The wait for 3G in mobile phones is likely to be stretched further as the government extends the deadline by 10 days for telecom operators to apply for the spectrum auction.
On Monday, private mobile telecom operators had in fact requested the government to push the deadline by one more month saying they needed more time for preparation.
State-run operator Teletalk who has already been providing 3G services to its customers on a pilot basis since October 2012, is so far the only player to have filed an application for the spectrum auction.
The new last date for filing an application is now August 12, instead of August 1, and the last date for paying the earnest fee - amounting to $20m per operator - has been pushed to August 25 from August 18.
Simultaneously, the previous September 2 schedule for the auction has also been shifted to September 12.
3G is the short form of "third generation of mobile telecommunications technology" that is supposed to revolutionise wireless connectivity.
"We have decided to shift the dates. We will make our decision public tomorrow [Wednesday]," a high ranked official of the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) told the Dhaka Tribune over phone Tuesday.
This is the third time that BTRC has changed the auction date and the fourth time that it has changed the dates for filing applications and depositing earnest money.
"We thanked the telecom regulator [BTRC] and the revenue board for their holistic approach to address the unresolved issues," TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB), told the Dhaka Tribune.
He also said the mobile operators now could concentrate on their plans and calculations about 3G auction and the future business prospects.
In a press briefing at the Secretariat Tuesday, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Sahara Khatun said the government was positively thinking about extending the deadline for submitting an application for the auction.
She also said a letter, signed by Telenor (Grameenphone) President and CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas, VimpelCom Group (Banglalink) CEO Jo Lunder and Robi Axiata President and CEO Jamaluddin Ibrahim, requested the government to extend the deadlines.
Sources said the operators were actually waiting for an official order from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) about the promises it had made to them regarding spectrum VAT and the sim replacement tax issues.
Industry insiders said the NBR and the operators had reportedly come to a deal regarding the sim replacement tax issue.
NBR had been claiming that the private operators, namely Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel, owed it Tk30.18bn in unpaid sim replacement tax. The operators, on the other hand, claimed that the replacement sim cards did not carry any tax because these modules were not sold.
According to the reported deal, operators will now have to pay only 5% VAT on 3G mobile services spectrum, which was settled at 7.5% earlier and was 15% in the initial proposal.
The chief executive officers of the four leading telecom operators met BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanto Bose Tuesday morning and demanded more time for filing applications.
They also wanted an official announcement regarding all the promises made to them, before they could file the applications.
Soon after that meeting, the BTRC chairman met Finance minister AMA Muhit and NBR Chairman Ghulam Hussain in another meeting.
In that meeting, the three parties have reportedly decided to resolve by this week all the issues surrounding the 3G auction.
The finance minister has also reportedly ordered the NBR chairman to take the necessary steps regarding spectrum VAT and the sim replacement tax issues.
According to the guidelines, the telecom regulator will award three licenses to the highest bidder from among the five existing operators and a new one.
State-run Teletalk has already got the 3G license by default. The tenure of the licenses will be 15 years.
The regulator will offer a 5 Megahertz slot in the 2100 band. The floor price of per MHz spectrum has been fixed at US$20m.
Guidelines also suggest that 60% of the total price of spectrum assignment has to be paid in the first instalment within 60 days of auction and the remaining 40% within another 180 days.
