PTA receives one spectrum auction bid for NGMS

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has received one bid till the deadline of 17th May (1600 hrs) for a 10 MHz paired slot in 1800 MHz. The bid was placed today by M/s Jazz. PTA has called for bids from operators as part of spectrum auction for Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) 2017 through national and international media.

PTA completed this procedure in an open and transparent manner, in line with the policy directive of the Ministry of IT & Telecom, IM for auction and rules of the Public Procurement
Regulatory Authority (PPRA). In accordance with the timelines of the auction process, an information session with the prospective bidders was also held on 3rd May, 2017.

PTA will now evaluate the bid as per IM and if it is found to have met all required conditions the bid will be declared successful. The successful bidder will have two options for payment i.e all payment (USD 295 Million) made upfront, or 50 percent payment can be made upfront and remaining 50 percent in 5 equal annual installments with one year LIBOR plus 3%.

In addition successful bidder will also pay 10% tax on the auction winning price to FBR which comes to USD 29.5 million. It may be noted that this is the third NGMS auction held so far since 2014 and a total of USD 1.98 billion have been earned for the national exchequer through these spectrum auctions.