The telecom regulator has formed a special committee to prepare auction for 700 band spectrums, which is planned to be made available for the mobile phone operators by 2016.
The committee was formed at a meeting of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) last week, as part of a draft roadmap to sell out the most valuable spectrum as of now.
Roadmap formulation committee convener ATM Monirul Alam, who is also the commissioner of spectrum management division, has been made chief of this committee.
Telecom experts said the government could earn more revenue than any other spectrum as the 700 band covers more people than other band spectrums. This band is cost-effective for the operators.
This band also efficiently transmits internet services, and that is why it is called ‘‘digital dividend band”.
In September last year, BTRC made an auction for 2100 band spectrums where per megahertz spectrum price was fixed at $21m plus 15% vat. And the government had earned more than Tk4,055 crore.
In November 2011, the regulator sold spectrums at Tk155 core per megahertz from 800 and 1800 bands, official sources said. That time, the government earned another Tk3,000 crore.
Other members of the committee are director general (Spectrum) Brig. General Md Wahid-Uz-Zaman, DG (legal) AKM Shahiduzzaman, director (spectrum) Lt. Col. Mohammad Sajjad Hossain, director (finance) Ashis Kumar Kundu, director (System & Service) Md Monirul Islam, director (legal) Tareq Hasan Siddiqui and five other officials.
The committee will present a draft guideline about the auction.
By then, BTRC will engage a consultant for spectrum management and the committee would take assistance from the consultant too, committee sources said. Mobile phone operators praised the decision as they earlier sent a proposal to the regulator to declare a schedule for the auction.