The government is looking to earn more than $1 billion by offering aminimum spectrum for telcos in the upcoming auction for the Next GenerationMobile Services (NGMS) Spectrumlink,DAWN reported on Thursday.
The document available with Dawn shows that the Advisory Committee for therelease of NGMS Spectrum has approved the auction of 27.8 megahertz (MHz).
The committee chaired by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin approved the draftpolicy directives for the release of NGMS Spectrum in Pakistan, Azad Jammu& Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, which will allow improved voice and 3G/4Ginternet services.
The MoITT will forward the draft to the federal cabinet for approval, afterwhich the auction process will be initiated by the PakistanTelecommunication Authority (PTA).
The draft policy states that PTA would auction 12.8 MHz paired spectrum inthe 1,800 MHz band and 15 MHz paired spectrum in the 2,100 MHz.
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The base price amounts to almost $832m if the four telecommunicationcompanies do not compete for the spectrum. However, the policy has receivedcriticism from industry players.
Earlier, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had *published*link“RollingSpectrum Strategy 2020-2023”, in which it observedlinkthatC-band (3.6 – 4.2 GHz) is a core spectrum band for 5G deployment.
Source: DAWN
