Pakistan to Auction 4G Spectrum in May for $300 Million

The Advisory Committee for the Auction of unsold Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) spectrum (4G) gave go-ahead fot the auction of 4G spectrum, we have checked.

While it’s not confirmed yet, officiall sources told ProPakistani that projected base price for one 10Mhz block is around $300 million.

Official sources revealed that Prime Minister, who is the Minister in-charge of the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, may issue policy directive for auction latest by Wednesday.

The auction process would be completed by end May 2017, the sources confirmed.

Furthermore, the government has decided to go for auction of the last available spectrum of single block of 10MHz in 1800MHz, without dividing it into two blocks.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had constituted an Advisory Committee for auction of this spectrum which is headed by Minster of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rahman while Special Assistants to PM for Law, Secretary IT, Secretary Finance, Secretary Law, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Executive Director Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) and Member telecom are the members of this committee. Member Telecom was also appointed as “Committee Secretary”.

The Advisory committee for the auction of unsold Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) spectrum (4G) met last Thursday to take final decision on the spectrum auction.

The Minister chaired the Advisory committee for the auction and reviewed the comparative study of benchmarking from local and regional telecom markets.

Fearing poor response from the upcoming spectrum auction (4G), the Advisory committee had decided to undertake a comparative study of benchmarking from local and regional telecom markets. The Chairman PTA led sub-committee analyzed the regional and global markets, which have gone through spectrum auction in recent past.

The sub-committee submitted its report to the main spectrum Advisory committee for consideration and further necessary action.

During the last two auctions, the government conducted markets survey through consultants but did not go for comparative study of benchmark from local and regional telecom markets. The government had a consultant study in hand as per the PTA officials but uncertainty led the government to go for further market analysis.

The government had budgeted Rs 65 billion from the auction of two licenses of 3G and 4G for 2015-16. However, later government revised it to Rs 45 billion, while deciding to go for single frequency spectrum auction in the 850 MHz band with base price of $395 million.

One license (4G) remained unsold and the government has budgeted Rs 75 billion for the current financial year from its auction.


  • If zong takes it then rip every other operator in Pakistan. They will be a mile ahead of the game.
    Also, ufone will try every thing to get their hands onto this last 4g spectrum.

    • The MOITT is carrying out a survey on Competition, which should enable every prospective bidder either from China, Pakistan, Continental Europe, EU, US, Russia, ASEAN. Please check head line news about Vodafone in India. The GOP should provide level playing field to ETSI, Chinese indigenuous/ETSI on ITU Reccomendations. Quallcom should be considered. We’ve seen the Chinese technology to make sure that it is compliant to WIPO, IPR, patents and reccomendations from China.

  • Finally zong ne 4G coverage expand kar li, I got excellent reception and I wish zong iss spectrum k liye participate kare.

  • Zong or ufone will most likely buy this. Jazz has already spent too much in buying warid and telenor is never serious

    • Jazz, warid merger was totally a ‘non-cash’ transaction. Jazz has spent nothing when compared to Telenor and Zong. Ufone is unable to invest such a huge amount. Most likely it will be Zong again.

    • Free mai na de dain :p
      Jokes aside only zong has bags full of $$$ . If they get this licence they can do justice with it. Like they already did with their previous 3g and 4g licence.
      No other company has invested so agressively like zong in last 2 to 3 years. They have a chance to become no. 1 in data if they grab this licence

  • Jazz will likely to be potential buyer as merger approval was subject to this license deal

    • There was no such clause. What if Zong or Ufone wins? Will merger cancelled? No

  • Since Telenor bought 4G license recently on a huge $395 million price, and considering their cost cutting approaches nationally and internationally, chances of their bid are minimum because they require huge investment to expand its 4G coverage in Pakistan which is on initial stage right now.

    Jazz, Ufone and Zong could be potential buyers. Jazz is currently integrating its spectrum and refarming as per needs. By adding Warid’s spectrum Jazz now has options to provide 10 MHz 4G on 1800 MHz, 10 MHz 3G on 2100 MHz and 5 MHz of 900 MHz extra for either 3G or 4G. Jazz also requires huge money to expand 4G coverage in future because Warid’s 4G is in very few cities. But still due to heavy pockets Jazz could go for it just to compete Zong in data services in future.

    Ufone will fight for its survival. This is last chance of Ufone and they must get it at any cost. But question is Do they have as much money? Because their revenue is declining and their users are moving to other networks. And they still have a long long journey in 3G coverage. There are many key places in the country where Ufone has GPRS services only.

    Zong is already providing 15 MHz 4G by refarming its previously 2G 5 MHz spectrum in 1800 MHz across various places in country to avoid congestion. The way they are selling MBB devices, they need more spectrum now. Secondly they have already expanded 4G coverage in most parts of the country and doesn’t require extra investment now for expansion after bagging spectrum. Since this is last block in 1800 MHz which considered to be best frequency for 4G world wide and is contiguous to its existing spectrum. Since they have pockets full of money, have best data revenue among all, they will probably must go for it to stump themselves a true data company and most importantly to avoid another competition in 4G market from Ufone.

    Let me know which one deserve to be a winner.

    • Every operator deserves except ufone. Cuz if ufone buys this then expect the shittiest 4g packages with the shittiest coverage…. to get an idea how pathetic ufone’s packages will be, just recall the day when every operator announced their packages for the very first time. Each operator had some sort of offering without any speed limit whereas ufone designed their packages around speed and the highest they offered was 3Mbps with lowest being 512kbps …and they were and still are the most expensive one

      • I don’t think that Zong will let Ufone win this. Zong only needs $300 million to use this spectrum. Ufone requires plenty of other huge investment to spread coverage after bagging this spectrum. So Zong can go higher while bidding easily.

  • jazz, telenor & zong are NOT contenders here

    ufone is purchasing this spectrum, period.

    it is the only provider left behind without 4g service and attaining this spectrum is key to its survival.

    • its an auction. If they are awarding this license to UFONE, then whats the reason for making it via auction?

      • only for the purpose of formalities and as far as ufones cash goes, you are underestimate etlsalat greatly here. this is their lifeline, they’re going for it come what may

        • We are not underestimating, You are overestimating them. Agar itni hi investment hoti toh Ufone ka yeh haal na hota jo aak hai. Abhi to barray barray shehron myn b unka 3G nahin aaya aap 4G ka soch rahay ho.

          Aur rahi baat formalities ki toh aap ki soch ko 30 topon ki salaami. Yeh telecom business hai, koi luddo ki game nai k kisi ko dil kiya jita diya kisi ko dil ki haraa diya.

          • Please remember this post and come back to it, i’ll be awaiting the 30 topon ka salam when ufone clinches this spectrum. strategy naam ki koi cheez hoti hai which changes from time to time, ufone ka haal ye hai issi liye they’re investing to try catch up.

            as far as telecom is concerned it is as ludo as it gets.

              • Zafar Bhai don’t underestimate the power of a common company ?
                Aaj Jazz aur Zong k paas paisa hai customers​ hain, 4G hai, aur ufone k paas SuperCard hai ??

                  • Hahaha
                    Ufone apne customers ko sirf ek he lollipop deta hai SuperCard
                    Ufone Customer: Ap k Paas 3G hai?
                    Ufone: GGG 3G aur SuperCard
                    Customer: Wide area Coverage hai?
                    Ufone: Nhn magar SuperCard hai
                    Customer: 9Mbps tak ki speed hai?
                    Ufone: Nhn Par SuperCard hai?
                    Customer: 3G coverage kab aye gi?
                    Ufone: SuperCard aa gaya ye apni _____ mein le len aur befikar ho jayen ???

                    • Nhn Adnan bhai mein ufone ka customer na tha aur na he hun, ufone ki current campaign pe baat kar raha hun, Jazz aur ufone ne sath mein safar shuru kiya tha but ufone SuperCard pe atak k reh gaya, trend badal chuka hai, ufone bohat behtar kar sakta tha but …….

    • Where is the investment?

      Etisalat bastards can’t re-pay the 800 million for PTCL, what makes you think they will invest in the auction for the sake of pathetic ufone with declining revenues?

      If Ufone was purchasing it for sure, there wouldn’t have been an auction in the first place.

      It doesn’t deserve the spectrum, it’s a waste to give it to them, their 3G coverage sucks, buying the 4G spectrum isn’t the only investment required, 4G SIM cards, 4G devices, and most importantly, new BTS are required for 4G coverage to be expanded.

      Telenor is surely not a contender, but Zong and Jazz are.

      Anyway, only time will tell, the 2014 win by Zong was a huge surprise for everyone, so anything could happen this year.

        • And what is your source of information?

          I doubt they will as well, because of spectrum refarming, but it’s always a possibility.

          • mene mobilink ki parent company k ceo ka inteview parha tha unhn ne up coming auction mn participation ka plan bataya keh woh auction mein hisa lene k bajaye 4g network ko expand karany par invest karengy unky khayal mn abhi pakistan mn 4g ki itni demnad nahi jab 4g penitration hogi tab he woh additional 4g license kharidnay ka sochengy.

  • Whoever wants irritating person Abdul Wahab to be unblocked should also be blocked on immediate basis.

    • Are you serious? After merging spectrum Jazz can offer either 10 MHz of 3G and 15 MHz of 4G or 15 MHz of 3G and 10 MHz of 4G apart from 2G services.

      And Jazz would likely to invest in 4G expansion rather than new spectrum. There 4G coverage of Warid is very limited (around 80 cities only woh b partially)


  • Get Alerts

    Follow ProPakistani to get latest news and updates.


    ProPakistani Community

    Join the groups below to get latest news and updates.



    >