Dhaka – Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has planned to call spectrum auction by June to launch 4G service, but mobile phone operators said they are not yet ready to provide the service.
“It is expected that the 4G service will be introduced by June to ensure faster data service for the mobile phone subscribers,” BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood told The Independent.To this end, BTRC formed a committee in its 202nd meeting. After getting recommendation of the committee, the regulator will finalise the issues like floor price of auction, tech neutrality.
BTRC chairman also said the guideline committee will talk to the mobile phone operators regarding the launch of 4G service.
The telecom regulator has finalised its proposed licensing guideline for 4G services and it will be sent to the government shortly for final approval. BTRC has proposed Tk 15 crore as licence fees for 15 years and another Tk 7.5 crore as annual fees.
Welcoming the initiative, telecom operators said time is needed for this. “To launch the service we have to take preparation to assess business case, investment and other necessary issues,” they added.
The operators, however, said they had not receive any roadmap for providing 4G service.
Seeking anonymity, a top official of a mobile phone operator told The Independent that “BTRC will launch the 4G service and it will be provided by the operators. But we have learnt the news by reading newspaper. It is not possible to make investment plan and business case by seeing news.”
He also alleged that BTRC has fixed the date to launch 4G service by holding talks with equipment suppliers. He also said that vendors are always pushing for equipment sales but they never bother to think about subscribers’ interest.
When contacted Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate affairs officer at Grameenphone, told The Independent that “We are not participating the 4G/LTE auction if the government introduces the 700 megahertz spectrum without technology neutrality,”
Ekram Kabir, Vice President, Communications and Corporate Responsibility of RobiAxiata Limited, told The Independent that “Like other telecom companies, we are ready to launch new technology. We have been investing to develop our infrastructure”. He also said fibre 4G or LTE is the backbone of technology.
“Spectrum is the key element for launching 4G or LTE. Thus the government should think to auction all the bands of spectrum at affordable prices,” he added. – Staff Reporter
