Bangladeshi Operators Pay $204 Million for Extra Radio Spectrum
Bangladesh's telecoms regulator, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has sold a tranch of additional radio spectrum for US$204 million. Three incumbent operators brought the spectrum which the regulator said was necessary to cope with their increasing subscriber base.
Grameenphone, Banglalink and Aktel bought 7.5, 5 and 5 megahertz frequency respectively, at the rate of Tk 80 crore per MHz - giving them 21.9MHz, 17.5MHz and 17.8MHz respectively. Three other operators did not bid for the spectrum. Teletalk has 15.2MHz, Warid has 15MHz and Citycell has 10MHz.
"We have allocated required spectrum to the three mobile operators. I think with the new allocation, the operators will provide better service," said Maj Gen (retd) Manzurul Alam, chairman of the regulator.
The country currently has six operators - and according to figures from the Mobile World, ended the first half of this year with just under 43.7 million mobile subscribers - which is still a population penetration level of 28.5%. Also worth noting is that while the country has six operators, only four of them are of any significant scale, Grameenphone (20.3m), Banglalink (9.5m) and Aktel (7.8m) and finally, Warid Telecom (3.3m). The two remaining long term incumbents, Citycell and Teletalk add up to 2.7 million customers between them.
On the web: Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission - Mobile World
Posted to the site on 30th September 2008
