Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is today announcing Telenor Pakistan as winner of its 850MHz spectrum auction in Pakistan, we have checked with sources who are familiar with the development.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had announced the auction of 10MHz block in 850MHz band at a base price of $395 Million, for which only one operator (Telenor Pakistan) had submitted its bid.
Because of single bidder, PTA (through a clause in IM) had this option of withholding the auction and postponing it for a later time to attract more bidders for spectrum and ultimately a better price, but regulator instead is going ahead with the auction and Telenor Pakistan will be awarded 3G/4G spectrum at the base price.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Ministry of IT and Telecom, in this regard, is going to make an announcement through a press briefing, we have checked.
According to details, PTA will announce its decision of awarding 3G/4G spectrum to Telenor Pakistan.
License award ceremony, along with other modalities of spectrum auction, will be arranged at a later time.
Telenor to Become 3rd 4G Operator in Pakistan
With this, Telenor Pakistan will have 10MHz of spectrum in 850MHz band with which it will be able to launch 4G services in Pakistan to become third 4G operator in the country.
Not to mention, the spectrum in 850MHz band is technology neutral.
It will interesting to note here that Telenor Pakistan has successfully conducted its 4G tests in Pakistan and it is all set to ultimately launch 4G services in the country; the timeline, however, isn’t clear to us as of yet.
We are anticipating that major cities are going to be offered 4G services with-in few months of the 4G license.
With this spectrum auction, currently offered 3G services will also see a boost in quality and customers should immediately expect better than earlier 3G services from Telenor Pakistan.
Update:
Anusha Rehman, Minister for IT and Telecom, Dr. Ismail Shah, Chairman PTA today announced that Telenor Pakistan has been termed the winner of 10MHz block in 850MHz band.
Officials said that Telenor will be allotted spectrum as following:
Press was told that Telenor is awarded this spectrum on base price of USD 395 Million in accordance with the schedule given in the IM.
The license will be awarded to Telenor within 30 days of payment.
