Bangladesh auctions broadband wireless access licences

DHAKA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - State-managed Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) auctioned licences to operate broadband wireless access in the country at 2.15 billion taka ($31.38 million), officials said on Thursday.

Three local firms, Bangla Lion Communications, BRAC Bdmail Network and Aguri Wireless Broadband Bangladesh jointly won the auction on Wednesday out of nine participating firms.

The winning firms will run worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) technology that allows wireless data to travel long distance by various means.

Telecom watchdog BTRC, the licensing authority, estimates that once WiMAX is functional by the end of 2009, the number of Internet users in the country will double to 10 million.

Mobile operators in Bangladesh and their partners were barred from bidding at the auction.

Six mobile phone operators so far lifted the user base to 45.4 million against 1.3 million land-line phone users in the country of nearly 150 million people.

According to the licence conditions, the winning companies, having not more than 60 percent foreign investment, will have to bring the whole country under the WiMAX network within three years.

The winning firms will have to be listed in the country's two bourses and will not be allowed to transfer any share before the issuance of the initial public offering. ($1=68.52 taka) (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)