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Pakistan: Telenor successful in USF bidding |
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Friday, 14 September 2007 |
Telenor was successful in the first auction held by the country’s Universal Service Fund Company (USFC). Only two operators, Telenor Pakistan and PTCL, were short-listed for the auction. Telenor won the auction by requesting a lower subsidy amount than PTCL.
According to the bid requirements, the winner is to extend its network coverage to 1,283 under-served communities in Malakand Division. Other mobile operators who participated in the bidding process were Warid Telecom, CM Pak and PTCL.
The subsidy for the project will be provided from the Universal Service Fund created by the Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunications (MoITT). Telecommunications operators contribute 1.5% of their annual revenues to the USF.
Source: The Nation (Pakistan) - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Thailand: Operators ready for 3G but licensing still an issue |
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Thursday, 13 September 2007 |
Thailand’s mobile operators are preparing to launch 3G services, but regulatory issues are holding them back, executives said.
Total Access Communication (TAC), Thailand's second largest mobile operator, said it expected the regulator to issue 3G licences in late 2008 and commercial operations to start in 2009. Thailand and Myanmar are the only Southeast Asian countries without 3G services.
Issuing 3G licenses has been delayed for several years because of political obstacles. Licensing is also a key step in reforming the sector because firms will pay license fees instead of the current system of paying a portion of their revenues to two state-owned firms for the right to operate networks they built. The pace of reform has been slowed by the process of setting up a National Broadcasting Commission, which will work with telecom regulator National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) to allocate 3G spectrum.
Last week, NTC member Sethaporn Cusripituck said he expected 3G licenses to be issued in the first quarter of 2008. However, repeated delays have made analysts cautious about the sector. The prospect of a new government following elections in December has raised doubts about whether the regulator would be able to issue 3G licenses at all.
"We see many hurdles in the way with the formation of a new government and the overall implications for the industry and are not optimistic about the chance of the NTC succeeding," Macquarie Securities analyst Richard Moe said.
Thailand has more than 46 million mobile users, for a 70% penetration rate, compared with around 80% in Malaysia. The Thai penetration rate is expected to reach 80% next year. AIS, TAC and third-ranked True Move, a subsidiary of broadband and fixed-line operator True Corp, have a combined market share of more than 90%.
Source: Reuters - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Kenya: Concern over lack of competition for rural telecom project |
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Wednesday, 12 September 2007 |
There is disagreement between two Kenyan government ministries over the single sourcing of a US$ 62.9 million rural telecommunications project.
Joseph Kinyua, the Treasury Permanent Secretary, wanted Phase II of the Kenya Rural Area Telecommunications Project tendered competitively by Chinese companies represented in the country. However, Information Permanent Secretary, Bitange Ndemo, chose to award the project using single sourcing.
In a letter addressed to the Chinese Ambassador, Zhang Ming, Kinyua said that competitive bidding would enable the Government to get the greatest value for money and would promote transparency. On July 9, 2007, Kinyua also wrote to Ndemo, informing him that the project should be tendered competitively.
Despite Kinuya’s urgings, Ndemo reportedly told a competing company that the project was an expansion of an existing network.
"As you would appreciate, your company cannot expand Huawei's or any other vendor's system," Ndemo told the interested company.
Ndemo said experience had shown that multi-vendor networks usually led to high integration, operation and maintenance costs. This, Ndemo said, was clearly outlined in an analysis carried out by PKF on the Telkom Kenya network.
"Telkom Kenya has experienced several serious cases of inter-working difficulties with equipment from different vendors leading to loss of revenue and customers," Ndemo said.
In its reply, the competing company said that neither the original contract -- which was single sourced and signed between the Government and Huawei in 2005 -- nor the agreement signed with the Chinese Government to finance the project, proposed a second phase.
Source: East African Standard - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Ecuador: Government to establish telecommunications ministry |
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Tuesday, 11 September 2007 |
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Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa says the government intends to establish a telecommunications ministry in an attempt to reduce the bureaucracy in the sector.
According to Correa, the new ministry will coordinate all actions within Ecuador’s telecommunications sector. The government has already started the process of creating the new ministry.
Today, the telecommunications law gives regulatory power to four different agencies: Conatel administers and regulates telecommunications policy; Conartel is responsible for television and radio; Senatel executes telecommunications policy and enforces Conatel’s decisions; and Suptel oversees the entire sector and can impose sanctions.
Source: Cellular-News - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Brazil: Universal access fund to be used for public telephony project |
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Friday, 07 September 2007 |
Brazil's communications ministry wants to use FUST, the universal access fund, to finance the installation of public payphones in communities with fewer than 100 residents.
Communications minister Helio Costa said it would cost US$ 146 million to install public phones in these areas. An additional US$ 3.8 million per year would be required for maintenance and new installations.
"At least 8,760 locations should benefit. Each one will have at least one public phone," Costa said.
In related news, Anatel, Brazil's telecommunications regulator, signed a contract with operators to install phones in 782 institutions for deaf children. The project will use US$ 3.8 million from FUST. The government intends to use FUST resources to finance other health, public security and education projects. Projects requiring approximately US$ 510 million from FUST are awaiting approval.
The fund, which is estimated to contain around US$ 3.1 billion, was established in January 2001 to finance telecommunications access to low-income groups, schools, hospitals, libraries and remote locations. However, the resources have been unavailable due to conflicting legal interpretations about how to use the fund.
Source: Agencia Estado and Business News Americas - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Argentina: SeCom allows fixed wireless |
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Thursday, 06 September 2007 |
SeCom, Argentina's telecommunications ministry, passed a resolution that allows fixed line operators Telecom Argentina and Telefonica de Argentina to offer fixed wireless service in rural areas.
Resolution 151 allows the operators to offer fixed wireless service in rural and suburban areas, charged at the same rate as fixed-line calls. According to SeCom, their goal is to ensure universal service.
The resolution only allows the operators to offer fixed wireless service in areas that were originally allotted to Telecom and Telefonica after the privatisation of state monopoly Entel. Entel was privatised in 1990. Telecom and Telefonica were the operators licensed to provide telephony services in the north and south of the country, respectively.
Another operator, Telmex, recently requested that SeCom grant it the spectrum required to offer CDMA450 fixed wireless service in 25 locations. CDMA450, WiMax and satellite are among the technologies Telecom and Telefonica may consider to offer fixed wireless service.
Source: Business News Americas - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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India: TRAI looking for changes to mobile regulation |
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Thursday, 30 August 2007 |
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TRAI, the telecommunications regulator, is recommending the removal of limits on the number of licensed operators, the relaxation of mergers and acquisition regulations, technology neutrality for telecom licenses, and a requirement that both GSM and CDMA players pay an entry fee and a higher spectrum fee for additional 2G radio frequency.
TRAI wants to establish a committee to develop new spectrum allocation criteria. The committee would consist of representatives from the department of telecommunications, the Telecom Engineering Centre, TRAI, the wireless planning and co-ordination department and operators' associations. TRAI has already proposed increasing spectrum fees and instituting an entry fee for spectrum allocation above 10 Mhz for GSM operators and 5 Mhz for CDMA operators.
TRAI’s proposals would mean operators offering dual technologies will be subject to an entry fee, which is equivalent to the amount for obtaining a new license for that service area. This implies a CDMA operator such as Reliance Communications, which has applied for GSM spectrum across the country, must pay an entry fee of US$ 413 million to offer these services on a pan-India level.
Currently, 2G spectrum works in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands. According to TRAI, "in future all spectrum, excluding the spectrum in 800, 900 and 1800 bands, should be auctioned so as to ensure efficient utilisation of this scarce resource."
On mergers and acquisitions (M&As), TRAI is recommending a doubling of the crossholding limit by one operator in another to 20%. It also wants to abolish the 15 Mhz limit for spectrum held by merged entities in any circle. In addition, TRAI wants safeguards so that M&As cannot happen if the combined market share of the two operators exceed 40% either in terms of subscribers or revenues, or if the process reduces the number of operators in a circle to fewer than four.
TRAI is recommending that license conditions regarding roll-out obligations be changed so that operators are given incentives in the form of reduced contributions to the universal access service fund for meeting their roll-out targets. Instead of threatening operators with license termination, TRAI wants performance bank guarantees of those operators who fail to meet roll-out obligations within the stipulated 52 weeks to be forfeited and the operator be asked to resubmit the same amount as a fresh guarantee. In addition, such operators would not be allocated additional spectrum and be banned from participating in spectrum auctions. Source: The Economic Times - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Mexico: Universal access dispute |
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Friday, 24 August 2007 |
Mexico’s fixed line incumbent Telmex says the transport and communications ministry (SCT) owes the company over US$ 9 million from the Fondo de Cobertura Social de Telecomunicaciones (FCST), the universal access fund, for the installation of rural telephony infrastructure.
Telmex also claims the SCT needs to reduce the use of the 450MHz band, as it is saturated with traffic from different networks. Telmex plans to use the 450MHz band to install 205,000 rural telephony lines in 11,155 communities. According to Telmex, there is 450MHz band interference in around 7,000 rural communities.
SCT’s expectations for rural infrastructure differ from what Telmex promised. The SCT has reportedly asked for 152,634 lines to be installed to provide service to 10 million people. Telmex says about 9 million inhabitants will benefit from its new installations.
Telmex has already installed 72,000 rural lines as part of its universal access commitment. Consuelo Gomez, head of rural telephony for Telmex, says that Telmex has invested US$ 136 million so far. The FCST has provided US$ 7.7 million to Telmex, but an additional US$ 11.5 million is pending for lines already installed.
Telmex's legal representative Javier Mondragon said the FCST resources have not been released because the government is carrying out an audit of lines installed. The authorities are reportedly investigating irregularities, such as Telmex installing two lines per house instead of one and not teaching people how to use phone cards to use the service.
The FCST has US$ 68 million at its disposal for rural telephony projects. Of that amount, Telmex requested US$ 45.3 million.
Source: Business News Americas - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Algeria: Regulator denies responsibility for Lacom losses |
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Wednesday, 22 August 2007 |
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Algeria’s Post and Telecommunications Regulation Authority (ARPT) denies that it contributed to financial losses at Lacom, the country’s second national fixed line operator.
The ARPT has released a statement responding to Egypt Telecom officials who accused the authority of being responsible for the US$ 45 million losses incurred by Lacom. The statement says that the ARPT has taken "all the required measures that encourage fair competition in post and telecommunication market." It goes on to say that the ARPT "requested from Algerie Telecom to stop immediately its special offer of last July 5, while offering WLL phones for free", after a complaint was submitted by Lacom.
Lacom’s owners are looking for a way of ceasing operations without incurring further losses as the company is facing bankruptcy. Source: El Khabar and TeleGeography - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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Bangladesh: Government selling licenses for internet telephony |
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Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
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The government of Bangladesh will auction Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) licenses for private operators in October.
The telecommunications authority announced that the government has approved the International Long Distance Telecommunication Services (ILDTS) Policy, 2007 to liberalize VoIP. The government has established a three-tier telecommunications infrastructure. The first stage is international gateways connected to submarine cables and interconnection exchanges. The second stage is interconnection exchanges linked to the international gateways and access network service (ANS). The final stage is direct service to customers.
The new policy marks the end of the government’s monopoly over international gateways (IGWs). The government has decided to auction licenses for three IGWs and two interconnect exchanges (ICXs). Under the ILDTS policy, no foreign companies, including existing fixed and mobile operators, will be eligible to participate in the auction.
All three IGWs will be set up in Dhaka and connected to the state-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) submarine cable. The two ICX licenses will involve two exchanges being set up in Dhaka and one each in four other cities. The government will also issue a license for an Internet exchange (IX) for the private sector. Only Dhaka and south-eastern Chittagong will have an exchange to provide the access network service (ANS) operators with data services.
Under the new policy, the government will not issue fresh licenses for VSAT and the existing VSATs will be shut down in phases.
The BTRC will invite applications for the licenses in September and then hold the auction in October. The private international phone services are expected to begin by April 2008. Source: Xinhua - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News. |
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