Thailand 3G auction process revealed (Thailand)
Thailand’s regulator has announced that it will adopt the slot demand and supply based model for the upcoming 3G auction in place of the n-1 formula, according to a report by GSM Insider. According to the report, National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commissioner Sethapong Malisuwan said that under the proposed system, the auction would be broken up into nine 5 MHz slots instead of three 15 MHz licences.
Each bidder would declare how many slots they wanted. For instance, with four vendors each wanting 15 MHz, that would mean 12 slots in demand against the 9 available.
The price of every slot would then go up and up until one of the bidders abandons a slot. The price would continue to rise again until there is demand for only 9 slots left among however many bidders there are.
The final system will be finalised by the end of April and the starting price will be announced by the end of May. Each operator would be limited to 15 or perhaps 20 MHz and a minimum of 5 MHz.
Sethapong added that it was unclear if the price would be higher or lower than the estimates in the aborted 2010 bid. He said that 2.1-GHz may not be the most valuable spectrum now as 1800-MHz LTE is more enticing to many operators.
He said that the expiring 25 MHz (12.5 by TrueMove and 12.5 by DPC, an AIS subsidiary) should be auctioned off six months before the concessions expire in September 2013.
Sethapong added that the auction would be conducted on a tight budget of between $970,000 and $1.3 million.
Finally, the commissioner said that anyone blocking this auction would be considered an enemy of the state and urged the public to join him in prayer to the spirits to ask for a successful auction.
Earlier, fellow commissioner Suthipol Thaweechaikarn said that all the operators would be called in to swear they would not use any loophole to stop the auction and similarly branded anyone trying to halt the auction as being unpatriotic.
Thailand to hold 2.1GHz 3G auction in Q3 (Thailand)
The regulatory authority in Thailand is hopeful of carrying out the 2.1 GHz 3G auction in the third quarter of the year and has requested for cooperation from the telecom operators.
According to reports, Sutthipol Thaweechaikarn, National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commissioner for legal on the telecommunications half, said that he was ensuring that the 3G auction gets completed this year and was looking into any loophole that may cause a deviation.
Thaweechaikarn added that in order to ensure a smooth process he would request all telecom operators to swear in public to play fair, not collude in bidding and that anyone using a legal loophole to scupper the auction would be condemned as unpatriotic and holding back the country’s development.
Infotel bags pan-India license in Indian BWA auctions
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Auction for wireless broadband spectrum has come to an end and India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has announced that unlike the recently completed 3G auction one company has walked away with a pan-India concession.
Licenses for 22 of India’s telecoms circles has been won by Infotel Broadband Services which won Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) after making the payment of INR128.48 billion (USD2.74 billion). Aircel bagged the next largest number of BWA licenses, eight, for a total of INR34.38 billion. Tikona Digital Networks paid INR10.58 billion for five licenses.
US-based chipmaker Qualcomm and India’s largest cellco by subscribers Bharti Airtel won four licenses each. Among those that lost out were Indian players Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular and Tata Communications.
Excess of INR1 trillion has been raised by the government after completing both of the 3G and BWA auctions. The amount is more than the due to be paid by state-owned operators Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).
India set to become No.1 with maximum subscribers by 2013
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: India is set to become the world’s largest mobile market by gaining the top slot by 2013 with the current growth rate being 3.38% and total telecommunication density standing proudly at 52.74. According to a press release by TRAI on April 26, 2010, number of subscribers grew from 600.98 million in February to 621.28 million in March.
It has also been predicted that the subscriber base in the country will rise to 1.159 billion by the end of 2013 beating China which will have 1.106 billion around the same time. When it comes to global competition in the mobile subscriber base, India is facing challenge only from China.
But with just three national mobile operators, China mobile growth is slated to slack and while India continues to see increased competition among operators. India is not only expected to leave China behind in number of subscribers but also in subscription penetration rate.
It still remains to be seen how the recent 3G auctions and upcoming MNP regulations affect the growth of the market.
Indian & German spectrum auctions- Where is the value for money?
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: May was the month of auctions and bidding. With two of the biggest spectrum auctions in Germany and India been concluded this month, hundreds of questions have been raised regarding the outcome.
In the second highest revenue-generating spectrum auction for almost a decade, on May 19, the Indian 3G auction concluded, raising EUR 11.7 billion (USD14.6 billion). This was quickly followed by the German auction concluding on Thursday last week, raising EUR4.4 billion (USD5.5 billion). Significant drop in process of the spectrum has been noticed since the 3G auctions in 200001.
Less than expected revenue was generated in the German auction as EUR5.8 billion to EUR8 billion has been expected by the analysts but it only raised EUR4.4 billion (USD5.5 billion). A total of 360MHz (of which 2´145MHz was FDD spectrum) ranging across the 800MHz, 1800MHz, 2.1GHz and 2.6GHz bands had been auctioned by BNetzA. EUR1.3 billion to EUR1.4 billion had been spent by T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2 while E-Plus spent just EUR284 million for 70MHz of spectrum, but it failed to gain any 800MHz spectrum.
The spectrum sold in the Indian 3G auction on the other hand has been viewed as expensive. Three or four 2´5MHz lots in the 2.1GHz band in each of the 22 telecoms circles†across India had been auctioned by the Indian Department of Telecommunications and double the revenue had been generated than what was predicted. This was despite India having a GDP per capita 40 times less than that of Germany.
Vodafone which participated in both the German and Indian auctions spent EUR3.4 billion (USD4.2 billion) while in the UK and German auctions in 2001, it spent EUR18.3 billion. At the end, Indian auction might seem to be expensive but when it comes to value for money, German auction surly scores points, especially in the high frequency bands.
India 3G bandwidth auction-Pan India price hits $2.33 billion
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: As expected, the bidding amount for bandwidth for 3G mobile services nearly tripled to 103.48 billion rupees ($2.33 billion), at the end of day 20 of the country’s 3G Auction. The starting price was touted to be INR35 billion.
As per the department of telecommunications, the bidding will again start on Tuesday for each pan-India slot starting at about INR104.43 billion.
While Mumbai kept its place as the most-sought-after service area with four bids each at INR17.06 billion for the three slots available. Delhi followed with three bids for the three available slots at about INR16.54 billion each, data from the department showed.
The third highest bid was received by the western Indian province of Maharashtra at INR10.41 billion, with two bids for three slots. The forth position was bagged by the South Indian province of Andhra Pradesh while Tamil Nadu stood on the fifth position.
While Andhra Pradesh received four bids at INR9.13 billion each for the three available slots, Tamil Nadu got two bids at about INR9.02 billion each for three slots.
3G bid price in India touches Rs 9,330 crore on 17th day
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The 3G auction in India is making news for all good reasons as the bid touched Rs 9,330 crore on the 17th day of auction. The focus will now shift on small circles. Revenue of Rs 37,688 crore has been assured by the government at this price against the budget estimate of Rs 35,000 crore.
According to DoT, the activity requirement will be set to 90% from the current 80 which implies that focus of bids would now shift to ‘B’ and ‘C’ category circles.
After the completion of 100 rounds of auction, Mumbai crossed the Rs 1,500 crore and the last bid was quoted at Rs 1,506.41 crore followed by Delhi with Rs 1,431.20 crore against the reserve price of Rs 320 crore for both circles.
India’s 3G auction enters final phase
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The final phase of the 3G auction in India seems to be nearing a conclusion with most of the circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, seeing either no or negative demand. Revenue of Rs 35,000 crore from the sale of spectrum for both 3G as well as Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) has been expected by the Indian government.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom and Tatas along with five other telcos are in the fray to bag the spectrum but it has still not been disclosed who all are in the final round of bids being conducted online.
As per the rule, any operator who has quit at some stage during the process can come back and bid. Mumbai’s last bid stood at Rs 1,397.13 crore, while that of Delhi was Rs 1,363 crore against the reserve price of Rs 320 crore for both service areas. According to Telecom Minister A Raja, government’s revenues may touch Rs 50,000-55,000 crore from auction of spectrum for both 3G and BWA.
Bharti to build 3G network with Nokia & Ericsson (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With the kick off of the long delayed 3G auction in India, Bharti Airtel has announced that it will build its 3G mobile network along with its existing equipment suppliers. Sweden’s Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks have been named as two of Bharti Airtel’s partners by the managing director of the telecom operator’s parent, Bharti Enterprises, Rajan Bharti Mittal.
Nokia Siemens in February won a $700 million deal from Bharti and Ericsson won a $1.3 billion network expansion contract in March to upgrade Bharti Airtel’s GSM network.
Besides, the company also made it clear that there were no obstacles in the pending $9 billion purchase of the African assets of Kuwait’s Zain. The deal would make Bharti one of world’s top five mobile companies by subscribers.
