A pessimistic Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has dropped the idea of hiring consultants to attract new investments in the auction for Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) spectrum (3G/4G).
“There is no chance of new telecom operator/entrant as the market is already consolidating”, said a senior official of PTA while speaking with ProPakistani.
“Though PTA has sought applications through national and international media for the upcoming spectrum auction, apparently no new telecom player will bid for the auction”, said the official adding that the process to be employed by the Authority for auction of 850MHz spectrum will be open outcry auction in case if demand is more than the available spectrum.
Fearing poor response from the market, PTA had earlier decided to hire two types of consultancy services of internationally repute for market assessment and marketing of spectrum auction.
The first consultant(s)/consulting firm was required to conduct the market study/analysis to advise PTA on future auction of the spectrum (850MHz, 1800MHz) in accordance with the RFP.
The Interconnect Communications was the lowest bidder and was selected for the market assessment and on its report; the government dropped the idea to go for auction of all unsold spectrum i.e. 850MHz and 1800MHz simultaneously.
Then there was a need of second consultant for marketing purposes to attract new investments for the spectrum auction of NGSM.
For the second consultancy contract two consultant firms including Value Partners Management Consulting Limited UK (VMPCL) and C21 World were short listed and their technical evaluation was also reportedly completed.
However, since there’s zero percent chance of any new entrant, PTA decided not to hire second consultant to market the spectrum auction.
Not to mention, Value Partners (VMPCL) had provided consultancy services for the previous 3G/4G auction to PTA held in April 2014.
