All five privately-owned mobile operators in Bangladesh have submitted applications to take part in the country’s 3G auction.
However, no foreign operator has applied for a licence, despite the telecoms regulator’s efforts to open the Bangladeshi…
All five privately-owned mobile operators in Bangladesh have submitted applications to take part in the country’s 3G auction.
However, no foreign operator has applied for a licence, despite the telecoms regulator’s efforts to open the Bangladeshi mobile market, according to local reports.
Sunil Kanti Bose, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, was quoted telling the Dhaka Tribune that a Korean operator expressed interest in a 3G licence after the 12 August deadline expired and asked to reschedule the bidding process. But Bose said that the timetable could not be changed.
Local operators Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel and Citycell – which are all owned by large foreign operators – will take part in the auction of three 15-year 3G licences. An additional licence, which had been reserved for a new entrant, may also be auctioned, the BTRC was quoted as saying.
Teletalk, a state-owned wireless operator, will also be given a licence but without formal bidding. Since October last year, the company has been offering 3G services without a licence on a trial basis.
The qualified applications will be announced on 18 August while the winning applicants will be revealed on 8 September.
First scheduled in June 2012, the 3G auction has been postponed several times because of regulatory and legal issues. Most recently, a dispute over a VAT tax on 3G spectrum opposed the operators and the regulator.
This issue has now been resolved but some of the companies’ executives were quoted as saying that other problems will need to be addressed before the deadline for submission of deposits on 26 August.
The BTRC is expected to offer 5 MHz slots in the 2100 MHz band, with a floor price set at US$20m per MHz.
