By Mary Lennighan, Total TelecomCountry fails to attract interest of a foreign player to licensing process.
Bangladesh’s five main privately-owned mobile operators have submitted applications to take part in the 3G licence auction scheduled for next month.Grameenphone, Robi Axiata, Banglalink, Airtel and Citycell made their submissions to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) ahead of Monday afternoon’s deadline, according to various local news outlets. The names of the qualified bidders will be published on 18 August and the auction will be held on 8 September.
The country had hoped to attract new players to the market, perhaps in the form of a foreign operator, but none came forward, Bangladesh’s Financial Express reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed BTRC sources.
Further, bdnews24.com reported that a South Korean operator had shown interest in applying for a licence, but did not submit an application ahead of Monday’s deadline.
When it issued guidelines in February the BTRC said it would make four 3G licences available in the auction, one of which would be available for a new entrant. However, it pointed out that that licence would not be reserved specifically for a newcomer.
40 MHz of spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band are up for grabs, with a reserve price of US$20 million per MHz of bandwidth. The spectrum will be split into eight 5-MHz blocks, with each bidder permitted to secure a maximum of two blocks, unless any spectrum remains unsold on conclusion of the auction.
The licences will run for 15 years.
With five operators competing for four licences, one looks set to walk away empty-handed. However, there have been rumblings in the local press that the BTRC might allocate spectrum to more than four licensees, with some taking just 5 MHz.
State-owned operator Teletalk has been guaranteed a fifth licence at the same price as those sold in the auction. Teletalk already offers 3G services, having launched in October last year.
Teletalk is one of Bangladesh’s smaller mobile operators, having 1.91 million subscribers at the end of June, according to the BTRC (see chart). Grameenphone is by far the largest with 43.97 million subscribers, or 42% of Bangladesh’s total 105.05 million mobile customers. – total telecom
