3G / 4G Auction in Pakistan [Live Updates]

 

The day has arrived, 3G / 4G is finally happening in our country.

Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) has said that it has finalized all the arrangements for the Spectrum Auction for Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) to be held today.

Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone and Zong will be taking part in the bid to secure their 3G and 4G licenses.

As you may know that bidding will be done electronically through internet, all the companies will be allowed to log into the bidding system at 8AM, however, first round of bidding will start at 10AM.

The expiration duration of each bidding round will be 45 minutes or less. We will be uploading the results and other commentary on this live page regularly.

Read more at ProPakistani.pk

PTA to Take Legal Action Against Reuters For Misreporting on 3G / 4G Auction

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has decided to take on Reuters with legal action for presenting falsified facts regarding the on-going process of 3G and 4G spectrum, we have confirmed with sources.

Reuters had published a story on April 15th, 2014 – exactly the next day after operators submitted sealed bids – claiming that auction drew disappointing bids.

A spokesperson of PTA confirmed ProPakistani that authority is preparing a case against Reuters.

Other than authority, few officials of PTA are also considering to sue Reuters on individual basis for causing them mental torture and distress.

Read more at ProPakistani.pk

Sindh High Court Suspends Local Loop Licenses of Zong

Sindh High Court (SHC) has suspended 14 local Loop Licenses issues to Zong by Pakistan telecommunication Authority (PTA)

Suspension came as a result of petition filed by Starlite telecommunication Pvt Ltd. who took the stand that licenses were illegal as they were issued without new deregulation policy. Starlite said that they were authorized Local Loop license holders for period of 20 years that started from 16^th March 2006. Company was of the view that Government of Pakistan and PTA cannot give license until they launch a new deregulation policy after the earlier policy expired back in 2008.

Read more at MoreMag.pk

3G / 4G Auction to Begin Tomorrow at 10:30 AM

The final round of spectrum auction for 3G and 4G technologies is all set to commence tomorrow, April 23rd, 2014 at 10:30 AM, that’s just hours away from now.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is all prepared to conduct the auction after it exercised full-fledge mock auction yesterday. PTA officials told ProPakistani that all qualified cellular operators participated in the mock auction to understand the procedures and rules associated with the auction process.

Authority said that with mock-auction completed, all operators will now enter into the final round of auction where they will bid for their desired spectrum.

Read more at ProPakistani.pk

Warid 4G launch bubble bursts, CEO Warid clarifies to PTA

As reported in the morning that Warid will not be able to launch its 4G LTE services at least by the end of this year, it has been made clear in a recent meeting between CEO Warid Telecom Muneer Farooqi and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Dr. Ismail Shah.

There has been news making rounds in the telecom sector that Warid is going to launch 4G services instead of bidding for the license like all its competitors on 23^rd April. Reportedly they were going to make use of their technology neutral license that was issued to them for their 1800 MHz band at the start of their operations in Pakistan. This created a great hustle in the telecom sector as the 4 players who had applied for licenses thought to have been fooled. PTA Chairman Dr. Shah took notice of the situation and asked CEO Warid to meet him in PTA headquarters before the auction of 3G and 4G licenses.

During the meeting Warid lead man told the telecom regulator’s head that they have no plans of sabotaging the multi-million dollars investment in the country.

Read more at MoreMag.pk

3G / 4G Spectrum Auction in Pakistan is Already Successful: Ricardo

By Ricardo Tavares – International telecom policy consultant, CEO of TechPolis

The spectrum auction for provision of mobile broadband services that takes place on April 23rd in Pakistan is already successful.

It has attracted four bidders that are among the top mobile operators in the world. Any government who would have China Mobile (the single largest mobile operator in the world with close to 800 million subscribers) plus Etisalat, Telenor and Vimpelcom (all three among the top 10 mobile operators in the world) should be proud of it.We must give credit to who deserves it. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has made information and communications technologies (ICT) one of his priorities.

Read more at ProPakistani.pk

Launch of 3G and 4G can decrease prices of 2G internet & DSL

With launch of 3G and 4G technology, there are huge chances that prices of 2G internet provided by same cellular operators would come down. Prices for DSL internet are also expected to decrease.

It is all matter of competition. Major cities in Pakistan are going to be using 3G technology in a maximum time limit of 6 months once auction is done. As more and more people are attracted to faster mobile communications, internet providing companies and cellular operator would decrease the prices for slower internet speeds to retain customer because price would only be the deciding factors once they are beaten by the speed of 3G and 4G technology. Now as price of 3G is expected to be 3 times the price of current data usage then internet companies would use the mantra of ‘make me an offer, that I can’t refuse’ on users who won’t be able to pay for faster and expensive mobile internet speeds. It will be matter of survival for such companies.

Read more at MoreMag.pk