BTRC's spectrum auction: Govt earns revenue of Tk 106.45 billion

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) arranged final auction of 2.3 GHz and of 2.6 GHz bands for 15 years which earned the government a revenue of Tk 106.45 billion (10645 crore) or 135 million US dollars, reports UNB.

The auction was held at the capital's Hotel Intercontinental on Thursday chaired by posts and telecommunications minister Mustafa Jabbar.

"The 190 MHz wave sold today will solve the consumers' complaints of not getting an uninterrupted call and mobile internet service as the operators did not have the necessary bandwidth. The band wave sold today can be used both for 4-G and 5-G telecommunication services," said Mustafa.

The minister urged BTRC to give the opportunity to operators for buying the unsold 30 MHz later.

This year the base price for both the bands were fixed at 0.6 million US dollar per MHz for auctioning to the operators for next 15 years which was approved by the government earlier.

At the program, 100 MHz (10 blocks of 10 MHz) of 2.3 GHz and 120 MHz (12 blocks of 10MHz) of 2.6 MHz were auctioned with the active participation of representatives of all mobile operator companies of the country.

After the auction, Grameenphone Ltd's band access has increased to 107.40 MHz from 47.40 MHz, Robi Axiata Ltd's access has increased to 104 MHz from 44 MHz.

Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd's access has increased to 80MHz from 40 MHz and Teletalck's has increased to 55.20 Mhz from 25.20 MHz, according to the latest assessment of operator based band access.

Md Khalilur Rahman, secretary of the posts and telecommunications ministry said all the parties were in a win-win situation and urged the operators to ensure top service to the consumers besides giving uninterrupted service.