BANGLADESH

The telecom regulator has finalised the draft of the guidelines for awarding 3G mobile service licence with options to upgrade to 4G and long-term evolution (LTE) without any extra fees.

In the draft, the regulator -- Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) -- has proposed to give four companies the licences including two from existing five private mobile operators and a new one.

Teletalk will get the licence as state-owned firm.

"The draft will be sent to the telecommunications ministry next week," BTRC chairman Zia Ahmed told bdnews24.com in an interview on Thursday.

The work to award the licences would be complete by June or July after the ministry nods the guidelines, he added.

On Aug 9, a high-profile meeting of senior ministers and advisors chaired by the prime minister Sheikh Hasina took the decision to auction the wireless telecom spectrum to facilitate nationwide spread of 3G technology and wireless broadband services.

Ahmed had earlier said both local and foreign firms would be able to bid for the spectrum.

A top BTRC official has said 3G licence holders will be able to upgrade licences to 4G or LTE without any fee once the Cellular Mobile Phone Service (3G/4G/LTE) Regulatory Licence Guideline 2012 is cleared.

In the draft guidelines, the fee for every megahertz has been proposed at Tk 1.5 billion.

The floor price of 3G licence auction has been set Tk 15 billion.

The BTRC chairman said the estimated revenue from 3G licence is Tk 80 billion.

State-owned Teletalk, along with private operators Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel and Citycell, is offering 2G services now.

The 3G technology will make mobile telephony much more efficient, with high-speed data transfer facilitating users to watch mobile TV, make video calls, using navigation equipment and access many other services.

LTE's data transfer speed is 80 percent higher than 3G.

Experts say 4G and LTE are same. Its download speed is 100 megabyte per second and upload speed is 50 Mb/S.

LTE's data pipe is built in such a way that users are able to do work of desktop computers with their mobile phones.