Bangladesh: “Market competition factor” is anti-consumer
Building on the previous blog post, I wrote up an op-ed on the latest developments of the Bangladesh license renewal drama that has been published in the Sunday Daily Star. What mistakes are made when...
View ArticleBangladesh: Same spectrum; different prices
When I wrote the op ed that was published in Daily Star yesterday, I did not know the anti-competitive “Market Competition Factor” had been decided. Today’s Daily Star gives the numbers. Looks...
View ArticleSpectrum refarming in Greece
For those who think spectrum is a headache unique to Bangladesh, here’s relief from Greece: The auction has been discussed and planned for more than a year and predates the country’s financial crisis,...
View ArticleBangladesh: Beware market share greater than 20 percent (on a particular day...
Market share is never the final determinant of market power. It is used as a screen for further investigation and/or to shift the burden of proof. So, for example, an HHI (Herfindahl Hirschman Index)...
View ArticleBangladesh mobile license renewals: Expect an interesting 2012
The government has not backed off on the discriminatory and anti-poor “market competition factor” that was subject to a detailed critique when announced. Per Mhz spectrum charge has been set on the...
View ArticleWhat exactly is a spectrum shortage?
When I was in government, I heard complaints of shortages of scarce resources and ability to earn adequate revenue all the time. I paid attention, but always verified. Specifically, with regard to...
View ArticleBelated post on presentations made at ITS India conference, New Delhi, Feb 2012
LIRNEasia organized a panel on Broadband Bottlenecks in Asia at the ITS India Conference. Here are the slides that were presented at the session, with apologies for the late posting. Helani Galpaya...
View ArticleIdealism and realism in spectrum policy
An international treaty document, the Reference Paper that is part of the Fourth Protocol to the General Agreement on Trade in Services, states that spectrum is a scarce resource. It is scarce only...
View ArticleBangladesh spectrum: Rearrangement if not yet refarming; cooperation not...
Finally, some good news from Dhaka. Four mobile operators have cooperatively started to swap frequencies to yield a more rational arrangement. Congratulations to the regulator, the industry body and...
View ArticleIs Bangladesh the first in the region to announce plans for 700MHz Band?
If other countries have announced plans, please tell us. By region we mean South Asia, but even SE is fine. Of course, there’s the gap between cup and lip. Announcing is one thing. Actually getting the...
View ArticleThe FCC gets serious about spectrum refarming
The spectrum refarming process is picking up speed in the US. The auction process will have three parts. In the first, the F.C.C. will conduct a reverse auction to determine which holders of broadcast...
View ArticleBangladesh 3G: Five operators; four licenses, floor price of USD 20 million...
One more qualified bidder than number of slots is a prescription for a bidding frenzy. But then, something like this has been done before. In the UK they had one more slot than there were existing...
View ArticleWarning: Mobile License doesn’t print money
LTE (aka 4G) is manifolds faster than UMTS (aka 3G). That doesn’t mean the governments can make more money from auctioning LTE spectrum. Her Majesty’s government, which had forked £22.5 billion from...
View ArticleLessons that are not learned from Indian spectrum policy
Thomas K Thomas has been covering Indian telecom issues for a long time. His reflections on the lessons that need to be learned from Indian spectrum policy since 1994 are worth a read: Back in 1994,...
View ArticleNext stage of liberalizing the Myanmar telecom market
Total Telecom gives details of the licenses that will be issued in Myanmar upon the completion of a three-stage process. Technology neutral is good. How much spectrum per license is not stated. If it...
View ArticleIncreasing role of Auditors General and Control Authorities in telecom policy...
In my recent visit to Colombia to assess the ICT sector for the OECD, I found that the Office of the Controlaria (Auditor General) was playing an increasingly central role in telecom policy,...
View ArticleCAG slams BTRC’s free swapping of Airtel’s spectrum
It has a bit of background. Warid Telecom of Abu Dhabi had acquired the 6th mobile operating license in Bangladesh, through open auction at US$ 50 million in 2005. The license was bundled with 15 MHz....
View ArticleSATRC in the lead of freeing up 700 MHz frequencies for 4G
For most of its existence the South Asian Telecom Regulators’ Council (SATRC) has been a talk shop, not particularly noted as being on the leading edge of anything. Therefore I was very pleased to see...
View ArticleIndia rethinks spectrum auctions?
It appears that India’s Department of Telecom is rethinking auctions as the mechanism for assigning spectrum: After failure of two rounds of airwave auction, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is now...
View ArticleNovel ideas from the US government on freeing up government spectrum
We have reiterated the need for spectrum refarming. But the most difficult part has been extracting inefficiently used spectrum from government agencies. Looks like the US government is focusing on...
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