The government has turned down a proposal of pricing and links price with dollar to auction 5G in the country.

Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has recently approved the 5G auction but has linked its price with dollar rather than rupee.

Telecom operators have been demanding the government to delink the price of 5G auction with the dollar and link it with rupee.

Read More: ECC clears path for largest-ever 5G spectrum auction

But the government has turned down demand of the telecom operators which may result in discouraging response from the telecom operations in bidding of spectrum for 5G auction.

Sources told Newztodays that government would take the rate of dollar on the day or one day of spectrum auction for 5G which would be converted into rupee.

As Pakistan prepares for the 5G spectrum auction, telecom operators had submitted set of proposals before the government before approval of 5G auction.

The key demand was to delink the price from dollar and link it with rupee. But the government had not taken into account this demand.

During the previous spectrum auction, only Ufone had participated whereas other three key players-Zong, Jazz and Telenor had boycotted the bidding due to linking it with dollar.

They were of the view that they were earning in rupee and therefore spectrum should be charged in rupee.

One of the central demands hhad related to spectrum pricing methodology for the upcoming auction. Operators had called for denominating 5G spectrum prices in Pakistani rupees instead of US dollars. They had also argued dollar-linked pricing had exposed the sector to exchange rate volatility and also led to long-term financial risk.

The operators had further recommended to link spectrum payments to a stable exchange rate benchmark. This, they said, would help mitigate currency shocks and also causing improvement in financial planning. Pakistan’s telecom sector have been facing persistent pressure from rupee depreciation over recent years.

Industry players had also proposed to allow spectrum payments through interest-free installments over ten years. They also called for a longer payment horizon to ease upfront capital stress. Operators had argued such flexibility was important keeping in view of the high infrastructure costs associated with 5G rollouts.

Telecom companies also suggested setting a minimum spectrum price benchmark which should be tied to revenue sustainability.

Under the proposal, they were also of the view that spectrum pricing should allow average revenue per user to reach $2 within three years. Operators argued that such threshold was critical to maintain affordability while ensuring long-term network investment.