All five mobile phone operators applied for 4G/LTE licence have qualified after meeting the criteria of the telecom regulator towards offering faster internet service in March, the evaluation committee of BTRC opined.
After the evaluation, the committee submitted its report to Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday. The list of qualified applicants will be formally announced tomorrow (Thursday).
The four mobile operators including Citycell have also been eligible to take part in the upcoming spectrum action, said BTRC officials.
On January 14, state-owned Teletalk and Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell applied for 4G/LTE licence while four mobile network operators (MNOs) except Teletalk submitted applications for participating in spectrum auction.
Talking to The Independent, BTRC Chairman yesterday said the mobile phone operators, who applied for 4G/LTE licence and participated in spectrum auction, have fulfilled the required criteria.
On December 4 last year, BTRC announced the roadmap for 4G/LTE licence and spectrum auction. BTRC will hold auction in 2100 MHz, 1800 MHz and 900 MHz bands. Through the auction, the telecom regulator will also provide technology neutrality which the
MNOs have been demanding for long.
According to the roadmap, consultation on auction procedure will take place on January 29, date for submission of bid earnest money is on February 5, letter of acceptance/rejection to participate in the bidding is on February 7 and mock auction will be held on February 13.
Besides, the telecom regulator will announce the name of winning operators on February 14.
The bid earnest money for 2100 MHz, 1800 MHz and 900 MHz has been fixed at Tk 1,500 million. Besides, the base price for auction of 2100 MHz is $27 million, 1800 MHz is $30 million and 900 MHz is $30 million.
On the other hand, for the technology neutrality, the conversion in one go, the charge will be $4 million for each 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz, while it will be $7.5 million for converting partly.