Bangladesh and India are set to compete for the same set of telecom investors with Bangladesh announcing auctions for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum close on the heels of India unveiling its BWA policy.
However, while Bangladesh’s policy is designed to attract fresh competition by keeping its existing operators and their shareholders (foreign and Bangladeshi) out of the spectrum bids, India has opted for a different route.
India has restricted BWA bidding to only those who either hold an ISP or a unified access service (UAS) licence, thereby either forcing companies to acquire ISP/UAS licenses before the bidding or keeping away new entrants who are unable to acquire such licences due to price or time constraints.
“Other contrasts are equally striking and show up uncomfortable flaws with India’s auction guidelines,” says a telecom analyst. While India’s BWA guidelines are just four pages, Bangladesh’s is a 57-page invitation for applications for grant of licence. This includes a 30-page licence agreement and detailed terms of interconnection/tariffs.
Read the full story in The Times of India here.
2 Comments
Rohan Samarajiva
Why is keeping out existing operators seen as a good thing? This simply lessens competition for the licenses.
Abu Saeed Khan
Broadband of neither country will compete at the BWA (Actully WiMAX) front. The launch of 3G/HSPA in India and China will sharply reduce the cost of terminals. Once these two telecoms superpowers issue 3G licenses sometimes in early next year, the broadband bonanza will kick off everywhere in Asia as it has happened with GSM mobile. Everyone is invited! Stay tuned!!
Non-essential and non-urgent – Daily FT
“In October 2006, the Government mandated a 50% margin deposit on the invoiced value of 44 listed items.” However, in September 2021, “the margin deposit is 100% for a much larger list.
(Research Report) AI Ethics in Practice
This research report analyses the implementation of AI ethics principles in the policy, legal and regulatory, and technical arenas in Singapore and India.
A little learning is a dangerous thing, survey finds – Sunday Times
“A LIRNEasia focus study conducted in Gampaha during Sri Lanka’s second pandemic lockdown last year found that only 48 per cent of households with children had access to a smartphone or a computer and only a third of households with children had an internet connection. This (34 per cent) is on average: poorer, rural households are systematically worse off as the number drops to 21 per cent in the lowest socioeconomic group households.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
12 Balcombe Place, Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2021 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific