The telecommunication regulatory body fixed September 2 for the much awaited auction of ‘3G’—the Third General mobile-phone services--by one month.
Sources said failure of appointing consultants for the spectrum auction and few unsolved disputed issues with the operators rendered the delay.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) sources said they rescheduled the existing auction date from July 31 to September 2 considering few aspects.
Officials said the 3G auction was supposed to be held on June 24 and then it is shifted to July 31.
As per the new schedule, the mobile-phone operators will have to submit application by July 10 while name of the qualified applicants for bidding would be published on July 18, consultation on the auction procedure on July 29, submission of bid earnest money on August 4 and letter of acceptance or rejection on August 14.
Meanwhile, the regulatory body formed a 14-member core committee headed by its Legal and Licensing Division Commissioner M Abdus Samad.
The committee has been assigned to complete 3G auction by the stipulated time.
Apart from this, the BTRC also formed another nine-member evaluation committee to scrutinize proposals of the mobile phone companies which will participate in the auction.
A total of 40 MHz of spectrum will be auctioned for eight blocks where a single bidder can bid for maximum two blocks.
The minimum allocation for a spectrum block is 5 MHz with base price of US$ 20 million for each MHz. The validity period for a 3G license will be for 15 years.
