With reference to a story of Reuters titled "Pakistan's long-awaited 3G, 4G auction draws disappointing bids" a spokesman of PTA has denied assertions made in the story as incorrect and baseless. The spokesperson said the response received from four existing cellular mobile operators of Pakistan was very encouraging and satisfactory for the PTA.
The spokesperson said it was entirely wrong to say that no cellular mobile operator had shown interest in 4G (1800 MHz) as it could possibly be the writer's own wish but not the fact. It is also denied that representative of the Ministry of Finance was present at the bidding. First of all, no bidding happened and secondly the bids were received and processed by PTA only.
Similarly, details of the bids of the operators, contained in the said story, were also found to be incorrect. As per the Information Memorandum (IM), issued by PTA, no operator could bid for 5MHz. The minimum slot for which bid could be submitted was 10 MHz. The spokesperson also said that PTA had already issued an official statement on April 14, stating that the demand was higher than the supply, therefore auction would happen.
Further, it was a matter of commonsense that had there been less or even same demand from bidders/operators there would have been no reason to go for the auction on April 23, and bidders would have the spectrum straight away.
The spokesperson deeply regretted that a world renowned news agency like Reuters had run a fabricated story on 3G/4G auction and had failed to seek the version of PTA, the sole body responsible for auction. PTA reserves the right to proceed for appropriate legal action against the Reuters. In fact, the auction process is progressing efficiently and transparently in accordance with the rules.-PR