BTRC to take tough line on mobile licence renewal
September 3, 2009
The telecom watchdog will take a tough stance on renewing mobile phone operating licences as it will assess all the past illegal activities of the operators.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) briefed four operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, AKTEL and Citycell — about their licence renewal process at a recent meeting.
All the operators are likely to get their licences renewed in 2011.
However the four operators sought final guidelines soon from the BTRC for licence renewal, as it is now the crucial time for the companies to take decision about their future investment.
“The past business activities will be the main parameters in renewing their licences,” said BTRC Chairman Zia Ahmed, adding: “Unless the companies ensure not to earn revenues through illegal ways like they did in the past, BTRC will not be convinced.”
Among the six mobile operators, except Warid, five were fined by BTRC for their involvement in illegal international call termination through VoIP (voice over internet protocol).
As all of them were fined and admitted to their involvement, BTRC has to be more careful about their licence renewal, Ahmed said.
However the illegal call termination business is still on.
The licence renewal issue has become crucial now for the operators, as their future investment for adopting new communication technology like 3G must be ensured soon from their parent companies.
Leaders of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators in Bangladesh said the operators’ investment inflow will be hampered if the BTRC does not set soon the guidelines for renewing their licences.
“No company will come up with new investment for the next year unless it knows whether its licence will get go-ahead for renewal,” said a leader of the association.
An operator must know beforehand under which conditions its licence would be renewed, the association leader said.
There are also talks in the telecom market about convergence licensing, as the mobile operators will go for licence renewal in 2011. Under the convergence licence system, both mobile and PSTN (public switched telephone network) operators can offer any services they want — mobile or landline or both.
BTRC officials said the convergence licence would increase the number of telecom services.
As the market is already rattled by some unethical business practices of the operators, the BTRC will naturally go for tough regulations, the officials said.
The telecom law, now under review, will amend the fine provision from maximum Tk 10 lakh to Tk 300 crore for doing any offences in the telecom market like illegal VoIP, said the officials.
“Renewal of the licence should be granted as a principle, refusal of the licence should be an exception,” said Oddvar Hesjedal, chief executive officer of Grameenphone Ltd, the market’s top player.
“If any operator is refused licence renewal, it should be for exceptional reasons. However, in our minds, none of the operators warrant licence refusal for business practices past or present,” he said.
Hesjedal said the BTRC should come up with the licence renewal frameworks as soon as possible, but no later than the issuance of the 3G (third generation) frameworks.
“Otherwise operators will not be able to commit to further investment in the industry without knowledge of the fate of their existing licences,” he said.
As the first operator, Citycell launched its operation in 1993 through CDMA technology. Then in 1997 Grameenphone made debut as the first GSM operator. AKTEL came in 1997, while Banglalink took over licence from Sheba Telecom in 2004.
Source: thedailystar.net
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