AMMAN - The public tender to grant the first Third Generation (3G) frequencies licence, scheduled to be floated Sunday, was postponed for few days to study request by mobile operators to delay the floating of the tender, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) announced Sunday.
Zain, Orange Mobile and Xpress have submitted letters to the TRC Thursday, December 4 before the Eid Al Adha holiday asking the delay of floating the public tender document, thus the TRC will delay the tender to study their request, TRC Chief Commissioner and CEO Ahmad Hiyasat told reporters yesterday.
"In their request, they said they need more time for preparing their business cases and stressed that they need more time, especially that December is full of holidays," said Hiyasat.
Two of the companies asked to delay the floating of the tender for two months, he said, adding that any postponement in floating the tender will be taken into consideration in extending the deadline, for example, for submitting bids.
The TRC chief stressed that there was no chance to study their requests due to the Eid holiday, adding that the TRC will study the request and the reasons they cite for the postponement and will come up with a decision during next week.
Late November, the TRC announced that a public tender to grant the first 3G licence will be floated after Eid Al Adha.
If referred as scheduled, people across the country will have access to 3G services, including traditional voice messages, SMS and MMS as well as new advanced services, including hi-speed mobile data and Internet access and video telephony in the year 2010.
According to the TRC, the service will be available in the Kingdom within one year of the granting of the licence.
The TRC chief said earlier the reserve price of the spectrum is set at JD25 million for a paired block of the 5 MHz spectrum, which will specify the minimum fees of this band and will not include evacuation charges and annual returns. The bidders are free to obtain 10, 15 or 20 paired MHz.
No party will be denied the opportunity to participate in the public tender to acquire the first 3G spectrum licence. After achieving the tender process within a 10-month "separation period," the opportunity will be available for the existing operators to obtain the 3G licence.
At the end of the separation period, TRC will offer 10 MHz of the 3G frequency to each of the incumbent operators that did not win the bid.
The acquisition price will be equal to the price of the winning bid of the tender.
Immediately following the separation period, there will be a "reserve period" of three months, during which the TRC will commence proceedings in a way it deems fit if the reserved spectrum has not been made use of by the incumbents.
The winner of the tender or the incumbent operators can acquire the 2G spectrum licence separately from the tender against an acquisition fee which equates to 130 per cent of the winning price of the tender. Therefore, the minimum fees to grant the 2G spectrum is JD32.5 million for a pair of 5 MHz.
By Mohammad Ghazal
© Jordan Times 2008
