Pakistan Planning 3G Spectrum Auction
Pakistan is expected to auction off three blocks of 3G spectrum in the next few months - reports local media. As the existing mobile licenses are technology neutral and therefore can already offer 3G service (hardware permitting), there wont be a 3G license process - simply the allocation of spectrum in the 3G bands - namely 2.1Ghz.
An unnamed official told the Pakistan Daily that “since existing licenses of mobile operators are technology neutral, therefore no new licence for 3G shall be issued instead spectrum shall be assigned for the remaining period of licence term,”
The base price for the radio spectrum (a dollar per MHz per Year) shall be derived from auction winning price of 2004 which was US$291mn for 13.6 MHz GSM spectrum for 15 years.
The Cabinet Committee for Regulatory Authority (CCRA) has decided to grant only three tranches of 3G spectrum to prevent smaller operators aquiring spectrum that they then cannot afford to use due to network deployment costs.
Diallog, a wireless local loop operator, recently acquired additional CDMA EV-DO licenses to operate across Pakistan in a single frequency spectrum of 450MHz. Those GSM based operators who fail to pick up any 2.1Ghz spectrum can presumably wait for mass market 3G handsets operating in the 900Mhz bands.
According to figures from the Mobile World service, the country currently has six operators, although only four of them are of any size. Mobilink (39.8%), Ufone (21%), Telenor (19%) and Waridtel (17%). The two remaining operators, Pakcom and Paktel have negligable market shares.
On the web: Pakistan Daily - Mobile World
Posted to the site on 16th April 2008
