PTCL plans to bid for 3G license

PTCL is keenly looking for 3G auction expected in next few months.

KARACHI: Chief Executive Officer and President of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) Walid Ishaid said on Friday that the company will bid for a 3G license.

He said this while addressing at the United Arab Emirates trade and investment conference in Karachi.

This comes at a time when the government of Pakistan is convincing Etisalat, the UAE-based company that owns PTCL to end a clause of the takeover agreement, according to which, the government cannot issue telecom license to any company until March 2013.

Irshaid said:

We are going for 3G and we will be the first to compete for a 3G license, we have no option but to succeed.

The company is keenly looking for 3G auction expected in next few months.

Irshaid said that PTCL is not just another telephone company but is an integrated telecommunications company of Pakistan.

He said that although PTCL was the last company to enter broadband market, it is the largest broadband provider in Pakistan.

"This has been our transformation over the last five years," the CEO said. "We don’t just have a business plan; rather we have a mandate to bring broadband to five million people of Pakistan – a mandate given to us by our shareholders, our Board of Governors and our valued customers."

Responding to Ishaid’s statement over bidding of a license for 3G, analysts said that the decision was not unforeseen and that PTCL was best placed to offer wireless broadband through 3G to broaden its customer network.

Analysts, however, were not sure about the manner in which PTCL would go about the license bid – whether the company will go for the license independently or partner with any other cellular company.

A version of this post originally appeared on ProPakistani.