Afghanistan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ATRA)

Internet Service Provider (ISP)Licensing Procedure

08th Assad 1386
30th July 2007

ISP licensing Procedure

Introduction

ATRA has adopted an open and transparent licensing regime in order to maximize the potential for private investment into the sector. The Telecom Law of Afghanistan (TLA) devotes Chapter 5 to Licensing, and this provides the investor with a clear understanding about the minimum license requirements. ATRA will apply the following procedure for the issuance of the ISP licenses.


Tendering

When there is a need for issuing an ISP license, it will be issued via a Competitive Tendering process. ATRA will announce the upcoming ISP license opportunity. The tender document will outline the following issues:

• Specifications of the region for which a license is going to be issued
• Technology and Standards requirements
• Outline of the business plan that should be submitted by the applicants
• Technical experience requirements of the applicants
• Operational experience requirements of the applicants
• Quality of Service requirements of the network
• Financial Requirements of the applicants
• Application submission deadline and application registration
• Application processing schedule
• License award announcement

The license award will follow the procedure that has been setout in the tender document.

Those applications that have been accepted by the authority outside the tendering process, the following procedure will be applied for the processing of the applications. In ATRA there will be only one point of contact in the licensing department which will follow up the processing of the application within the authority and maintain contact with the applicant. There will be no requirements for the applicant to follow up their application at various steps. When all the documents become ready, the applicant will be informed to come to the Head Quarters of ATRA for signing the license.

It is worth noting that conditions of ISP licenses of the same category are the same and there will be no need for the applicant to make undue effort for the negotiation of the license terms and conditions.




Step One: Registration of Application

Any person or company wishes to apply for an ISP License outside the tendering process, will have to register their application. ATRA charges a nonrefundable fee for the registration of the application. The amount of the fee can be checked with the licensing department. On the completion of the application registration, the applicant will receive the following information.

• Details of applicant (business address, tel. and e-mail)
• Registration number and Registration Date
• Receipt for the payment of Registration Fees
• ATRA Contact details

The applicant will be provided with a schedule, outlining the various milestones of the application process and the information that will be sent by the licensing department of the ATRA to the applicant.

Step Two: Request for Additional Information

The Legal and Licensing department of ATRA Secretariat will carry out initial evaluation of the application in regard to the following subjects:

• Investment Plan of the applicant company (20 Marks)
• Proposed technology and its standards (20 Marks)
• Rollout plan of the applicant company (20 Marks)
• Technical, network operation and commercial experiences with references (20 Marks)
• Financial information supplied by the applicant company for the support of the investment and rollout plan (20 Marks)
• Legal aspects of the applicant company in regard to their operations in Afghanistan (Mandatory)

An application will be considered eligible for the ISP license when scoring 60 or more marks and not less than 10 marks in any one of the items that are listed above.

The initial evaluation will be completed as quickly as possible but should not exceed one month period. If required, the Secretariat of ATRA will request for additional information from the applicant company. ATRA requires that all the additional requested information is supplied to ATRA within 30 days from the date of the request is made. If the information is not delivered within this period, ATRA reserves the right to close the application and inform the applicant within 5 days of the decision. Closure of the application will require the approval of the ATRA Board.


Step Three: Evaluation of the Application

After the complete delivery of the requested information, the Legal and Licensing Affairs department of ATRA Secretariat will prepare the final evaluation report as soon as possible but should not take more than 10 working days after the complete delivery of the requested information. The evaluation report will be presented to the ATRA Board for approval within this timeframe of 10 working days.


Step Four: Approval of the ATRA Board

As soon as the evaluation report is prepared, it should be presented to the next scheduled Meeting of the ATRA Board and will have one of the following results:

a. If the ATRA Board is not satisfied with the application the Board may close the application and issue instruction to inform the applicant of the decision of ATRA Board.
b. If the ATRA Board is not satisfied with the application, but may still consider the application and ask the Secretariat to repeat the process from step two.
c. When the ATRA Board is satisfied that all the steps of the application processing have been fully completed and the application is qualified for ISP license, in this case the application will be approved and recommendation will be made to the Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC) of the Afghanistan Government for the issuance of the license.


Step Five: Issuance of the License

As soon as the authorization of the IMC is received, the ATRA Secretariat will inform the applicant to make all the required payments and provide the required guarantees and also to get registered with AISA and obtain the TIN number:

• One Time License Fee
• Bank/Cash Guarantee
• Advance payment of Annual Administration Fee


Step Six: Spectrum License

If the licensee needs radio frequency spectrum for its operation in Afghanistan, the required amount of spectrum bandwidth can be obtained in one of the following two ways:

a. The licensee has obtained WiMAX license following a competitive tendering process and their frequency range(s) are specified within their license.
b. Payment of Standard Fees. ATRA can offer frequency bandwidths for a fee in accordance with the spectrum pricing formula. In this case the applicants are advised to visit the licensing department for the availability of the spectrum.

Any microwave frequency that is needed for the backhaul transmission system will be made available at the request of the ISP at the standard prices of ATRA. These prices are calculated using the Spectrum Pricing Formula.

The provision of frequency spectrum is subject to the availability of spectrum at the time of the requested. ATRA shall not be liable for the loss of any business due to the non-availability of radio spectrum that is not available for any reason. For example, the spectrum is issued to other operators, intended to be auctioned, reserved for other applications

Fees of ISP Licenses
The following fees will be applicable to the ISP applications and licenses.
 

Registration Form
For ISP Applications
And Schedule of its processing
No. …………………

Name: …………………….. Signature: ……………….. Date: ………………