Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Rais: Fair and Transparent Bidding for 700Mhz Spectrum

Wednesday March 16, 2011
By LEONG HUNG YEE
hungyee@thestar.com.my


KUALA LUMPUR: A fair and transparent bidding process will be the way to award the 700Mhz spectrum in the future, and with that all parties will have a fair chance to bid for it.

However, Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Utama Dr Rais Yatim (pic) said the process for bidding was not ready yet as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) still had a lot of more work to do. “I have briefed the economic council chaired by the Prime Minister. The decision of the council is that the bidding has to be via a fair system which enables any contender to bid for the 700Mhz spectrum. This gives all contenders the opportunity to make a bid,” Rais Yatim said after witnessing a signing ceremony between U Mobile Sdn Bhd and China-based ZTE Corp yesterday.

The agreement will see U Mobile extending its 42Mbps mobile network in the Klang Valley, Negri Sembilan and the northern region by the second half of 2011 and the installation of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) platforms which has the potential to achieve 100Mbps.

According to MCMC, under Malaysia's National Spectrum Plan, the 700MHz spectrum band was allocated for broadcasting service and not for LTE. The 700MHz spectrum band is vital to the operation of the 4G high-speed wireless network.

Rais said many parties had expressed interest to bid for the 700Mhz spectrum, hence the Government needed to adopt a fair and transparent method in assigning the spectrum.

“In this respect, the MCMC has already been directed to award all broadband spectrum in a fair and more transparent manner,” he said, adding that the requirements had not been set at the moment.

Rais said an announcement would be made later as to when the spectrum would be open for bidding.

He did not disclose the number of companies which had submitted their applications for the spectrum, when asked.

Previously, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was reported to have called for a meeting with key executives of telecommunications operators in a move to defuse a spat over the 700Mhz spectrum issue.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/16/business/8276687&sec=business

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