The government finally rejected the application of Bangla Phone’s optical fibre networking business licence as it received favour of crores of taka from the telecom regulator during last couple of years.
Post and Telecommunication Division discharged Bangla Phone’s application as recommended by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
The decision was made known through a letter on Sunday.
Bangla Phone, a private land line service provider, was awarded licence in 2004 to run networking business in the country’s northeast zone on a temporary permission from the BTRC.
Since 2011 they had been evading revenue sharing, licence fee, bank performance guarantee and other charges. The total figure is not less than Tk15 crore.
BTRC didn’t inform the telecom ministry about giving the permission at virtually free of cost, which went against the law.
Every year since 2011 the BTRC kept on renewing Bangla Phone’s permission. The Dhaka Tribune published reports on the matter. Then Bangla Phone went to apply for Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN).
This time the company mentioned two prominent government firms as its partners, which was not true but BTRC reportedly overlooked it.
After the Dhaka Tribune’s report BTRC requested to make a correction though according to the telecom act it is an offence and the violators may face fine of Tk300 crore or cancellation of licences.
“We have no other way but to deny the application as the company made several violations of law over the last few years,” said a senior official of the telecom ministry. Bangla Phone’s permission will end in April 2015.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to award another NTTN licence in a short time, according to ministry sources. Currently the two NTTN licence holders - fiber@home and Summit Communications Limited (SCL) - offer optical fibre networking service in Bangladesh.