How Can We Resolve the Issues Surrounding Renewal of Mobile Cellular Licenses?

To build conviction and motivations for speculation, licenses should accompany an anticipation of recharging, implying that the licensee can for the most part hope to have its permit restored unless it has neglected to meet administrative or permit necessities, or where the band might be liable to reallocation.

The recharging procedure ought to be obviously indicated, either in the directions or as a feature of the permit's terms and conditions, and ought to be finished no less than a year prior to the lapse of the permit. Recharging anticipation is basic to give licensees and financial specialists' certainty that they will have the capacity to recover their interests in gear and framework.

On the off chance that there is no sensible desire of reestablishment, as a licensee gets nearer to the lapse of the permit, they have less impetus to put resources into encourage arrangement or moves up to existing gear expecting that they won't have the capacity to recover all their cash before the permit terminates. Accordingly, clients experience the ill effects of conceivably declining levels of administration.

The 15 year licenses of three portable administrators in Pakistan; Telenor, CMPak and Warid Telecom are expected to lapse in 2019. The staying two portable administrators, Jazz (Mobilink) and Ufone are not due for restoration until 2022 and 2029 separately. Detail of Cellular Mobile licensees alongside issuance, recharging and expiry dates are given beneath:

Licensee Name License No. Issuance date Spectrum Renewed date Expiry date

900 MHz 1800 MHz

CMPak Limited CMT-03/LL&M/PTA/2004 19-Apr-90 7.6 MHz 6 MHz 23-Oct-04 22-Oct-19

Telenor Pakistan MCT-01/RBS/PTA/2004 26-May-04 4.8 MHz 8.8 MHz – 25-May-19

Warid Telecom MCT-02/RBS/PTA/2004 26-May-04 4.8 MHz 8.8 MHz – 25-May-19

Pakistan Mobile Company Limited MCT05/WLL&M/PTA/2007 Jul-92 7.6. MHz 6 MHz 06-Jul-07 5th July 2022

Pakistan Telecom Mobile Limited MCT06/WLL&M/PTA/2014 Aug-98 7.6. MHz 6 MHz 08-Apr-14 07-Apr-29

Warid, CMPak Limited and Telenor Pakistan, under permit condition 1.2.2 moved toward PTA, for reestablishment of permit. Warid and CMPak have given assents with no condition; be that as it may, Telenor has proposed a couple of changes in permit restoration process including Terms and Payment issues and so on.

Telecom Policy – 2015 on License Renewal

Proviso 8.11 of Telecommunications Policy 2015 imitated beneath states that:

8.11.1 "Reestablishment of permit and related range toward the finish of a permit period will be according to the strategy of the Government. PTA will in auspicious way start the procedure as per terms and states of the permit"

8.11.2 "in the event that the restoration of licenses, PTA will make suggestions to Federal Government (MoIT) inside the timetables stipulated in the individual licenses"

8.11.3 "Other range not subject to permit recharging terms will be evaluated as per the pertinent range valuing strategies determined in Section 8.7"

8.11.4 "Where range installments for microwave and portable range have been acquainted consequent with the underlying task of versatile range, the range expenses related with the portable range will be resolved under the terms of the appropriate permit. Any microwave range will then be charged utilizing the AIP technique set up."

Restoration Options with GoP and PTA:

In perspective of the above and Telecommunications Policy 2015 statement 8.11, after choices are accessible to the GoP and the PTA.

Legitimization of Spectrum: Licenses of Warid Telecom, Telenor Pakistan and CMPak Limited will lapse in 2019, nonetheless, the approach may likewise be appropriate on PMCL (Mobilink) and PTML (Ufone), whose licenses will terminate in 2022 and 2029 individually on account of the isolation of the Operational and Spectrum Licenses. It is additionally applicable to say here that CMPak has been encountering tenacious obstruction in their uplink GSM 900 MHz band because of cross-outskirt overflow from Indian CDMA administrators. FAB has briefly appointed remuneration band to CMPak in lieu of 900 MHz band. Under this circumstance, the range possessions in 900 MHz and 1800 MHz band must be supported for legitimate bearer arranging. PTA should seriously think about reallocation of range to all the CMOs in products of 5 MHz in both the groups. Detail of existing and proposed range will be as under:

Operator Existing Spectrum Proposed Spectrum

900 MHz 1800 MHz 900 MHz 1800 MHz

Jazz (Mobilink+Warid) 2×12.4 2X14.8 2×10 (- 2.4) 2×15 (+0.2)

Telenor 2X4.8 2X8.8 2×5 (+0.2) 2×10 (+0.2)

Ufone 2X7.6 2X6 2×5 (- 2.6) 2×5 (- 1)

Zong 2X7.6 2X16 2×5 (- 2.6) 2×15 (- 1)

Total 32.4 45.6 25 45

Following will be the result of this alternative:-

10 MHz range from 880.1 to 890 MHz (Under extreme obstruction from Indian 850 MHz band), out of which directly 7.6 MHzs dispensed to Zong will be kept free till determination of this impedance issue and Zong might be moved upward.

CMOs will be accomodated inside the aggregate range 25 MHz in 900 MHz band from 890.1 to 915 MHz for the Uplink (UL) and 935.1 to 960 MHz for the downlink (DL) rather than existing 4 MHz.

PTA/FAB will have 10 MHz range in 900 band available to them available to be purchased at a later stage.

Telenor is the main gainer for this situation though Ufone and Zong should surrender the greatest range in both 900 and 1800 MHz band. Jazz will lose 2.4 MHz in 900 MHz band and increase just 0.2 Mhz in 1800 MHz band.

From the administrative point of view, a controller can reassign/change the range vide authorizing proviso 5.3 of CMOs, which peruses as under:

Range Pricing: on the off chance that range possessions are justified, reestablishment cost may likewise be balanced in like manner. Appropriate range charges might be set by the administration just through open conference and for the most part ought to be restricted to the sums important to help government administration and implementation activities. There is an extensive variety of expenses and how they are figured changing from nation to nation. When settling the relative range cost for restoration, it is critical to modify for the variety in proliferation properties between range groups. For our situation, it is prescribed to be the wavelength. As showed in the table beneath, these varieties can be balanced by putting weights on every range band. In this situation the reference cost of 700 MHZ band must be chosen might be through benchmarking of the cost of this band against practically identical nations or some other basis known to everybody ahead of time.

Range Band Weightage Pricing Example US $ (M) per 10 MHz for a long time

700 1 395 (Reference Value)

850 0.823529 325

900 0.777778 307

1400 0.500000 198

1800 0.388889 154

2100 0.333333 132

2600 0.269231 106

3500 0.200000 79

Estimating of Spectrum Usage Fee: Best practice in range evaluating more often than not fuses a range get to expense and continuous range use charges. The range use expenses ought to be resolved and promoted ahead of time of setting the range get to charge as administrators should fuse the level of range use charges into their valuations previously surveying range get to expenses. Utilization Fee or the Annual Spectrum Administration Fee should expect to just take care of the organization expenses of overseeing range. Proposed IAP isn't satisfactory as it is by all accounts an income age work out.

Defragmentation of Spectrum: keeping in mind the end goal to accomplish the unearthly efficiencies existing range might be reshuffled to make it touching for all the CMOs. This is basic after the Mobilink – Warid Merger, where their range is divided at better places and can't be used effectively.

Residency of the range licenses: Tenure might be balanced in a way so that when a biological community of effective range sharing procedures like Dynamic Spectrum Sharing are in-field, we can promptly move on to those systems for ideal usage of this rare asset.

Doling out the License to Secondary Market: The likelihood of doling out the permit for range use inside the system of an optional market is important in the reestablishment of these already doled out licenses. It enables new players to enter the market and does not restrain it solely to occupant administrators that initially got licenses, while guaranteeing proficiency in range utilize. In this way, an administrator with an abundance of a specific band, regardless of whether subject to reestablishment, can rent their range to an outsider that will ensure its utilization. An optional market enables administrators to acquire licenses for utilization of the range from different administrators that as of now have licenses from the Regulator. This auxiliary market augments effective range use since it permits the exchange of licenses from an administrator with less enthusiasm to one that will put it to more prominent and better utilize. In all exchanges of licenses, the terms and conditions under which the first licensee got the permit must remain.

Innovation/Service Neutrality: Spectrum ought to be granted based on full innovation/Service Neutrality to empower the licensees to give best in class advancements and administrations to their clients without sitting idle in getting administrative endorsements. To accomplish this target Service License might be isolated from the range.

Diminishment in Regulatory Fees: CMOs are paying 2.5% of balanced incomes as a major aspect of commitments to the USF subsidize, ICT R&D store, and permit organization charge commitments notwithstanding the 75% of FAB's Budget as Annual Spectrum Administration Fee. In perspective of the significant increment in Tele-thickness and development of the telecom area since 2004, this installment to PTA has ascended to a huge number of a large number of Rupees every year. It is prescribed that these expenses ought to be overhauled and lessened to the sums important to help government administration and requirement activities.

Open Consultation: Last however not the slightest, participating out in the open discussion is a critical practice for controllers, particularly in the permitting procedure. Conference with partners fortifies the impression of a straightforward procedure and enables the controller to lea