ISLAMABAD: National Economic Research Associates Inc (NERA) – United States-based international consultancy firm, falling in top two companies in technical and lowest in financial bid of 0.750 million dollars was selected for providing consultancy services to the government of Pakistan for spectrum auction/ release of IMT Spectrum for improvement of Next Generation Mobile Broadband Services in the country.
Sources revealed to Business Recorder, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday issued a letter of intent (LOI) to NERA which is required to respond in seven working days, to assist government in planning to complete 5G spectrum auction, latest by April 2025.
NERA with its headquarter in the US and offices in Europe and Far East is considered as one of the top-ranking consultancy firm on spectrum, with huge expertise on economic and commercial modelling for telecom industry and government organisations specially in relation to spectrum evaluation.
All five int’l firms qualify for 5G spectrum auction
Aetha Consulting Limited and NERA were at par with respect to technical bids; however, the later had the lowest financial bid of 0.750 million dollars.
All of the five international consultants qualified in technical bids for providing consultancy services to government. The financial bids of the five firms were opened on October 3, 2024. Following due diligence of PPRA time was given to all parties, however, no concern was raised on NERA for both in technical and financial evaluation, after which PTA issued LOI to the consultancy firm.
The international consultants/ firms that had submitted their technical and financial bids were; Aetha Consulting Limited; Detecon Consulting FZ-LLC; Frontier Economics Limited; KomKonsult (Private) Limited; and National Economic Research Associates Inc.
The consultant will advise on needed policy actions and reforms for increased infrastructure investment, broadband proliferation and business/ sector sustainability and growth; compare Pakistan’s existing cellular/ IMT spectrum assignments with regional practices and accordingly highlight gap and suggest phase-wise auction of paired spectrum in 700 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz bands and unpaired spectrum in 2300 MHz, 2600 MHz, 3500 MHz bands.
It will also advise on per MHz spectrum price determination for spectrum bands mentioned in (b) above in USD and PKR with future projections of next 3x years using both demand and supply side models, along with the innovative payment options like flexible/ dynamic instalment plan. Scenario-based various options for per MHz price vis-à-vis payment terms, rollout obligations, etc.
Further, a report on valuation of spectrum including base price in USD and PKR for paired spectrum in 700 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz bands and unpaired spectrum in 2300 MHz, 2600 MHz, 3500 MHz bands with future projections for the next 3x years will be submitted.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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