Zong seeks $40m damages over ‘faulty’ 3G spectrum

ISLAMABAD: China Mobile Pakistan (Zong) has sent out a letter through its legal counsel to regulator PTA and Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) for auctioning 3G spectrum that is faulty due to in-band interference caused by usage of DECT-6 devices.
Zong has claimed damages of $40 million that caused revenue loss to the company. The sources said that the operator, PTA and FAB were discussing solutions which could take couple of months to achieve decision mutually acceptable to all parties.
When contacted, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr Ismail Shah said Zong wrote letter on this subject and relevant stakeholders held meeting on it on October 12 for resolving the issue amicably. He said that two options were under consideration to find out solution to this problem and added that it was not new phenomena as it happened in many other countries after launching new generation technologies.
Zong in its letter sent to the PTA and FAB argued that the defective band up for auction was put before them despite the fact that interference in the band was there since before the auction and is still in place despite various damage control actions taken by the regulator.
Zong was awarded frequency spectrum band of 1920-1930 and 2110-2120MHz for 3G network and services. Moreover, DECT 6.0 devices — that are imported from USA — operate in the same 1920-1930MHz — create interference into Zong’s spectrum.
The Zong letter requested the PTA to respond within two weeks as they demanded to be allocated 5MHz of a substitute band in 1950-1955MHz and 2140-2145MHz band and remaining price of 5MHz that Zong had already paid — along with KIBOR plus 3 percent — should be refunded.
If money isn’t refunded then an equivalent amount of money must be rebated against various fee and dues that Zong will have to pay to PTA in future.The letter said Zong should be given a compensation of $40 million dollars for loss of revenues during last 12 months.
However, another PTA official said that how it was possible for an operator to send out legal notice to regulator. It was a letter sent out by Zong and if remedy could not be achieved then they could approach the court.