Jordan's Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) has announced plans to award 3G licenses in the country. The government will auction off just one license to a new-entrant, but will then allocate 3G licenses to the three incumbent operators at the same price.
The reserve price for the spectrum is set at 25 Million Jordanian Dinars for a paired block of (5 MHz) of spectrum, which specify the minimum fees of this band and it does not include the evacuation charges and the annual returns. The bidders are free to obtain 10 or 15 or 20 paired MHz.
The winner of the said tender or the incumbent operators can acquire the 2G spectrum license separately from the tender against an acquisition fee which equates to 130% of the winning price of the tender. Therefore, the minimum fees to grant the 2G spectrum is (32,500,000) million JD for a pair of (5 MHz).
It's expected that the tender will be released on mid of December 2008, and the closing date for the bid submission will be on the last week of January 2009, and the winner will be announced during the same week.
TRC would reasonably expect that services will be available within one year of the grant of the first license. Further, TRC will impose roll-out obligations on the licensees to secure the provision of services in at least the capital cities of each Governate in the Kingdom within a reasonable timescale.
The Mobile World subscriber tracker notes that the country ended the first half of the year with just over 5 million mobile phone users - representing a population penetration level of 81.6%.
Posted to the site on 26th November 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/34842.php