ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced on Thursday that Telenor would be awarded spectrum in 850 Mhz band against the payment of 395 million dollars.

In a press briefing held at Pakistan Authority’s head office, PTA Chairman Syed Ismail Shah, flanked by State Minister for IT Anusha Rehman, said only one applicant, Telenor, applied for NGMS spectrum in 850 MHz band (UL: 824 – 834 MHz/DL: 869 – 879 MHz). He said Telenor will be awarded the spectrum at base price. The base price has been set at $395 million in accordance with the schedule given in the IM. The license will be awarded to Telenor within 30 days of payment, Shah told the media.

Briefing about the process of auction, he said PTA hired a UK based consultant, Inter Connect Communications (ICC), for market assessment on 31st October 2015.  He said as per policy directive from Ministry of IT, only one block was offered for the sale. Shah said the Information Memorandum (IM) was prepared and published on PTA website followed by advertisements both in local and foreign print media. The IM contained all the necessary details from submission of applications to award of the license. He said it was mentioned in the IM that in case of only one applicant, spectrum will be awarded at the base price.

Chairman said on 23rd May 2016, a session was held and was attended by representatives from Mobilink, Telenor, WorldCall, and Multinet. Shah said the deadline for submission of applications was 1st June 2016 till 4 pm. Only Telenor submitted application.

After the evaluation in accordance with the terms and conditions of the IM, Telenor’s application was found complete in all respects, he said. In his speech, Chairman PTA said that Government of Pakistan has always taken steps for the growth of telecommunication sector keeping in view the future market trends and technological advancements.

The Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) spectrum auction held in 2014 is a testament of government's commitment to bring the latest technologies for proliferation of mobile broadband in the country. 3G and 4G services usage trends show the appetite for high data rates in the market. Shah said with 28.7 million the mobile broadband subscribers in April 2016, country’s mobile broadband percentage is even more than India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Answering a question that why only one bidder appeared whereas Ministry was giving an impression of tough competition, Rehman said that dynamics of the market were changing and market was correcting in the form of mergers and acquisitions. Is only one bidder means the cellular companies are not happy with the prevailing government policies especially high taxes on mobile phone bills, minister avoided to give any direct answer. Telecom experts have been terming heavy taxation on the sector as the biggest impediment to growth and diversion of foreign direct investment in the telecom sector.

In a recent meeting of Sustainable Development Policy Institute’s Study Group on Information Technology, participants alleged that the government is illegally collecting Rs 40 billion annually as withholding tax from telecom consumers which have brought the sector on the verge of decline, resulting in diversion of foreign direct investment to other regional countries.