The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has invited applicants interested in bidding for a 4G license, and plans to select the winners of the auction process on February 14.
Interested operators will have until January 14 to submit an application for a license, Prothom Alo Bangladeshreported.
A list of eligible operators will be subsequently published on January 25 and an auction of 4G spectrum will be held on February 14. The auction will be open to both existing and potential new market entrants.
The BTRC has revealed plans to allocate five 2x5MHz blocks of 2100-MHz spectrum, four 2x5.6MHz blocks of 1800-MHz spectrum as well as a 2x1.8MHz and 2x1.6MHz block in the 900-MHz band.
The spectrum will be assigned on a technology-neutral basis, and the regulator plans to rearrange the spectrum blocks following the auction to ensure that operators have contiguous spectrum.
Late last month the BTRC published revised guidelines for 4G licensees, which have been reworked to address 23 concerns that the nation's operators raised about the initial guidelines during a meeting with the prime minister's ICT adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy.