Next generation: PTA receives seven bids for 3G auction consultant

Consultants are likely to be shortlisted and hired by the end of month.

KARACHI:

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) received seven bids from various consulting firms in response to its advertisements for the hiring an international consultant for the spectrum auction for next-generation mobile services, the regulator said on Tuesday.

It is a positive start for the telecom regulator that had failed previously on three occasions to proceed with the auction process right from hiring of the consultants.

The proposals submitted by various consultants were opened on Tuesday by the PTA’s special evaluation committee constituted to evaluate of the bids. PTA will finalize the selection of consultants after evaluating the technical and financial proposals in accordance with the relevant rules, PTA said in a statement.

While the press release didn’t give any time line for hiring the consultant, a PTA official said they are trying to shortlist and hire consultants by the end of November.



“It is really an encouraging response from both local and international firms,” said the official who, at one stage, feared no one would submit the bid for the spectrum auction consultancy because of what happened to the three consultants PTA hired last year.

The telecom regulator had hired three individual consultants for the auction: Martin Sims, Dennis Ward and Rob Nicholls. However, their hiring was challenged and their contracts were later on cancelled without notice. They were not paid for the services they had already provided, and that prompted them to initiate legal action against the regulator.

Despite the fact that aforementioned consultants fell victim to the country’s bureaucracy, PTA has managed to get seven bidders – more than twice the number of bidders it received earlier, in response to the last Reference for Proposal (RFP).

It was not easy for the telecom regulator to attract international bidders, especially because of controversial past of the auction process.

“We have made a lot of phone calls, exchanged emails and conducted pre-bid conferences to convince the bidders that the process will be transparent this time,” the official said. PTA did not even extend the deadline for bids, he said. If the deadline was extended, three to four more consultants might have submitted their bids, he said.

Next, PTA will negotiate with the shortlisted consultants and sign the contract, the official said.

The selected consultant, the press release said, would be responsible for providing professional analysis, input, and advice/recommendations on the whole auction process as per PTA’s RFP and Terms of Reference for the successful completion of auction in a transparent manner: averting collusion, ensuring competition and complete transparency in the auction process.

Once the consultants are on board, they will overview the information memorandum – the policy document for the spectrum auction – and finalise it, the official said. After that, he said, PTA will invite bids from telecom firms interested in next-generation mobile services and also hold a mock auction for awareness about the auction process.

In a separate development, Dr Ismail Shah, who was hired as PTA’s member technical and acting chairman, has now been made chairman, says a notification. The move has been taken in response to the Supreme Court’s latest hearing which directed the government to hire a permanent chairman.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2013.

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