The upcoming auction for Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) spectrum (3G/4G) [planned in May 2017] is very crucial for telecom operators in the country as after this; next spectrum auction will take place in 2021.
This was confirmed by the State Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman while speaking with ProPakistani.
Signifying the importance of the upcoming auction for Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) spectrum (3G/4G), the minister stated that after this there will be no auction till 2021 in the country.
“There is huge demand for spectrum and government would achieve its auction targets in the current financial year”, said the Minister.
While explaining that why next spectrum auction can not be held before 2021, the Minister stated that ext year i.e. 2018, is an year of general election in the country and no government will have time to go for auction during this year.
The operators [including Telenor and Warid (now Jazz)] will have to renew their licenses in 2019, which would require huge investment for the purpose, said the Minister.
After investing in the license renewal, operators would not be able to go for auction in 2020. Hence next auction — after the current planned one — is likely to be held in 2021, said the Minister.
She hinted that next auction, planned for 2021 will also include spectrum for 5G services.
Independent industry experts said that Minister is just trying to gain some traction, otherwise — in this age and time — there’s no way for the operators and the government to hold for spectrum auction for four years.
If we look at 2014’s auction, government held two spectrum auctions with-in three years, indicating that holding a spectrum auction — when there’s a need (from either side) — isn’t impossible.
Current spectrum allocations, especially in 3G bands will exhaust capacity for majority of operators in next 2-3 years and there’s going to be an auction in any case, the experts said.
Now thats the right direction. LONG TERM PLANNING. Well done.
2021 me pta lge ga k yeh “sayasi” byan tha…ya phr “josh-e-khtabat” me keh gae
Is aurat nay aj tak koun say waaday poray kiye hain jo 2021 ka shosha chor diya is nay abhi se. PayPal aur ebay Amazon Pakistan laanay ka wada bhi tha. Uska kia bana?
5G is barely even in the beta testing stage, and these guys want to auction it in 4 years?
If they can get 4G working right, with a decent carrier aggregation setup, that would be adequate, no need to auction 5G yet or in the near future, those sort of speeds on mobile phones are completely unnecessary and what percentage of our population will have 5G devices?
The operators barely invest in expanding 4G, their expansion plans are very slow and even in big cities, there are blind spots where ones phone will roll back to 3G instead and here they are planning to auction 5G.
Our IT minister is a joker, makes the worst decisions ever.
She means next auction will be in 2021 which will be for 4G and 5G both as a technology neutral spectrum. Operators can either deploy 4G or 5G. 5G could have been deployed immediately or 2-3 years later.
Doubtful we will get it that soon. Not going to happen. Not even in 2-3 years.
Once it settles and proves to be successful, then maybe 5-7 years after the western world gets it, MAYBE, just MAYBE, Zong will deploy 5G.
Meanwhile, these guys really need to auction Band 7 because no spectrum auctions for 4 years could either mean the networks have a lot of potential and are under utilizing spectrum, or we’re screwed and sab log 2 Mbps k saath baithay hongay till the 2021 auction comes around.
Band 7 2600 MHz yeh qabar mein le k jayen gay but auction nai karyn gay.
Is band ki kiya importance hai?
It has proper 4G ecosystem like devices and etc unlike 850 MHz. And it provides better bandwidth. For me its 2nd best frequency after 1800 MHz for 4G. And carrier aggregation between both provides ammazing speeds.
Good
Is it occupied by something else or are they not auctioning it for other reasons?
For example, in KSA, Band 7 (2600 FDD) is being used by military, so they have used Band 38 (2600 TDD) for commercial use, and it is working well.
Wonder if the situation is similar in Pakistan. However, if so, Band 38 is more uncommon than Band 5, so getting compatible devices will be a huge headache for everyone.
Band 38 (2600) and band 40 (2300) are most common bands in TDD LTE and almost all handsets support these bands.
And I don’t think 2600 and 2300 MHz are in any use. I think band 700 is in militry use. And some portion of 2600 is in other use which can be refarm and use for better purposes as per directives of Telecom policy.
Pakistan has reached to the maximum level of 850, 900, 1800 and 2100 MHZ. No more spectrum available in these frequencies after this auction. Pakistan have to refarm 2300 and 2600 MHz and both have wide width as compare to low frequencies.
unexportable and unbelievable…. . because 5G a vision of 2020 only expected in japan….
Billi k khuwab mein cheechre
Koi bta sakta ha k 2019 mein license renew krwana lazmi hein , agr warid license na renew krwana chahiy too ?
Than Jazz will loose Warid’s spectrum which is 8.8 MHz of 1800 MHz and 4.8 MHz of 900 MHz. And Jazz can not afford to loose this much spectrum at that stage.
5G auction in 2021. Great. Ufone will definitely get one. Can’t say about others.
Haha perfect prediction.
Zafari Khaaan Sahib K Predictions
Love those
:D
Thank you beera maraasi sahib
Hahahahaha LoooooL Asal Wala :D
Matlab “2021” main Election jeetane k liyea MUKK MAKKA Ho gya
Mukk mukkka nahi yeh bas tukk tukka maara hai is nay.
Bari dourrrrr ki kori lae ho bhai ;)
Assuming PML wins next election, if not, only God knows if there will be another Auction (PPP), or when (PTI).
Hum ne jitni kamayi karni thi karli , agli fasal ka tayar honay tak 4 saal lag jaye ge !
is moti ko apnay khanay aur ministry k alawa kuch nazar nai ata
dth auction bhi ho gai per aya nai. mulk mein koi chaj ki HD cable service nai. foreign hd channels allowed nai. are we in the 19th century or what
because everyone is allowed to dream right? :)
This is a diplomatic comment to attract all telecom operators to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction and give some good bids… I can bet that Govt. will be ready to hold another spectrum auction next year if any telecom operator is willing to pay them some money..
Anything coming out of IT minister is always taken with grain of salt, where are PayPal and Amazon that were promised 2 years ago?
“According to the expert”. Are these experts sit at home or they have a clinic?