At least three of the four winners of this month's 3G auction in Bangladesh plan to launch commercial services by October.
Airtel Bangladesh this week joined its rivals Robi and Grameenphone in announcing plans to debut commercial 3G services in parts of Dhaka and Chittagong by next month, the Dhaka Tribune said.
Grameenphone in fact plans to formally launch its network next Sunday, but currently doesn't plan to make services available to customers until October 8. Robi may also go for a launch this month.
Banglalink is the only auction winner to have yet to officially announce a launch target, but the Tribunecites sources saying the operator is aiming for an October 15 launch.
The four operators between them paid 40.81 billion taka ($526.8 million) for a combined 25 MHz of 3G spectrum during an auction that concluded on September 8. Grameenphone acquired a 10 MHz block, while the others secured 5 MHz each.
But 15 MHz of the 1.9-GHz spectrum put up for sale was left unsold, and one applicant approved to take part in the auction – Citycell – did not end up taking part.