The Council for Auction of 2,6 GHz band consulted Telecommunication Operators

11/04/2017

(rfd.gov.vn)- On April 5, 2017, at the headquarter of The Authority of Radio Frequency Management (ARFM), the Council for Auction of 2,6 GHz band held a seminar on consulting telecommunication operators about the 2,6 GHz band auction and the third meeting of the Council. Mr. Doan Quang Hoan – Director general of ARFM, Chairman of the Auction Council presided over the seminar and meeting.

At the seminar, after hearing the representative of the Assistance Team of the Auction Council presented a report demonstrating the right to use the 2,500 - 2,570 MHz and 2,620-2,690 MHz frequency bands, representatives of telecommunication operators have been ebulliently discussing the basic contents of investment commitments, minimum requirements, auctioning methods, etc, which will be included in the auction invitation dossier.

"Consulting Operators based on their practical experience of deploying is very important for the 2,6 GHz frequency band Auction Council to finalize auction invitation dossier, including determining the initial price." - Chairman of the Auction Council Doan Quang Hoan said.

Through the seminar, it was showed that telecommunication operators agreed with the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) about the need to carry out the 2,6 GHz frequency band auction in time so the operators can deploy 4G services in the correct definition..

Regarding the minimum requirements, especially the requirements related to legal capital, investing commitment level had been all applied according to the current regulations of the Government. For roll-out requirements, the operators basically agree that those requirements are in line with the development needs and business requirements for the next generation of mobile.

With the regard to the auctioning method, after having passed the prequalification (meeting the minimum requirements), there were operators suggested one-time payment according to their experience gained in some countries, but there were also concerned that one-time payment scheme would not reach the market price, impossible to accurately estimate the price of the frequency band, so they would be overpay, affected their business, or paying too low would not achieve the successful auction requests. On this issue, Chairman of the Auction Council Doan Quang Hoan concluded that the Auction Council and the Assistance Team will continue to study to propose suitable formulas, report to MIC for consideration; after completing the auction invitation dossier, MIC will officially consult telecommunication operators in writing.

Shortly after the end of consultative seminar, the Auction Council held its third meeting where The Institute of Information and Communication Strategies presented the additional studying result of initial price for the 2,6GHz frequency band in Vietnam. The members of the Council had a lot of opinions and criticisms on the formula and structure of the price, the legality of the auction invitation dossier, etc.

After analyzing the comments, Chairman of Auction Council Mr. Doan Quang Hoan concluded: Although only in a short time additional research, but with the actively working spirit, The Institute of Information and Communication Strategies had created a superior result to the previous one. The Council members assessed the result had met some requirements set out in the previous meeting.

However, the Council found that only with the study result presented by the Institute at the meeting was not enough bases for the Council to decide the initial price. The Council requested the Assistance Team and The Institute continue to work closely to consolidate and improve the legality of the auction invitation dossier, with particular emphasis on clarifying the three issues that the Council had raised, included: How are the minimum roll-out requirements considered when choosing initial price; whether supplement information on frequency fees of the reference countries or not when considering the frequency price is equal the successful frequency auction price plus the total frequency use fee for the whole duration of the license; whether or not the initial price depend on the auction methods and how?

The Chairman of the Auction Council Doan Quang Hoan asked the Assistance Team to promote the active role and coordinate the work to quickly organize the Team's meeting early next week.

 

Dang Quoc Duong

((Translated from ARFM News))