The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has finalised its plans for the upcoming 4G spectrum auction and will send the proposals to the government for approval shortly, the Daily Star cites Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood as saying. Under the proposals, operators would pay a licence fee of BDT150 million (USD1.85 million), a further BDT75 million in annual fees and a revenue share of 15%. A floor price of USD25 million per MHz of spectrum has already been approved by the government, but the BTRC is planning to add a premium of between USD7 million and USD8 million per MHz to make the frequencies technology neutral, although the official noted that the exact amount has not yet been fixed. In terms of rollout obligations, the BTRC’s plan calls for operators to launch services in all divisional cities within nine months, and all district headquarters within 18 months, whilst the entire country should be covered within 36 months.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, the tender will feature an unsold 2×15MHz 2100MHz block, plus frequencies in the 1800MHz band and a portion of 900MHz bandwidth made surplus following the recent merger of Robi Axiata and Airtel Bangladesh.