquisition of the spectrum and reveals that healthy competition is expected at the auction.
Telenor is not expected to participate in auction since it acquired a 4G spectrum for $395m a year ago and is focusing on cutting down its costs these days.
Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has sent a set of recommendations comprising of base-price and other provisions for the auction to the Cabinet for approval. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is also taking a keen interest in the auction, as he is the authority who constituted an advisory committee for the auction in February.The Cabinet approval would authorise PTA to begin with the process.
According to PTA’s latest data, the four mobile phone companies in the country serve 137.09m customers. Almost 28pc or 38.26m of them are users of 3G/4G mobile internet as on January 31, 2017.
The government has earned around $1.5b in the last two auctions and this is the third auction of the spectrum since 2014.
