Bangladesh telcos Grameenphone and Robi Axiata have reportedly secured another 20 MHz of spectrum each in the 2.6 GHz band, after two years of haggling over the price per MHz.
According to the Daily Star, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission granted Grameenphone and Robi 15-year contracts for the spectrum at a price of BDT11.6 billion (US$98.6 million). Grameenphone and Robi said the extra spectrum will help them boost quality of service for their subscribers.
"Sufficient spectrum is key for serving customers with quality services, but it involves massive investment from operators," said Shahed Alam, chief corporate and regulatory officer of Robi Axiata.
The 40 MHz of spectrum in question was left over from the BTRC’s spectrum auction in April 2022. In that auction, 160 MHz of spectrum from the 2.6 GHz band was up for grabs. Grameenphone and Robi each got 60 MHz, while broadband wireless access provider Internet Exchange Limited (IEL) won the remaining 40 GHz.
However, in July 2022, the BTRC cancelled IEL's allocation and decided the spectrum would go to mobile operators, the report said.
The sticking point has been the price, which was originally set at US$6.5 million per MHz, or BDT560 million according to the exchange rate in play at the time. However, as the taka weakened against the US dollar, the price per MHz shot up to BDT715 million, which Grameenphone and Robi argued was too expensive.
After some back and forth exchanges, the BTRC agreed to accept the operators’ proposed price of BDT580 million per MHz after the Ministry for Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology gave its approval, the report said.
In May, the BTRC decided to let mobile operators pay spectrum fees in taka rather than US dollars because of the foreign currency exchange rate issue.
