Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and Access to Information (A2I) project under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) are pointing fingers at each other over the responsibility of the allocation of a multimillion dollar spectrum to a local internet service provider (ISP) for free.
The regulators said that they allocated the 800MHz-band spectrum free of cost to ISP M/S New Generation Graphics Limited (NGGL) in August 2011 based on a demand order from the A2I project.
“I have gone through the matter and found that there were no irregularity on our part for allocating the spectrum,” BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“BTRC cannot deny a request from the PMO and the 800MHz band allocation is not only for Ollo, it was allocated to other ISPs before also. A2I planned to use it for digital zila Jessore as well as for the whole country.”
Bose also said as far as he is aware, Ollo has special plans to provide internet in rural areas through dongles. He added that at the time the spectrum was allocated, he was the telecommunication secretary and was not entitled to receive any files about spectrum allocation.
Ollo is a WiMax brand that has been formed through a joint venture between local ISPs NGGL and Bangladesh Internet Exchange Limited (BIEL) with Russia’s Multinet. It currently operates only in Dhaka city.
Meanwhile, A2I project’s Director Md Nazrul Islam Khan countered the regulatory body’s claim by saying they have referred many initiatives like this to the BTRC over the last four and a half years, none of which were implemented. “So why should we be held responsible for this one.” “Primarily A2I have made a lot of request to BTRC and other organisations about different things. But I cannot recall the details,” Nazrul, who is also the secretary of the newly-formed Information and Communications Technology (ICT) ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone. He was travelling to the northern part of the country at the time.
“Whoever came to me at that time, I recommended them to be provided support. There was no ill-motive there,” the veteran bureaucrat said.
“We made many such requests, but BTRC should follow its own rules and regulations. Why are they putting this sort of blame on us?”
BTRC allocated the 806-816MHz and 847-857MHz bandwidth to NGGL free of cost on August 10, 2011. Sources said that the spectrum was first allocated for a year on condition that it would be utilised properly and that the contract was renewed on December last year, 15 months into the first allotment.
Banglalion, another WiMAX service provider, moved the High Court recently asking for intervention about free allocation of the spectrum. It claimed the spectrum should cost at least $230m, taking into account recent auctions of such spectrum in UK and US.
The court issued a stay order on the use of the spectrum and asked the telecom ministry, BTRC and two of its directors, and NGGL to show reasons why the allocation should not be dubbed illegal.