The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has opened a 5G spectrum auction for mobile phone operators.
Four mobile operators will divide up the rights to operate 5G on a commercial basis at the InterContinental Hotel in Dhaka at 11:15 am on Thursday, reports bdnews24.com.
The auction was inaugurated by Md Mohiuddin Ahmed, the commissioner of the BTRC Spectrum Division and the convener of the auction management committee.
Minister of Post and Telecommunications Mustafa Jabbar and other senior officials were in attendance.
The four bidders in the auction – Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and state-owned operator Teletalk – were seated at separate tables.
Currently, 4G services are operational in Bangladesh. Once 5G service is introduced, mobile internet speed is expected to increase manyfold. Teletalk ran a 5G service test on Dec 12.
Thursday’s auction will include 10 blocks of 100MHz waves in the 2.3 GHz band and 12 blocks of 120 MHz waves in the 2.6 GHz band.
It is the largest spectrum auction in Bangladesh’s history.
According to telecommunications regulator BTRC, the base price for each MHz on the spectrum has been set at $6 billion for a 15-year contract. Spectrum will be auctioned in 10 MHz blocks, meaning that operators will have to buy a minimum of 10 MHz in one go.
Operators have to pay 10 per cent of the total purchase price within 60 days of the announcement of the final auction results, while the remaining 90 per cent will be paid off in equal instalments over nine years.
Grameenphone, the country’s largest operator by subscriber count, currently owns 46.40 MHz of the spectrum. Robi has the right to use 44 MHz, Banglalink 40 MHz and Teletalk 25.20 MHz.
