The High Court on Monday stayed the controversial allocation of 800MHz-band spectrum to M/S New Generation Graphics Limited (NGGL) for free and questioned the legality of the allotment while hearing a plea for its intervention by WiMAX operator Banglalion.
The bench of justices Naima Haider and Zafar Ahmed gave 10 days to the telecommunications ministry, Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the commission’s director for legal matters, director for spectrum and NGGL to respond to its ruling.
The bench referred to a news report of the Dhaka Tribune on the issue published on Monday while giving the order.
In the hearing of the Banglalion plea, its counsel Dr Kamal Hossain said that spectrums on the 800MHz band are sold in Europe and the US for millions of dollars. He also pointed out that in February and March 2011, a similar spectrum auctioned in Sweden earned €223m. However, BTRC allocated the 806-816MHz and 847-857MHz spectrums to NGGL in August of the same year free of cost.
The petitioner also argued that the case in Sweden was not an exception and that it was sold in Denmark for €4.39bn, in Germany for €2.96bn, in the UK for £2.37bn, and USA for $19.12bn. Finland is auctioning a similar spectrum at the end of this year and hopes to earn €100m.
Hossain claimed that the free allocation made the BTRC lose at least $230m.
Sources said that the spectrum was first allocated to NGGL 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.
Another of Banglalion’s counsel, Aneek R Haque, explained that the stay order meant that WiMAX provider Ollo, which is a joint venture between local ISPs NGGL and Bangladesh Internet Exchange Limited (BIEL) with Russia’s Multinet, cannot provide any service using the spectrums on the 800Mhz-band.
However, BTRC’s legal consultant, Khandaker Reza-E-Raquib, declined to comment on the ban: “We heard about the petition and the stay order, but are yet to receive any copy of it. We can comment after we see the details of the ruling.”
The telecom regulator’s chief Sunil Kanti Bose told the Dhaka Tribune: “We knew for sure that Banglalion will petition the court as they served us a legal notice before.”
“However, ISPs are normally provided spectrum on the 800MHz band and as NGGL is one, they are eligible for getting spectrum in that range.”
BTRC meeting minutes say that the spectrum was allocated to NGGL at the request of the Access to Information Project under the Prime Minister’s Office.
It is also alleged that Ollo, since its formation, had illegally brought in non-licensed equipment and were establishing and operating an LTE network, a technology the BTRC is yet to approve.