PTA announces auction for 3G licenses

[Dance]

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has announced that auction for license/spectrum regarding 3G /4G/LTE will be held on March 28 and 29.

This was announced at the second investment awareness conference held here on Saturday which was also attended by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

Addressing the Conference, Hafeez Shaikh assured the investors that the bidding of 3G licenses would be transparent, fair and all rules and regulation would be followed accordingly.

The minister said that the introduction of 3G technology would increase opportunities in education, health, agriculture and banking sectors of the country.

Chairman PTA, Mohammed Yaseen said that with the launch of 3G, local cell phone subscribers will be able to transmit and receive high speed data through their mobile phones.

Pakistan had more than 111 million mobile phone users in October 2011, according to the PTA, equivalent to around 65 per cent of all Pakistanis.

Yaseen had earlier told Reuters that existing license operators could start offering 3G services immediately after being awarded a license, while new operators would be able to provide 3G services from March 2013.

PTA announces auction for 3G licenses | Sci-tech | DAWN.COM

 

[Imran Khan]

announces+announces+announces since long time

 

[All-Green]

Market absolutely not ready for it.
base bid price is 200 million USD + and they want complete payment within 2 months.

Looks like someone is in a hurry.

 

[rohailmalhi]

hmmm......... I think Atleast Telenor and ZOng are .They have changed almost all thier Base stations to 3G and work is ongoing.

I have heard they have competition in this thing as well , Pakistan has 5 companies and they have 4 licenses for 3G to give.

Lets see who can finish the race for 3G.

 

[Donatello]

See 3G is best when you have the demand for 3G capabilities, like video streaming, excessive data usage on smartphones/ tablets like Youtube etc.

People in Pakistan hardly use internet on the mobile networks, with the exception of the office workers. In order to facilitate the use of mobile internet, the companies need to offer more lucrative packages for data. The current ones are too expensive and if you are using a device like Iphone or newer Samsung models, you can easily use up the data limit.

Like in the UK or USA they have good value for money deals, Pakistani telecom companies can offer the same. However, they should not be brought in by the fact that there are 90 million cellular subscribers in Pakistan, with majority of them being the lower income class people who cannot utilize this service directly due to lack of, say literacy. I know all those drivers, guards, maid, dhobi wala, falana wala but they use cellphone to be in touch, not use internet, which would obviously be too expensive for their income group.

 

[v9s]

The licenses are tech neutral. the Telecom operators can choose to install 4G if they wish (in the future probably, when 4G tech has matured).

PPP govt is probably hurrying the auction so they can usurp the $$$ (as usual).

 

[Icarus]

There is a large niche market for 3G market in Pakistan, however, it is not a necessity of the masses. I'm guessing companies with large numbers of business postpaid subscribers like Telenor and Warid will opt for 3G and offer the service at ridiculously high prices.

 

[somebozo]

the world is moving to 4G and we are just getting started with 3G..some progress indeed!

 

[SQ8]

There is a large niche market for 3G market in Pakistan, however, it is not a necessity of the masses. I'm guessing companies with large numbers of business postpaid subscribers like Telenor and Warid will opt for 3G and offer the service at ridiculously high prices.

That or they could offer 3G to the masses knowing that smartphones are now commonplace.
But that will come will the usual plethora of hidden costs and conditions that plague current prepaid and postpaid customers.
Huawei is well entrenched to offer operators the ability to seamlessly switch to 3G when the need arises.

I see a lot of potential abuse of the technology including lewd video's and other illegal activities.
Although many of the lovebirds would welcome the idea of being able to video conference with their objects of affection.

 

[Icarus]

the world is moving to 4G and we are just getting started with 3G..some progress indeed!

It's a composite license, mobile phone service providers can upgrade to 3G or 4G network on the same license.

 

[Icarus]

That or they could offer 3G to the masses knowing that smartphones are now commonplace.
But that will come will the usual plethora of hidden costs and conditions that plague current prepaid and postpaid customers.
Huawei is well entrenched to offer operators the ability to seamlessly switch to 3G when the need arises.

I see a lot of potential abuse of the technology including lewd video's and other illegal activities.
Although many of the lovebirds would welcome the idea of being able to video conference with their objects of affection.

Some assessment, I am mighty impressed!
Though I must say that with mobile phone service providers earning about US$ 1 per subscriber, 3G for the masses seems a commercially in-viable option however, if the services are subsidized initially to gather a large subscriber base before moving on to the commercial tariff then they can expect people to become accustomed to using 3G services and thus subscribe to them out of necessity.

 

[xataxsata]

Indian companies are not allowed to invest in pakistan otherwise we have many that can bid.

 

[Xestan]

the world is moving to 4G and we are just getting started with 3G..some progress indeed!

Pakistan already has world’s largest WiMax (4G) network.

 

[rohailmalhi]

Pakistan already has world’s largest WiMax (4G) network.

But WiMax is still in development phase plus it is basically more of a data network where u have lesser mobility.

While in LTE you have mobilty as well as data rates.