Delay in license renewal of mobile operators

Licenses for three mobile operators in Pakistan are for renewal this year, but despite the fact that the telecom wants to renew the services to ensure continuity, provides forecast to the operators and generates revenue for the government, by the government No outline has been issued for the upgrade. Or regulatory yet.

The telecom sector expressed concern over the timelines and said that the renewal process was delayed according to the terms of the license. The terms of the license determine that the process which started 30 months prior to the end of the term, should have been completed in the beginning of 2017, according to the terms of the license.

Industry sources further said that due to the delay in the process, operators will find little space to manipulate license conditions and to address their concerns, especially if two fundamental ideas are not taken into consideration - the price of spectrum and Ensuring level playing field.

"Renewalization should come at an affordable cost to the investors to invest and expand their services and the renewal should be done in such a way that it provides equitable pricing, terms and conditions to competing operators to ensure healthy and fair competition in the market. Does. "

Operators have expressed concerns with the officials at the highly anticipated prices of the renewal and have expressed the desire to purchase additional spectrum if the cost of the renovation is at the same level of US $ 291m, which was in 2014 with the same conditions of Uofone.

A telecommunications expert has mentioned that instead of looking to generate maximum revenue from the renewal, the government should charge a renovation of $ 291M and attract additional revenue from the sale of additional spectrum at the latest prices. "In addition to renewing the three licenses at a combined cost of US $ 873 million, the government has a 2x40MHz spectrum available in the existing band, which it should be sold for an additional US $ 1.3 billion, which in the economy is more than $ 2 billion US dollars Can come

Another industry expert has said that "Creating artificial shortage of spectrum to increase prices is not a good strategy." Every day that the available commercial spectrum is not used, it means that the government is reducing revenue and the consumer experience of telecom services is being compromised. "

The PTA spokesman did not respond to the Daily Times questions in this regard.