The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is running the engineering and operation departments of its spectrum management division with two non-technical commissioners as the regulator is short of two engineer commissioners.
The two will also have to run the whole regulator for almost next two months as of the three existing commissioners, including the chairman and the vice-chairman, Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose will go on four tours to different countries.
Officials at the BTRC said it was a crucial time for them as the commission was dealing with sensitive issues such as multimillion-dollar spectrums, 3G licence, Wi-max and NTTN.
They said the vacancy at engineer commissioner level at this time was creating a lot of problems.
According to the telecommunication act, two of the five commissioners must be engineers.
The BTRC had one engineer commissioner, who had served for one and a half years before his contract ended this month and was not extended.
“We have requested the government to nominate two commissioners for the betterment of telecommunication regulation, but that is yet to happen,” BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told the Dhaka Tribune on Thursday before leaving for a tour of over two weeks in the USA.
He, however, said one post would be filled “shortly” as reappointment of outgoing commissioner ATM Monirul Alam was under process at the public administration ministry.
On his tour Sunil said: “My absence will create no problems as I have had everything sorted. We held a meeting three days ago and will have another after I return.”
Sources at the commission said Sunil would return on September 29 from California, USA, but he would leave for Nigeria shortly and attend another programme in South Korea on October 12 and leave again for Switzerland later.
In the absence of the chairman, Vice-Chairman Md Giashuddin Ahmed will run the BTRC administration mainly the accounts, system and service divisions. Besides, he has to oversee an engineering division because of a vacancy there.
Md Abdus Samad, commissioner for legal and licence, is looking after the spectrum management division as an additional charge. The director general of the division will accompany the chairman on his tours.
A high official, who has been with the BTRC since its start in 2001, said: “The commission has never faced such challenges before It also a very crucial time when mobile operators are going to launch 3G mobile services.”
