KARACHI: Following the Pakistani government’s recent progress towards auction of next-generation mobile spectrum licences, the country is once again looking for high-speed mobile broadband services.
But conducting a successful auction will certainly be a challenge for the government.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the telecom sector’s regulatory body and the agency responsible for conducting the auction, had achieved a phenomenal success in spectrum auction in 2004 when it sold 2G licences, one each to Telenor Pakistan and Warid Telecom.
It was able to sell a 2G licence for $291m, more than double the $140m it had expected to fetch.
The telecom regulator is once again tasked with conducting a spectrum auction, though under different circumstances this time. After remaining dysfunctional for more than a year, PTA finally looks set to revive its reputation as an independent regulator.
However, the success of the auction will be a challenge for multiple reasons, ranging from strategy for spectrum auction to market forces and regulatory environment. “Conducting a successful [spectrum] auction will be a challenge, of course,” said Parvez Iftikhar, former CEO of Universal Services Fund and an information and communication technology consultant.
“Even Canada didn’t attract outside investors in its [spectrum] auction,” he said.
Similarly, India and Bangladesh - the two regional countries with 3G services - made some mistakes in their spectrum auctions and Pakistan can learn from them, experts say. Internews
