The Bangladesh telecommunications regulator, BTRC is planning to audit mobile operators and has already appointed two firms for the project.

As per BTRC official, the first two operators to be scrutinized by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) are Grameenphone and Banglalink.

The move comes as the operators, along with Roby and Citycell, have to renew their licences this year. According to Grameenphone’s Chief Corporate Officer, the company has no problems with the audit as it complies with the laws. Zakiul Islam, director of Banglalink, also welcomed the regulator’s move.

 

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If reports are to be believed, the new 2G spectrum licence proposal from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has baffled the operators.

According to the draft 2G licence renewal guideline, radio spectrum prices per Megahertz (MHz) are set at Tk 300 crore for the 900 MHz band, Tk 150 crore for the 1,800 MHz band of GSM technology, and Tk 150 crore for the 850 MHz band of CDMA technology.

However, the spectrum utilization charges differ per operator based on their subscriber bases. According to the draft, Grameenphone would have to pay BDT 55.04 in spectrum fees, followed by Robi which would pay BDT 30 billion, Banglalink which would pay BDT 29.94 billion, and Citycell would pay BDT 6.20 billion. The licence renewal fee for 15 years would be BDT 100 million.

Grameenphone chief corporate officer, Mahmud Hossain called the different spectrum utilization fees discriminatory and unfair. Furthermore, the government has failed to explain the exact method of calculation of the utilization fees.

 

The new figures from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) have revealed that the total number of mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh grew to 71.51 million in February from 70.34 million in January.

Mobile operator GrameenPhone led the market with 31.14 million customers, up from 30.43 million a month earlier. Banglalink (Orascom Telecom Bangladesh) followed with 20.18 million customers, an increase from 20.04 million, while Robi (Axiata Bangladesh) ended February with 12.81 million customers, which grew from 12.63 million a month earlier.

Airtel Bangladesh saw its customer base grow to 4.37 million from 4.18 million, while Citycell’s (PBTL) subscriber base grew to 1.79 million from 1.86 million in the prior month. Teletalk’s subscriber base rose to 1.22 million from to 1.20 million in January.

­Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has submitted its draft plan for the renewal of the mobile operating licenses for the country’s four largest mobile networks, Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell. The networks current licenses are going to expire in November 2011.

However, according to sources, the BTRC did not consult with the mobile operators during preparation of the draft policy, though the ministry stated that it would finalize the policy after discussing with operators.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Warid Telecom (Bangladesh) whose 70% stake was acquired by Indian telco Bharti Airtel will be renamed Airtel Bangla Ltd and will be operational under this name by the end of this month.

The acquisition has been approved by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) while the investments plan has been submitted under which Bharti is set to pay off Warid’s debts of BDT2.3 billion (USD33 million) to local financial institutions along with massive network expansion under an initial BDT21 billion budget.

According to the BTRC, Warid telecom launched in May, 2007 signed up almost three million subscribers by end-December 2009.