Mobile phone operators in the country will file two separate applications today, one to telecom regulator for rescheduling the spectrum auction, and another to finance minister for resolving the industry disputes over the upcoming 2G and 3G spectrum auction scheduled on April 30.
Senior executives of different mobile phone operators said this after a meeting with Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose.
“In the meeting we requested the chairman to make some delay for the upcoming auction of 2G and 3G spectrum, but he refused to do that,” a chief executive officer of a mobile phone operator told the Dhaka Tribune last evening, seeking anonymity.
All CEOs from five private mobile phone operators were present in the meeting, where they placed the previous unresolved SIM replacement tax issue.
Before the first 3G spectrum auction in 2013, the telecom regulator and the Finance Ministry also assured the opertors of solving the issue but it still remains unresolved.
On March 1, parent companies of the four leading mobile operators of Bangladesh expressed their inability to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction.
They sent a joint letter to Finance Minister AMA Muhith. The letter said the parent companies are interested in acquiring more spectrum for better services, but their investors are not.
As the unresolved issue was further placed in the meeting yesterday BTRC chairman once again requested the operators to write the finance minister about it.
“We are going to write a detail letter to the finance minister on Thursday,” said the CEO.
The government is scheduled to auction the remaining spectrum of 1,800MHz for 2G service and 2,100MHz for 3G service on April 30 and could earn $648 million if all the spectrum blocks are sold at the base prices.
“Operators have lots of unresolved issues like SIM replacement tax and VAT issue and they are concerned about it. Before making any conclusive decision they need to be clear about it,” TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) told the Dhaka Tribune.
Sources said except the lone state-owned mobile operator, Teletlak, all other operators are preparing for spectrum auction and March 29 is the last date for filing applications for participating in the bid.
Earlier in 2013, 3G spectrum auction was rescheduled for fourth time.
