PTA intends to increase spectrum charges
By Muhammad Yasir
KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has intended to revise upward the annual license fees of radio-based services for commercial users in order to streamline the efficient utilisation of available spectrums.
The telecom watchdog has sought consultation of the stakeholders mainly the operators in order to implement new frequency spectrum charges with the mutual agreement. The radio based services including Land Mobile Wireless, Point-to-Point (P2P), Broadcasting, Aeronautical and Maritime communications.
The regulator has proposed a substantial increase in annual specturm fees after lapse of ten years in order to maintain the quality of spectrum utility and its growing demand.
Presently, there are about 769 licencees in this category including 495 private licencees, 251 Government licencees and 23 NGOs/foreign missions. Existing charges are based on Bandwidth (BW) and Power (in Watts) varying for commercial and Non-commercial (NC). This type of license is given to the users in closed communication group. It is also known as ‘VHF Wireless License’. In some of the other countries, this type of license is termed as Business Radio (including PBR, PAMR). This communication system uses base station and mobiles for dedicated use by specific organizations such as the radio systems used by Law Enforcement Agencies, Fire Brigades, Airlines, Oil exploration companies, Industrial setups and Radio Cabs service.
The phased implementation plan has been prepared to implement the proposed charges gradually in three years. This will give reasonable time to both PTA and operators to fine-tune the fee level and usage (amount of spectrum) respectively.
For Land Mobile Wireless license (commonly known as VHF Wireless), the proposed rates are based on weighted linear formula, keeping in view the present spectrum demand. Proposals related to fixed links in any frequency band have been discussed in fixed point-to-point (P2P) charging regime. A common formula for fixed P2P links in all the frequency bands has been proposed. The proposed fees for broadcasting services consist of two components to avoid existing disparities.
In case of ground to air communication in Aeronautical Navigation Service, the fee proposals are based on new VHF wireless station fee. New charging regime for Maritime Communication Service has been formulated in light of the fact that PTA has planned to introduce the licensing for this service in near future.
The existing annual fees for Land Mobile Wireless operators vary from Rs 400 to Rs 10,000. The fees proposed by the authority vary between Rs 9,000 and Rs 18,000 depending on the operator’s capacity and equipments. The same variation in charges has been proposed for for- ground-to-air communication. The existing charges for VHF Mobile stations were fixed at Rs 1250 and Rs 3750, which have been proposed to be increased from Rs 3600 to Rs 6,000. The present annual fees of broadcasters vary from Rs 2,000 to Rs 30,000, which are suggested to move up from Rs 54,500 to Rs 163,600 depending on the frequency utilisation.
The regulator has devised some formulae to increase the annual license fees for other commercial users of radio services, which has been decided to increase in phases also. PTA states the pricing of spectrum access rights should be designed to maximise the benefits from its use that would shore up the economy to grow. However, there is no scarcity, that is, demand can be met by available supply then price should be limited to the recovery of the regulator’s costs.
The regulator will offer ‘Auctions’ s to determine the level of charges in the case of excess demand. The present frequency spectrum charging regime was developed in the year 2000 based on which, PTA receives annual radio spectrum charges from its users. This is primarily a flat charging mechanism, which was defined keeping in view a very few variables involved.
Source: Daily Times
Date:2/23/2010
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