Govt likely to complete spectrum auction this fiscal

ISLAMABAD: The government is expected to complete the auction of additional radio frequencies to mobile phone operators during the current fiscal year, in a bid to let them offer fast speed and expand services, officials said on Thursday.

The officials informed the advisory committee formed for the auction about developments on the sale of available spectrum of next generation mobile services.

The officials told the committee presided over by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Hafeez Shaikh that the process for hiring of the consultant for the sale of available spectrum would be completed within two months. A report will be prepared and submitted before the committee.

It is expected that the initial report would be ready by December. The process for the sale of spectrum will follow after the hiring of the consultant and tentatively would be completed within current financial year, they said.

“The whole process of auction must be transparent and an officer may be designated to apprise the public about the progress regarding sale of spectrum on regular basis,” the adviser said in a statement. “The whole process would contribute towards strengthening and expanding communications / IT services across the country, would create more job opportunities, and improve the ease of doing business.”

The next meeting of the advisory committee is expected to take place in December. The members of the Frequency Allocation Board also shared their inputs on the subject.

The government issued a policy directive in May last year for renewal of cellular mobile licence of three operators: Telenor, Jazz and CMPak setting per megahertz (MHz) renewal price for frequency spectrum in 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz as U$39.5 million and $29.5 million, respectively. The operators deposited half of renewal fee amounting to $688 million.

Pakistan has a total teledensity of 77.7 percent where the main contribution is by the mobile sector with penetration crossing 76.4 percent. The country has over 44,000 cell sites covering the length and breadth of the country and PTA encourages sharing of resources like infrastructure.

Mobile services continued to lead the sector by providing reliable and affordable connectivity. Mobile sector showed a steady growth in subscribers on its networks and increased subscriber base to 163.5 million at the end of FY2019, showing a year-on-year growth of 7 percent.

The mobile data traffic in Pakistan increased over 400 percent to 1.75 gigabytes per user per month in 2018 from 0.34 gigabytes /user/month in 2016. 5G test and trials have already been started in Pakistan and government identified 2600, 3500 MHz and millimeter wave bands for the trial purpose, according the PTA.

“Between now and 5G commercial launch, operators will be looking for spectrum to support the growth of data traffic as well as to offer faster speeds through available techniques like carrier aggregation,” it said in an annual report.