The government is set to earn about $593.33 million from spectrum auction and offering technological neutrality to the top three mobile operators, which is less than half of its target.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission will award 4G licences to Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Teletalk on February 19, taking Bangladesh into the fourth generation data service era.

The telecom regulator had targeted to collect Tk 11,000 crore ($1,340 million) from the spectrum auction and technology neutrality.

The regulator put up a total of 46.4 MHz spectrum in different three bands for auction but less than 30 percent was purchased by the operators.

“We are not happy,” said Shahjahan Mahmood, chairman of the BTRC.

TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh, who attended the spectrum auction held at Dhaka Club yesterday as an observer, said the government could have earned more were the floor price lower.

“We failed in 3G because of the higher spectrum price,” he added.