Spectrum auction: PTA says all bidders qualify for auction process

A mock auction will be held on April 21 so that bidders understand the process, before actual auction on April 23.

ISLAMABAD: All the four existing telecom companies who had submitted bids 3G and 4G spectrum licences have qualified for the auction, keeping on track the government's plan to raise up to $1.3 billion from the auction.

PTA, as per its pre-announced schedule, on Thursday announced the names of the qualified bidders. After scrutiny of submitted bids all four existing cellular mobile operators (CMOs) – China Mobile (Zong), PTML (UFone), Mobilink and Telenor Pakistan qualified for the bidding. Warid, the fifth local telecom operator, had not participate in the bidding process.

All four participating players will compete for three licences of 3G in bidding on April 23.

“As demand exceeds supply, the allocation of the spectrum will happen through an auction process,” the PTA officials said. PTA, however, did not disclose the amount and types of bids that were submitted by the operators, noting that these were against the rules.

A senior official of PTA said that authority will keep the bid-types and amounts secret till the results, adding that design of the auction prohibits even the operators to know the bid types of other operators.

The biggest blow dealt in the highly anticipated spectrum auction was the absence of any new entrant. This reduced the government’s estimates for revenue to $1.3 billion, down from the earlier estimates of $2 billion.

The federal government had made frantic efforts to convince telecom giants from Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to bid for the new telecom spectrums. However, the bidding process showed that such efforts remained unsuccessful.

The State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rahman told The Express Tribune that despite no new entry in the country’s telecom sector, the government maintains its hopes of generating over $1.3 billion in revenue from the auction of next generation spectrums. She added that the government did not accept foreign players’ offer because of their condition to oust the existing companies from the process of auction.

“We are happy with the results so far. Everything is going smoothly and transparently, as the prime minister is directly supervising this historic process,” she added.

PTA will now forward bidders’ packages containing confidential information and instructions to participate in the mock auction and auction to qualified applicants tomorrow. There’s a mock auction for qualified bidders planned on April 21 in which all qualified operators will undergo a simulated auction to understand the auction process and bidding procedures.

On Wednesday, a bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja had also ordered that the proceeds of the auction should be kept in the Federal Consolidated Fund (FCF) until it settles a dispute about the custody of the Universal Services Fund (USF).

The PTA chairman Syed Ismail Shah said the next six days were crucial and misreporting may adversely impact the auction scheduled for April 23 by encouraging any outsider to seek a stay order from a court. In its order, the court mentioned that these bidders, on account of their specialisation and sophistication in the industry, may not be influenced by the press reports.