According to Bisnis Indonesia, PT Telkom and PT Telkomsel were disqualified from the universal service obligation (USO) tender in the Indonesian Eastern Zone. The budget for the tender is US$ 118 million.

According to Santoso Serad, Head of the Rural Telecommunication and Informatics Agency (BTIP), "since Telkom and Telkomsel don't make price bids, they automatically are disqualified from the tenders for first-package and second-package USO. Based on this, only two of four companies that can continue following the tender".

The remaining bidders are PT Indonesia Comnet Plus (Icon+) and Indonusa System Integrator Prima. Icon+ has made financial bids for the first and second packages, while Indonusa is only bidding for the first package.

The two USO project packages put to tender this year have failed to generate much interest from operators. The prequalification had to be conducted twice to get two bidders, the required minimum number of participants for each package.

The operators consider the two project package areas to be uninteresting since they are thought to have little market potential and would entail high costs. The first package covers Maluku and North Maluku, while the second package covers Papua and West Irian Jaya.

The tender for the first project package will use a least bid mechanism where if the bid is above the budget allocated, the tender participant will not win the tender.

"We will see the price bids made by the remaining participants. The tender winners will be made known on Monday next week."

The government wants to complete 10% of the two packages by the end of 2009 and finish the installation by the end of 2010.

Block VI of the first package covers North Sulawesi (474 villages), Gorontalo (184 villages), Central Sulawesi (744 villages). Block VII of the first package covers West Sulawesi (236 villages), South Sulawesi (905 villages), and Southeast Sulawesi (929 villages), and block IX comprises Maluku (710 villages) and North Maluku (576 villages). The second-package covers Papua (2,247 villages) and West Irian Jaya (768 villages).

June 17, 2009

Ecuador: No shared infrastructure mediation requests

According to Business News Americas, Senatel, Ecuador's national regulatory authority, has not received any mediation requests from operators since the government published regulations in May that require operators to share infrastructure, Senatel representative Juan Villarroel said.

"Several operators are currently negotiating but we have not yet received any requests to mediate," Villarroel said.

The new regulations require operators to share infrastructure in areas where it is difficult or impossible to build new infrastructure. Operators have two months to agree on how they will share infrastructure. If the operators can't agree on how to share infrastructure after two months, then the authorities can mediate or force the operators to share.

June 11, 2009

Mozambique: Government to Partially Privatize Mobile Operator

According to Agence France Presse and newspaper O Pais, the communications minister says that Mozambique will partially privatize state-owned mobile operator mCel.

The state initially plans to sell at least 5% of its stake in mCel, the larger of Mozambique's two mobile operators, Paulo Zucula said. Zucula added that initially, the shares will be available only to Mozambicans but that subsequent sales may be open to international buyers.

"mCel is working on a proposal that I believe we'll have within a month and, afterward, we'll submit that proposal for the government's consideration," Zucula said.

"The proposal will say how much (shares) will cost, how many shares will be sold and how we'll do the whole process. And from there the government will have to approve the whole package."

Zucula said that mCel's privatization was to start in 2008 but was delayed because of organizational problems. He added that the government's goal was to get the mobile market going in Mozambique, then gradually withdraw. In 2003, the government sold the country's second mobile license to Vodacom for US$ 15 million.

The government plans to sell a third mobile license, but recently delayed the tender. Zucula said that a third mobile operator is still in the works, but did not give a timetable.

June 10, 2009

China: MIIT Pushing Rural Internet Access

According to Asia Pulse, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released standards requiring local governments to set up telecentres with internet in rural areas.

The telecentres will provide public services, information consulting, training, culture, entertainment, and all kinds of agent services. The telecentres are intended to reduce the digital divide between rural and urban areas and stimulate economic growth in rural areas with the help of urban regions. They will also provide farmers with general information services and assist rural households in accessing information.

The MIIT standards aim to further regulate the establishment, management and operation of rural telecentres.

June 4, 2009

Jordan: Regulator to Announce New Licensing Round for 3G

According to a Jordan Times report, Jordan's Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) will announce an alternative licensing program by the end of the month to introduce 3G services after it rejected the sole bidder, the Jordan Telecom Group (JTG), in a recent 3G license tender.

TRC Chief Commissioner Ahmad Hiyasat said the technical offer submitted by JTG did not meet the TRC's standards. The alternative, to be announced before the end of June, is being developed to ensure that 3G will be available as soon as possible, the TRC commissioner said.

The TRC was scheduled to announce the results of the 3G tender on May 26. On June 2, the TRC decided to reject JTG's offer and return the financial offer unopened, according to Hiyasat. In addition to the bid not meeting technical standards, it also contained unacceptable conditions. JTG requested exemption from annual spectrum fees, fees and tariffs on imported material for infrastructure and exclusive rights to provide 3G service for five years.

Potential alternatives being considered by the TRC include conducting another tender using the same conditions, or altering the conditions, according to Hiyasat.

June 3, 2009

Pakistan: Regulator Urges Government to Reduce Tax

According to a report from the Daily Times, the telecommunications sector regulator, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) urged the government to reduce the general sales tax (GST) from 21% to 16% and eliminate activation charges to revive the mobile sector.

The regulator believes that if the government does not reduce the GST and eliminate the activation tax in the budget, the impact would be disastrous. The tax burden is blamed for hurting the profitability of the mobile sector, with a majority of mobile operators reporting financial losses.

According to a senior official at the PTA, about 30% of those living below the poverty line are using mobile phones. The official added that due to the increase in GST on telecom services from 15% to 21%, mobile usage has declined by 9% and the number of subscribers has fallen from 90.2 million to 89.9 million. Subscriber growth was around 10% before the tax increase, but has since fallen to -0.3%. Taxes collected from the mobile sector, were around US$ 128 million in the fourth quarter of 2007-2008, but have fallen to US$ 110 million in the second quarter of 2008-2009.

According to the PTA official, activation charges were once comprised of customs duty and sales tax on mobile sets. The government has not only kept the existing taxes, but also imposed a US$ 9.30 per handset extra customs duty, resulting in double taxation. According to the official, other issues that are hurting the sector are the high cost of financing, reduction in service usage, high inflation, currency devaluation, high energy costs, SIM verification difficulties and the law and order situation in parts of the country.

June 2, 2009

Brazil: Government to Hold Tender For Rural Licenses

According to a report from Agencia Estado, Brazil's national regulatory agency Anatel will hold a tender for rural telephony and high-speed Internet licenses, possibly in 2009, Communications Minister Helio Costa said.

According to Costa, if operators commit to extending broadband services to rural schools, they would be required to pay less for one of the rural licenses. The government wants Brazil to have 100% telephony coverage by 2014 Costa said. The plan is to use the 450 MHz frequency band to extend service to unserved rural areas.

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