Addressing the spectrum crisis, Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission BTRC arranged an auction on Monday (8 March) at Hotel Intercontinental. All 4 mobile phone operators took part in the auction.
The auction price for the duration of 15 years turns over 7 thousand 600 crore taka. As the license of the operators does not cover that duration, the turnout is likely to be about 3000 crore taka.
Grameenphone, the country’s leading mobile network operator, snapped up the highest amount of spectrum at the auction, dishing out a whopping $391.15 million to enhance its service quality and further consolidate its position. After a grueling 12-hour bidding war, the operator got 0.4 MHz at $31 million per MHz from the 1,800 MHz band, 5MHz at $29 million per MHz and 5MHz at $46.75 million per MHz, both from the 2,100 MHz band. But, Grameenphone still has the lowest spectrum coverage for its users. Over 17 lakh Grameenphone subscribers are currently occupying each MHz of spectrum.
Taking part in the auction all the operators except Teletalk – the state-owned operator bought spectrum. Thus, the capacity of Teletalk remains unchanged whereas, GrameenPhone with added spectrum increases its capacity from 37 MHz to 47.4 MHz, Robi from 36.4 MHz to 44 MHz and BanglaLink from 30.6 MHz to 40 MHz.
“The amount of waves for the operators is not sufficient for this sector, but it will not have much impact,” said Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Managing director of Robi Axiata.
“The spectrum we are acquiring will also help us capitalize on our success and increase customer satisfaction further,” said Erik Aas, chief executive officer of Banglalink.
Mustafa Jabbar, the Minister for Posts, Telecommunications & ICT informs that, the validity of the spectrum will not cover for 15 years as the duration of the operators does not cover that long. The minister also opines that it may take a 1 to 1 and a half months period to add up the additional spectrum to gain customer satisfaction. Though, the operators noticed that the allotted spectrum is not sufficient for full satisfaction.
The spectrum auction started this Monday at 11 in the morning and continued till 8.39 pm, Multiple tugs-of-war took place at the auction as well. At Hotel Intercontinental. The highlight of the auction was a seven hour-long bidding war between Grameenphone and Robi to grab spectrum from Block-9, when countless rounds followed as both the operators kept on increasing their bids, which finally went to Grameenphone with its bid of $46.75 million for 5 MHz.
The auction was conducted by Brigadier Shahidul Alam, DG, Spectrum Division, BTRC. The auction was presided over by Engineer AKM Shahidujjaman, Commissioner, Spectrum Division, BTRC. High officials of the ministry and the BTRC were present during the auction. Robi CEO Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Banglalink CEO Erik Aas, and Grameenphone Chief Financial Officer Jens Becker led their respective teams during the auction.
Telecom Secretary Md Afzal Hossain, BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder and Vice-chairman Subrata Roy Maitra were also present.
At the press briefing BTRC informed, Operators will be able to provide service on the allocated wave from April 9 later this year. The BTRC hopes that allocating spectrum will increase the quality of mobile telecommunications.