The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is set to award Ollo with an expensive WiMax spectrum with LTE at a price much lower than that bid in an auction five years back, bypassing conditions set for giving such licence.
The LTE (long-term evolution, a fourth generation telephone and mobile broadband communication standard) will enable Ollo to handle both voice and data services, making it the most influential operator in the country although it is spending much less than other operators.
The BTRC says it will provide Bangladesh Internet Exchange Limited (BIEL) with the licence for its Ollo brand for Tk2.15bn, the price set in the last WiMax auction.
But experts opposed the regulator’s move to revive the five-year-old “dead auction.” They said the spectrum is getting pricier day by day and the regulator should not sell it for the price of WiMax.
Abu Saeed Khan, a senior policy fellow of the Colombo-based regulatory think-tank LIRNEasia and a former secretary of the Association of Mobile and Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (Amtob), termed the 2008 auction “dead.”
“Once an auction is closed, it gets closed forever and under no circumstances any licence can be issued referring to that auction,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
The BTRC first sent a letter to the telecommunication ministry on May 30, recommending the BIEL for the LTE licence. Later it sent another letter on June 11 with some changes, giving the BIEL more facilities.
Ollo is a joint venture brand of the BIEL and the New Generation Graphics Limited (NGGL), which are now owned by the Russian company Multinet.
BTRC Commissioner for legal affairs and licence Md Abdus Samad told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have only sent a report to the telecommunication ministry on its recommendations regarding Ollo and the final decision will come from the ministry.”
When contacted, telecom Secretary Md Abubakar Siddique, however, said: “I have no idea about the matter. You should talk to the BTRC. If it sent any report to us, we need to go through it before making any comments.”
Although the telecom secretary avoided talking on the issue, the Dhaka Tribune has confirmation that BIEL Managing Director Yulia Aksyutina had met with him regarding the matter last week.
Aksyutina, the Russian investor who bought the BIEL in 2011 and applied for WiMax licence in April this year, acknowledged over phone that she had met with Abubakar.
The BIEL participated in the 2008 auction for three WiMax licences and it placed sixth. Banglalion, which ranked top with a bidding of Tk2.15bn, and Augere Bangladesh, which placed third, got two licences. Brac also won in the bidding, but it later refused to take the licence.
The BTRC then offered the companies securing fourth, fifth and sixth positions but they all refused to take the licence for Tk2.15bn. They even withdrew the earnest money they had deposited for the auction.
Mango Telecommunication, which placed seventh in the auction, took the opportunity and applied to pay the licence fee in instalments. The government has not yet approved Mango’s proposal.
Legal experts also said no licence could be awarded on the basis of an auction closed five years back.
The BTRC legal team also questioned the commission’s move decided at its 154th meeting on June 12. BTRC Commissioner Md Abdus Samad disagreed with the decision, according to the meeting minutes.
Million-dollar spectrum
A recent letter of the BTRC clearly mentions that the BIEL is going to have 20MHz spectrum with FDD (frequency-division duplexing) support which will enable it to provide services like those of a mobile operator in addition to data services of a WiMax operator.
The BIEL will get LTE spectrum from two different bands – in 2510-2530 for uplink and another 20MHz from the 2600 band for downlink – whereas Banglalion and Augere got their spectrums from one band each.
According to the guideline, a WiMax operator will get spectrum in single band.
“When we participated in the auction it was clearly told that three operators will get 35MHz each in a single band. Banglalion took one slot in 2585-2620 band, Augere Bangladesh took one in 2330-2335, and the remaining one – which is a dedicated slot – is now for the third licence in 2365-2400 band,” an auction participant told the Dhaka Tribune.
“After five years if the BTRC now wants to change the spectrum awarding policy to give someone illegal support, it will not be justified.”
“Mobile operators are planning to participate in the 3G auction with the spectrum floor price fixed at $20m per megahertz. That means the price of 20MHz spectrum will be at least $400m [equivalent to Tk32bn],” a high official at the telecom ministry told the Dhaka Tribune.
As the FDD was a mobile service, Ollo could also provide 3G mobile services after getting the licence. “Giving the multimillion-dollar facility for only Tk2.15bn is like giving it free,” he said.
BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose declined to talk to the Dhaka Tribune despite repeated attempts. The Tribune emailed two questions to him as well as the commission’s public relations officer but they did not reply. Sunil declined to talk to the Dhaka Tribune correspondent on the issue at a programme recently.
Spectrum Mughal
The BIEL and the NGGL had already taken 7MHz each in 3.5 band. The NGGL has also been awarded another multimillion-dollar spectrum of 20MHz in 800 band free of cost. Telecom operators have termed it a “digital dividend.” The BTRC is now facing a writ petition against the allocation.
The NGGL and BIEL already have the 34MHz spectrum together. “If they get another 20MHz, they will be spectrum Mughals in the country,” a high official of the BTRC said requesting anonymity.
He said there was proof that the Access to Information (A2I) project of the Prime Minister’s Office requested that the NGGL get the 800-band spectrum in 2011.
Meanwhile, the BTRC has already permitted the BIEL to import LTE and WiMax equipment. The BIEL is also enabling its BTS sites with LTE, Yulia recently said at a press conference.
