Finance Minister Ishaq Dar (R) and Minister of State for IT Anusha Rahman (L) address a press conference on the spectrum auction in Islamabad on Friday. PHOTO: PID
Federal Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said in a press conference on Friday that by the middle of April, the process of spectrum auction will commence with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar expected to take part.
Dar stated that the government has approved the draft information memorandum prepared by the consultants, and that the license will be offered for 15 years.
A high-level government source earlier confirmed that the government had officially endorsed recommendations proposed by the auction consultants. The finance minister and the Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rahman had participated in the meeting.
The information was accidentally leaked by a photographer of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) when he inadvertently took a photograph of the proposal.
The photograph had revealed that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will auction 50 MHz of spectrum (30 MHz in 3G band and 20 MHz in 4G band).
The base price will be $295 million per 10 MHz for 3G and $210 million per 10 MHz for 4G.
Dar confirmed the figures and added that the reserved price for new entrants would be $291 million with three licences for 3G spectrum and two licenses for 4G spectrum will be auctioned.
As per policy‚ the successful bidder will have to pay 50 per cent price forthwith while the rest would be payable in five years with interest rate three per cent above LIBOR.
The finance minister added that the GDP growth rate is likely to cross four per cent during the current financial year. He said that the government believes inflation can be confined to single digit while the IMF too has revised the projection downward from 12 to 10 per cent for the year.
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Madam Anusha Rahman Minister of IT & Telecomm along with Dr Ismail Shah Chairman PTA played an active role in Auction of 3 G and 4 G.
Sir i give invite for survey for new networking tower installation
No matter who is heading the deal; but the deal should be Cristal Clear.
Hope 3g will come in April
@Nadir: Now you'll be able to see that you are not allowed to access Youtube in 1/10th of a second instead of 10 seconds. That's progress, I'd say.
Well govt does right or wrong it will be criticized. To run any department it is not necessary that you are a technical expert. The most important thing is loyalty sincerity and vision. Anusha rehman is a hardworking loyal and patriotic lady. She is working day and night to roll out 3G as early as possible with compliance to supreme court order. Unfortunately the timing is not right and in my opinion they should delay it to attract more international investors, because few days earlier our interior ministry itself stated Capital a dangerous city so how can you attract the new investors to get right price for your product and also to discourage internal collusion. So firstly resolve issue of talibns in 4-5 months and then launch it to get due and appropriate bid offer.
4Gs base price seems lower because it will be available as add on for anyone who will get 3g, hence for getting a 4 g the operator has to get 3 g. Think its a good strategy by govt.
@Muslim Leaguer: first of all IT is comprised of much more than mobile networks. Secondly being head of legal doesn't make you an expert in mobile networks or IT.
Others- the good thing about desperation is that it makes you do things albeit a bit too late. The fact is that Pak doesn't have foreign currency and without expediting activities that will bring in foreign currency we are looking at a default this year. Luckily there are some assets that can be sold to help us survive longer.
Nawaz league should be able to avoid being associated with freezing of foreign currency accounts twice in their 3 terms.
@Malik: sir I will only advise you to do some research on these people before posting hate..
@Malik: Dear Malik Saab, if ministries should be given on the base of technical education then no need for politicians. And then by the way what qualification will be needed by a PRIME MINISTER? We should appreciate it minister for the work. WHY ALWAYS NEGATIVE thinking.
And now they say it's coming in April. It can be safely stated then the consumers will get their hands on 3G/4G no sooner than August or some point in time near that. What a level of efficiency!! Oh yeah, maybe the most favored etisialat get some more dollars by selling their shitty Evo devices..
@Asif 4G can still use 2G for voice (if not VoLTE) so I don't see a problem in going for 4G direct. It gives much much higher data speeds. I think 4G license price is kept lower as it needs more investment from operators - thus will be good for economy. Also there are less=2 4G Licenses only that makes it more competitive in the bidding.
It will be an achievement in itself if they can process the auction within a year of taking charge. On side note, do we have any media laws preventing such accidental leaks which can affect bidding process.