Bangladesh to auction four 3G licences

Bangladesh’s telecoms regulator has announced it will auction at least four blocks of 3G spectrum later this year, in an effort to attract billions of dollars of investment. The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said the 3G licensing guidelines would be finished by June 2010.

The regulator will also open up its international telecommunications gateway to the private sector, which would allow operators for the first time to lay underwater cables and connect terrestrial lines with India.

The announcement follows Indian giant Bharti Airtel receiving the green light to purchase 70 per cent of Warid Bangladesh for US$300 million. Unconfirmed sources say that UK’s Vodafone has approached the commission for a 3G licence.

Grameenphone leads the Bangladeshi market with 23 million subscribers and a market share of 45 per cent, followed by Orascom’s Banglalink with 25.7 per cent, Axiata with 17.54 per cent, Warid with 5.78 per cent, PBTL (Citycell) with 3.9 per cent, and finally Teletalk Bangladesh with 2.1 per cent market share.

The combined subscribers reach 52 million, equating to a mobile penetration rate of roughly 35 per cent. Analysts estimate the number of subscribers will exceed 100 million by 2015.