Government of Pakistan’s plan to auction new telecom licenses including 3G/4G and a defunct cellular license through bidding with base price of USD 210 million and USD 155 million respectively, was disapproved when opposition senators warned the government not to proceed with its auction plan without taking them into confidence, reported Business Recorder.
Senator Pervez Rashid of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, (PML-N) who was supported by Haji Adeel, Ilyas Bilour of ANP, Col. Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (retd) of MQM, Prof. hurshid of JI and others, took serious note of an advertisement to auction the Mobile Cellular Licenses/Spectrum (3G,4G/LTE etc) by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
Terming the auction as a ‘license to loot’, the Senators demanded the chair to immediately issue directives to block the move. However, after government’s intervention, the chair referred the matter to Senate’s Standing Committee on Information Technology with the directives to present a report in the house within two days.
They said that $210 million base price of each 1900/2000 MHz (megahertz) 3G license and $31.5 million the earnest money was a peanut, and any effort to auction such an expensive and advanced technology at such a cheap rate would be resisted.
Speaking during the Senate session, Rasheed said that it was astonishing that the base price for the 3G license had been set at $210 million when the 2G license was auctioned for $290 million.
They said that such a deal would be like that of Etisalat, which bought PTCL, is yet to pay $800 million outstanding dues and are paying the said amount after earning the same from the country.
your PM is demanding kick backs from telecom (rumour in public).
Zong and warid denied to this so lets see.
Vodafone paid this….
oh come on GOP , even if we are able to sell the license at par wid the past 2G auction i.e. USD 291 Million, that will be a big plus . I cant understand why the GOP is unable to understand that the Telecom Sector is in maturity stage now and ROI is very low ….. i dont think any new operator is ever gona participate in 3G auction. One shud undrstnd that the ARPU has gone down from above $9 to less then $ 3 since last time auction and i dont c much attraction in this market.
Actually i was shocked to hear that When India Auctioned their 3g Lisence They did it in 26 Billion :O…And we are looking for 800 million only ..looks like a Free offer …the Size of telecom market of India in 5 times from Pakistan but look at the difference of Price…
There were humongous ghaplay and khanchay when the licenses were auctioned in India. Also compare the market size and industry of India with that of Pakistan!
The Only reason, the above noted looters esp. Bilour (Who sucked the lifeblood out of the Pakistan Railways, are interested in this because yet only the PM and PPP are getting a Piece of the Pie and not them.
So disappointed!
these so called senators who are the actual looters and vulture’s themselves have no shame at all. all those in favour of 3G say “I”
Actually its not that simple, would you buy a 1000 rupees shoe for 50000 rupees just because you want it? If yes then that would be insane.
Money is important brother especially for a country like Pakistan, we need to earn from such deals to keep the economy afloat.
Obviously now they also want a share of the pie
Vodafone is coming to Pakistan.
when