The Advisory committee for the auction of unsold Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) spectrum (4G) will meet on Thursday (today) to take final decision on the spectrum auction. However, official sources on condition of strict anonymity revealed toBusiness Recorder that the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) that the budgeted Rs 75 billion from the auction of unsold spectrum (4G) license is a gross over estimation and the Ministry of Finance did not consult them prior to placing that overstated figure in the budget documents. Official sources revealed that there is demand for spectrum and the government will go for auction in the current year.
Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman has convened the Advisory committee for the auction to review comparative study of benchmarking from local and regional telecom markets and take final decision on the spectrum auction.
Fearing poor response from the upcoming spectrum auction (4G), the Advisory committee had decided to undertake a comparative study of benchmarking from local and regional telecom markets. The Chairman PTA led sub-committee has analyzed the regional and global markets, which have gone through spectrum auction in recent past. The sub-committee will submit its report to the main spectrum Advisory committee for consideration and further necessary action.
During the last two auctions, the government conducted markets survey through consultants but did not go for comparative study of benchmark from local and regional telecom markets. The government had a consultant study in hand as per the PTA officials but uncertainty led the government to go for further market analysis. In the last Advisory committee meeting, Chairman PTA Syed Ismail Shah had revealed the different recommendations and suggestions mentioned in consultant report as well as internal PTA analysis on global price benchmark.
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