The Government of Pakistan is preparing for the next spectrum auction and has budgeted the revenues from spectrum auction for the current financial year. Therefore, the auction must be completed before the end of fiscal year.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has already advertised the RFPs (request for proposals) for hiring a consultant company that could advise the regulator on auctioning of 3G/4G spectrum in the country, however, no one is finalized for the job as of yet.
It is yet unclear as to what amount and magnitude of spectrum, and from which band Pakistan may auction now, as already operating mobile phone companies with 3G and 4G spectrum, particularly Ufone and Telenor, are nearing their capacities and may need more spectrum during months to come.
Such decisions will be taken by MoIT and a policy will be drafted to specify the spectrum that government may intend to sell. Based on this policy from MoIT, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority will prepare Information Memorandum (IM) that will constitute detailed specification of the auction including the base price, auction mode and other modalities of the auction.
This whole process should require least six months if not more.
