Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) is all set to table policy for licence renewal of mobile operators in the upcoming cabinet meeting, through which the government has estimated to generate around $1.3 billion, it is learnt. The technical committee constituted by Prime Minister Imran Khan headed by the secretary MoITT for price and evaluation of benchmarks for the licence renewal of three mobile operators and award of additional spectrum has completed its report and submitted it to the committee of ministers -comprising finance and IT ministers.
After the nod of the committee of ministers, the MoITT will prepare a summary before the upcoming cabinet meeting likely to be held on Tuesday, to seek final approval and after which the policy would be unveiled.
The official sources revealed that licence renewal of two mobile operators is due in early May 2019 and one in October. The government has yet to come up with the policy guidelines in this regard so far which is resulting uncertainty in the industry.
The technical committee was headed by secretary MoITT while the officials from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Ministry of Finance, Law and Justice and Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) were the members of the body.
The technical committee was tasked to evaluate benchmarks, different models, legal and financial aspects and submit recommendations to the committee of ministers, comprising finance and IT ministers.
Sources revealed to Business Recorder that the technical committee has maintained the price of $291 million for 10 MHz block in 1800 MHz band (same as Jazz won in 2017) and $395 million for 10MHz block in 850MHz band (same price of Telenor won in 2016). Further the payment terms would remain the same as of previous auction.
However, the committee has recommended the PTA to upgrade quality/standards as per the best international practices, sources maintained.
They further said that due to delay in announcing licence renewal policy, telecom operators would have little time for decisions about future investment and business plan, which is creating uncertainty in the industry.
According to experts, renewal decisions should ideally be finalised 18-24 months prior to licence expiry to ensure service and business continuity. The licence of Telenor Pakistan and Jazz (Warid) are due to expire early in May 2019 while the licence of Zong is due to expire in October 2019.
The sources further said that Zong is still facing network interference in their uplink GSM 900 MHz band due to the cross-border spillover from Indian CDMA operators. Frequency Allocation Board assigned the compensatory band to Zong on a temporary basis but a permanent solution has yet to be devised. In such situation, the spectrum holdings in 900 MHz and 1800 MHz band have to be rationalised for proper carrier planning that requires proper policy plan and the operator may be compensated which can change the figure of $1.3 billion.
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