Mobile operators submit Bid Earnest Money for spectrum auction
Telecom
All the mobile operators in the country have submitted Tk10crore Bid Earnest Money each to participate at the next spectrum auction scheduled to be held on March 31.
As per the auction notice, the Bid Earnest Money of the successful bidder(s) will be adjusted with the payable Spectrum Assignment Fee, while those of the unsuccessful bidders shall be returned within 30 days of the bidding date without bearing any liability towards interest, indexation, inflation or deflation.
Brigadier General Mohammad Moniruzzaman Jewel, director general (Spectrum) at the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), said, "All the mobile operators of the country, including the state-owned Teletalk, submitted their Bid Earnest Money as Wednesday was the due date for the submission."
The BTRC will auction 60MHz spectrum in six blocks from 2.3GHz (2300-2400 MHz) bands and 120MHz spectrum in 12 blocks from 2.6GHz (2500-2690 MHz) bands.
It eyes a minimum revenue of Tk9,180 crore from the auction as the floor price of per MHz spectrum is set at Tk51cr.
In the last auction, bidding rose the floor price from $27 million to $46.75 million per MHz.
Earlier, the operators submitted their application to the BTRC on 14 March, 2022.
As per the radio frequency auction notice, if the Bid Earnest Money is accepted, it will be considered that the bidder must attend the auction and agree to pay the base price for one block of spectrum.
"In case of failure to attend the auction, the Bid Earnest Money of the bidder shall stand forfeited. In case of less than 02 (two) qualified bidders appearing on the Auction Date, the matter will be decided by the Auction Conducting Committee accordingly," reads the auction notice.
Confirming the fee deposit, Hossain Sadat, chief corporate affairs officer (Acting) of Grameenphone, said "Grameenphone welcomes spectrum auction and believes this is an important milestone for further enhancing 4G experience and 5G readiness. Today, we have deposited the bid earnest money, and we look forward to a transparent auction with fair outcomes."
Comments
While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.