“The awards on the (LTE)frequency, to be made available from Jan 1, 2013, were issued by industry regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).”
“Some industry observers view it as an early “New Year gift”, while others lament the lack of “consultative approach” in the process of spectrum allocation. A more engaging approach by the regulator, they say, would ensure that only serious players get in on the game. The issue of the highly discreet and secretive manner of dishing out valuable future spectrum also hogged the blogosphere, with most of them crying out for more transparency.”
“The reversal in policy this time is not known. MCMC declined comment for this article, but it had earlier said the decision to award to nine parties was made after a lengthy and consultative and deliberation process with various technical groups that began two years ago.”
“We have been doing national service for the past two years that have cost us millions of ringgit. Hence for us, (we feel) the Government has levelled the playing field (by giving us the 2.6GHz),’’
“Another player pokes holes in the process of spectrum allocation. “Dividing 180 MHz with 20MHz to get nine players is a very arithmetic way of doing things. To make it worst, after that their business proposals are solicited. Why not get the business proposal first?’’
