The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to hold bidding on April 14 for the grant of two cellular mobile phone licences. This was announced by the Chairman of PTA, Major General Shahzada Alam Malik (Retd), while presiding over investors' conference organised by the Authority here on Wednesday.
The bidding, earlier fixed for March 18, was changed on persistent demand of majority of investors attending the conference who wanted sufficient time to make necessary preparations and fulfil the requisite formalities.
The conference was attended by senior executives and chairmen of 33 prominent national and international telecom investors to exchange views and share information and remove misconceptions about the policy and procedure of the investors, who submitted their expressions of interest (EoIs) for the award of two additional mobile phone licences.
The PTA Chairman said that keeping in view the geographical location of the country, with population of 150 million and high economic growth as well as prevailing conducive environment, there was tremendous potential for the growth and development of mobile phone industry.
He urged the investors to derive benefit from this opportunity as the demand of the people for new mobile phone connections could not be fulfilled by the existing four operators.
He said that available potential for the penetration of cellular phone in the market could easily absorb 3 to 4 million mobile phone connections per year.
But, he added, the existing mobile density of 2.3 percent was quite low compared with other countries of the region.
He said that the mobile phone customer base could easily increase from 3 to 4 percent per year and mobile phone density should have been more than 10 percent in view of existing market potential.
He assured the investors that PTA would extend full cooperation in the smooth functioning of their business and would try to remove any bottlenecks that might hinder their business plans.
He said that the government would provide full protection to their investment and no discriminatory treatment would be made with any company.
He said that PTA was also taking steps to persuade the concerned authorities to reduce the activation charges for expanding the use of mobile phones and improving socio-economic uplift of common man.
He dispelled the impression harboured by certain investors about the frequent changes in cellular mobile phone policy and extended the assurance that there would be no change in the policy for five years.
He recounted the steps taken by the Authority in the interest of the industry as well as the consumers including simplification of licensing procedures, reduction in royalty and curtailment of Type Approval formalities on certain items and said that PTA was all set to provide level playing field to the telecom operators.
He said that the new licences would be awarded to the highest bidders in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner.
He said that the bids would be all inclusive and PTA would not charge any extra money for the spectrum, and the investors would be facilitated to maximum extent to make their operation successful in the country.
The investors took keen interest in the deliberations of the conference and raised queries on certain issues, which were appropriately clarified.
The Chairman assured the participants that PTA would take full cognisance of the observations made by the investors about the cellular mobile phone policy allocation of frequency spectrum and policy and procedure of the bidding process and said that the Authority would provide them comprehensive replies in writing after due consideration.
The conference was largely attended by diplomats, telecom experts and service providers.