Afghanistan’s telecoms ministry expects to award 3G licences in the 2100MHz band on 1 November, the country’s government has announced.
All interested parties, including Afghan GSM licensees Roshan, Etisalat, MTN and Afghan Wireless…
Afghanistan’s telecoms ministry expects to award 3G licences in the 2100MHz band on 1 November, the country’s government has announced.
All interested parties, including Afghan GSM licensees Roshan, Etisalat, MTN and Afghan Wireless Telecommunications, have until 1 October to place bids for 3G.
Speaking at a press conference in the country on 19 July, communications minister Amirzai Sangin said its “existing mobile licensees will be able to upgrade their licenses by matching the winning bid in the 3G auction”.
The 3G tender package will be available from 1 August from the Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA).
According to Sangin, since the country’s first two licences were issued for GSM services about eight years ago, mobile telephone subscribers have soared from zero to 17 million.
“More than US$1.6bn has been invested in modern infrastructure, services now reaching over 80% of the population and sustaining over 100,000 jobs nationwide,” he said.
The minister added: “Afghanistan will now award one additional license, for the provision of the next generation of mobile services (3G in the 2100 MHz band), which will make it possible to have broadband access to the internet and multimedia services, such as video streaming.”
