Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has requested the Ministry of Information Technology to convene a meeting focused on finding a way forward for auction of 3-G licenses, informed sources revealed to Business Recorder. The absence of a clear policy direction for hiring of consultant by the Ministry of IT on auction of 3-G licenses remained a major impediment, sources revealed to Business Recorder.
An official on condition of anonymity said that absence of co-ordination between Regulator of Telecom Sector and the IT Ministry had been creating unnecessary delays in the appointment of international consultant and consequently the government was unlikely to meet the estimated 850 million dollars on account of auction of 3G licenses in the current fiscal year.
PTA official said the Authority was unable to move ahead on the process of hiring of an international consultant because four companies short listed by the regulator were not approved by the Auction Supervisory Committee (ASC). The ASC termed the process of short listing dubious and neither rejected nor accepted the short listed consultants. Such a situation has created confusion in the PTA and clear policy directives from the Ministry of IT on the process for hiring of consultant are now required. Once the international consultant is hired then he/she would review the auction process and only then the process could move forward, sources added.
Officials of PTA are not optimistic that the auction process would be completed even by the end of the current calendar year (December 2012) and the reason, they maintained, was lack of co-ordination between the government and PTA. The regulator has requested the Ministry of IT to schedule a meeting where a way forward should be sought. The agenda of the meeting would be to determine the process for hiring an international consultant.
Sources said that PTA was concerned over delay in launching of 3-G technology especially when most of the countries in the region had already introduced pre-version of 4-G spectrum in their respective countries with the objective of providing benefit of technological advancement to the people of their countries.
Pakistan, on the other hand, has failed to adopt 3G technology unlike other regional countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. Official said that delays on the roll-out process of the 3G network would negatively impact on the growth of mobile technology and consequently the economy. They said that delay in auction of 3G licenses would not bode well for the telecom sector as well as for investment prospect and overall economy of the country.
Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Kenya and South Africa have launched pre-version of 4-G spectrum that provides access to information on health, education, job opportunities, agriculture and many other important aspects of a user's life. The 3G network is the third generation mobile networking and telecommunications. It features a wider range of services and advances network capacity over the previous network. The 3G network also increases the rate of information transfer known as spectral efficiency.