More competition expected in delayed 3G bid
Posted by meb at May 26th, 2007
Telecommunications Board President Tayfun Acarer said they were expecting a more competitive bid for third-generation (3G) — technology that allows audio-visual connection — licenses, according to the Anatolia news agency. The license tender had been postponed to September earlier this week and its estimated lowest value is around $1 billion. Acarer said the delay had nothing to do with elections as they had been working on the bid for some time. He said one bank, in addition to the current mobile phone operators, had expressed interest in the bid. “Some of the foreign mobile phone operators complained verbally about the lack of time for preparation for the tender,” he noted. Acarer said they were not expecting participation to exceed three parties under current conditions and that why they had postponed the bid for a full announcement abroad. Acarer pointed out that the only country in Europe that did not provide 3G licenses was Turkey. He said there were some standards in pricing the licenses and that they were determined according to the country’s national income and average age of population. “Our calculations were also in accordance with these standards,” he noted. Acarer said that with the licenses the Turkish economy would earn at least $1 billion. He added that this figure could increase depending on the number of participants. Acarer said Far Eastern mobile phone operators were also interested in the tender in addition to those from European countries. Acarer said the number of mobile phone users in Europe had stabilized; however, it would continue to increase in Turkey because of its young population. He said the number of active subscribers exceeded 54 million and the number of registered subscribers was more than 75 million while the number of cellular phones was higher. Acarer said that 3G technology would have many effects on everyday life such as watching TV on the phone as well as controlling home appliances. “Cartoons by phone are very popular in Japan; they will also be very popular in Turkey because of our young population,” he said. In response to a question as to whether subscribers would be able to use their current cellular phones with 3G, Acarer said operators were trying to adapt the system to make it possible. He said that with the newly implemented law they had registered 57 million GSM numbers and that this would help investigate phone theft. Acarer said they could pinpoint the location of the missing phones with a 10-meter margin of error; however, this variation could increase to 100 meters in rural areas.
source: Today’s Zaman
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