Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has earned around $1.23 billion or Tk10,641 from the auction by selling 190MHz spectrum.

The regulatory body held an auction for mobile phone operators at InterContinental Dhaka at 11am Thursday (31 March). The leading telecom companies in the country - Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink, Teletalk – took part in the auction.

State-owned telecom operator Teletalk obtained 30MHz from 2.3GHz bands with about Tk1,680 crore whereas Grameenphone acquired 60 MHz from 2.6GHz bands for about Tk 3,360 crore. Robi also acquired 60MHz from 2.6GHz bands for about Tk3,361 crore.

On the otherhand, Banglalink acquired 40MHz from 2.3GMHz bands. The floor price stood at $6.5 million per MHz after the auction. Operators have to pay 10% of the total purchase price within 60 days of the announcement of the final auction results, while the remaining 90% will be paid off in equal installments over 9 years.

BTRC Engineering and Operations Commissioner Engineer Md Mohiuddin Ahmed presided over the auction which was conducted by Director of Systems and Services Brig Gen Nasim Parvez, Director General of the Spectrum Division Brig Gen Md Moniruzzaman Jewel, Director Md Sohail Rana and Lt Colonel Md Awal Uddin.

In a notice published by BTRC on 3 March, the regulatory body had instructed all telecom operators to begin test runs for the 5G spectrum within six months of the auction. Last year, the government earned the highest Tk7,634 crore by assigning a total of 27.4MHz spectrum from 1800MHz and 2100MHz bands.