Page 107 - SAMENA Trends - March 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Intertelecom Unable to Pay 800MHz-900MHz Licensing Fee, Report Says

Ukraine’s plan for an 800MHz-900MHz to augment coverage of their existing 4G Piven of Ukraine’s National Commission
4G LTE mobile network rollout has networks, while Intertelecom is planning for State Regulation of Communications
been delayed due to CDMA operator an LTE rollout using an 850MHz-900MHz & Informatization (NCCIR/ NKRZI)
Intertelecom’s lack of funds to pay its spectrum allocation, and it had been hoped was quoted as saying simply: ‘There
licensing fee, a report from Liga.Tech it would begin deployment before its three is no confirmation of payment from
claims, citing unnamed market sources. larger rivals. However, according to the Intertelecom. We are working on further
GSM operators Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine report’s sources Intertelecom is currently solutions.’ Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and
and Lifecell are all expected to receive new unable to pay a UAH180 million (USD6.75 Lifecell are meanwhile expected to pay for
technology-neutral 900MHz licences with million) licensing fee, with a shortfall of their tech-neutral 900MHz concessions by
redistributed frequency bands this month, funds blamed on a recent failed attempt to the end of March.
allowing the launch of LTE-900 services sell a stake in the CDMA provider. Bohdan

Oman to Conduct Survey Measuring Access To and Use of ICT by Households

and Individuals

The Ministry of Technology and and non-Omani in all the Sultanate percentages of those who own and use
Communications (MTC) and the National governorates. The survey seeks to identify computers, smartphones and its different
Centre for Statistics and Information the percentage of the access to the applications, along with the levels of main
(NCSI) in Oman have started to conduct a Internet by households and individuals skills in using ICT such as sending emails,
survey to measure the access to and use of as well as the main reasons hindering using simple mathematical formulas in the
ICT by households and individuals in 2020. them from accessing the Internet. It computational programmes like Excel, in
The survey is part of a continuous practice will also measure the extent to which addition to measuring the level of advanced
for future improvement and planning. A individuals use social media platforms skills such as creating PowerPoints and
random sample of individuals of 18-years- such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, using programming languages.
old and above will be interviewed through Instagram, etc. The survey is expected to
telephone calls representing Omani provide significant indicators about the

FCC Grants T-Mobile Special Temporary Authority to Access Additional

600MHz Spectrum

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted
T-Mobile US Special Temporary Authority (STA) to use additional
spectrum in the 600MHz band to help it meet increased customer
demand for broadband during the coronavirus pandemic. The
company requested this authority to make it easier for Americans
to participate in telehealth, distance learning and telework while
practicing ‘social distancing’. T-Mobile also indicated that this
authority would enable it to be prepared to meet the needs of first
responders. According to the watchdog, the STA will be valid for
60 days. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai commented: ‘The FCC is dedicated
to helping Americans work from home, learn at home, and connect
remotely to health care professionals during this crisis. I would like with 50 bidders placing winning bids for a total of 2,776 licenses.
to thank all of the companies that agreed to make their spectrum T-Mobile US comfortably dominated the bidding, agreeing to pay
available for this important effort: DISH, Comcast, NewLevel, LB USD7.993 billion for a total of 1,525 regional licenses, edging out
License Co, Channel 51, Omega, Bluewater and TStar License DISH Network, which bid a total of USD6.2 billion for 486 licenses.
Holdings.’ TeleGeography notes that the FCC’s 600MHz Broadcast For its part, Comcast agreed to pay USD1.7 billion for 73 licenses,
Television Spectrum Incentive Auction concluded in February Channel 51 paid USD858.7 million for eight licenses and Bluewater
2017. The bidding process raised a net total of USD19.3 billion, Wireless bid USD568.3 million for 66 licenses.

107 MARCH 2020