GSMA, the global association of mobile operators working to support the standardising, deployment and promotion of the GSM mobile telephone system, has sent letters to the government authorities to take opinions from the industry people before holding the upcoming spectrum auction.
The letters were sent to prime minister’s office, post and telecommunication ministry, finance ministry, ICT ministry and BTRC yesterday as the auction had been proposed by the telecommunication regulator.
GSMA (Group Special Mobile Association) welcomed the release of additional spectrum to address the increasing use of data services in Bangladesh.
It emphasised the need to make the allocation of new spectrum “transparent and consistent” with international best practices so as to avoid sub-optimal outcome for all stakeholders concerned.
Calling for the draft guidelines to be put through a proper public consultation process, GSMA Head of Policy John Giusti pressed that “such a process would allow all interested parties to study the guidelines in detail and provide valuable feedback to help ensure that the spectrum auction, when conducted, will be a successful one for the Government of Bangladesh.”
Earlier, Grameenphone had raised its concern over the spectrum auction process because of a condition in the draft auction guideline that discriminated against Grameenphone’s participation in the 1800 MHz spectrum auction.
Meanwhile, Grameenphone has also been pressing for resolution of long-pending critical issues, promised during the last 3G auction, before any new auction is initiated.
Grameenphone CEO, Rajeev Sethi, said: “We have been continuing to press for an all-inclusive, balanced auction and strongly feel that the authorities should still pursue that option for the benefit of the industry and the country.”
Referring to the discriminatory condition in the draft guideline, Hakon Bruaset Kjol, senior vice president and head of corporate affairs at Telenor Group for Asia region, the major shareholder in Grameenphone, opined that “unlocking the digital potential of Bangladesh requires timely release of spectrum to operators that makes efficient use of the radio frequencies.
“The internet-demanding consumers in Bangladesh deserve this. However, first and foremost the investors depend on a predictable environment for regulation and tax policies to be able to make long term investments decisions. Spectrum auctions could only be successful when such an environment has been established.”
Spectrum resource is critical for growth and directly impacts the mobile operators’ ability to expand network coverage, increase capacity and introduce new technology efficiently.
With one of the lowest internet usage rates in the world, it is believed that fair spectrum allocation would increase mobile broadband penetration and transform Bangladesh into a digitally empowered society and knowledge-based economy.
