Gadgets & Gizmos

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will award all available spectrum to existing Fixed Local Loop (FLL), Wireless Local Loop (WLL) and Class Value Added Services (CVAS) licensees through region-wise auction process to be held on May 3 2012.
The authority has set base prices of $25,000 to $27.4million for frequency bands of 1.9 MHz and 3.5 MHz separately for 14 different telecom regions that aimed to be awarded to different existing telecom operators, Information Memorandum (IM) issued by PTA said.
PTA has fixed annual spectrum charges from $10,000 to 75,000 for different telecom regions depending on capacity and potential areas of business.
Tentative Auction Schedule:

• Publication of IM: 14th Feb
• Begin date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI): 15th Feb
• Pre-Bid Conference: 22nd Mar
• Closure of queries: 26th Mar
• End Date for submission of EoI/ Application: 30th Mar
• Response of queries from PTA: 2nd Apr
• Qualification of bidders: before auction 11th Apr
• Receipt of Bid Earnest Money in PTA’s Bank account; 19th Apr
• Auction 3rd May

The award of spectrums is carried out for improving services of telecommunication sector with the broader objective of increasing investment and competition.
According to the terms and conditions, a nationwide license holder can bid separately for spectrum the 14 telecom regions or less, while a provincial license holder can bid for all telecom regions within the licensed province or less. The licenses will be given for 15 years period to both types of operators.
Interested companies may apply for available block(s) in 1.9 GHz and in 3.5 GHz for their operating telecom regions. If a CVAS licensee applies for a block in more than one designated band(s) in a telecom region, the applicant must submit business plan, financial plan, technical plan and rollout information in respect of each such band.
The bidding company can bid for any/all block(s) in any/all telecom region(s) simultaneously, against the submitted the Bid Earnest Money.
A bidder will not be allowed to bid twice for the same block in a given region in any one round. After each round, bid amount will be announced and the highest bidder’s details will be recorded (Manually/Electronically) before the next round.
The successful bidding companies shall deposit 50 percent of the auction winning price after adjustment of the Bid Earnest Money within thirty (30) working days. The remaining 50 percent of the price shall be deposited in ten equal installments over the next ten years.
The license/spectrum shall only be issued after 50 percent payment of the auction winning price is made within 30 working days from the auction date in dollars, PTA’s IM stated.
You can download PTA’s Information Memorandum by clicking this link (PDF File – 4.7 MB)