kawalghai_chd 0 Report post Posted August 16, 2006 Bharti Airtel, Reliance Telecom and a couple of other Indian mobile operators have evinced interest in bidding for a GSM-based mobile service licence in Bhutan. This would be the second mobile licence in the Himalayan kingdom, which has a population of just under 7 lakh. Interestingly, government owned entities have been barred from bidding, implying that all state-owned operators in the region, including Indian PSUs MTNL and TCIL, will not be able to participate (the two together operate a mobile network in Nepal). The foreign bidders will have to partner with a Bhutanese company and will be able to take a maximum 49 per cent equity stake in the joint venture. Radio frequency spectrum of 2x10 mhz will be provided to the licensee while the band, yet to be specified, will be assigned to the licensee in accordance with the terms and conditions of the licence. The licensee can offer mobile virtual network operation services and will be required to abide by mobile number portability. Bhutan had invited global bidders in a bid to liberalise the country's telecom industry, as local operators do not have adequate funds to roll out services in the mountainous region on their own. Licence operators will have to offer mandatory services like emergency, directory enquiry, operator assistance, national and international long-distance services through any licensed operator's network or its own network, in addition to other optional services. Bhutan started mobile services in November 2003 and has about 50,000 cellular subscribers and over 40,000 fixed-line customers. State-owned Bhutan Telecom Ltd is the sole operator until now. Indian PSU Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd completed the expansion of the GSM network and its pre-paid billing system, along with the annual maintenance contract, at a combined cost of $3.03 million in Bhutan. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
