Sources in the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said the authority has ended its internal preparations for the country’s long-awaited 5G spectrum auction and prepared the draft Information Memorandum (IM).
But the formal document is yet to be released since the PTA is waiting for a policy instruction from the federal government.
The Spectrum Advisory Committee’s proposals were cleared more than a week ago, sources claimed, but the mandatory government directive has not yet been published. Upon receipt of the instruction, the PTA will issue the Information Memorandum with the main facts, including the base price and other parameters of the auction.
PTA officials said that once the IM is given, telecom operators would have comparatively little time for preparations, indicating the process of auction might go rapidly.
The regulator has said it plans to hold the 5G spectrum auction before the start of Ramadan. Information Memorandum is to be issued this week itself.
The auction would involve about 600 MHz of spectrum in some frequency bands essential for next-generation mobile services, PTA sources said.
The spectrum will consist of 194 MHz in the 2600 MHz band as well as the 700 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 3500 MHz bands.
The PTA has attached special emphasis to the 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands owing to their potential to facilitate high-speed and large-capacity 5G networks.
The eventual goal of the authority is to auction more than 300 MHz of spectrum, a crucial step toward the commercial deployment of 5G services and continued expansion of Pakistan’s digital telecommunications infrastructure.
