The government will review the conditions for licencing and tendering for mobile number portability (MNP) to make the rules transparent, says State Minister for Telecommunications Tarana Halim.
Published : 15 Dec 2015, 11:52 PM
MNP allows subscribers to switch operators without changing their existing numbers.
Industry analysts say an auction bidding may cause qualified organisations to be shut out of the process and lead to a collusion between bidders and mobile operators.
But the minister ruled out any such possibilities while speaking to bdnews24.com on Tuesday.
She said they are packing more conditions for the bidding eligibility in an effort to make it ‘transparent’.
But Halim would not elaborate on details of the conditions.
The issue was discussed in a Tuesday meeting with the Prime Minister’s ICT Advisor Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy, she said.
On Dec 2, the finance ministry endorsed the proposed MNP policy after which the telecoms regulator rolled up their sleeves for the bidding.
But industry pundits fear that since the auction focuses solely on price, there’s a risk that bidding the lowest guarantees the job at the cost of service and quality.
“We will have to see whether auction bidding can be held for licencing. Technical qualifications are important for a grading. We need to make some revisions to ensure transparency,” said Halim.
The MNP guidelines, approved by the government, stipulate an auction bidding process to award the licence with the lowest bid set at Tk 10 million.
An industry expert told bdnews24.com that an auction bidding process may well land the job to an incompetent company in collusion with a mobile operator.
If that happens, there’s a possibility that the introduction of MNP facilities will get delayed, he added.
There are allegations that some of the interested bidders are in the process of colluding with mobile-phone service providers.
The government says they are taking measures to prevent anything like this from happening.
“Avoiding any kind of conflict of interest is our top priority. The conditions (for taking part in the bidding) will discourage them (mobile operators) from attempting. They will not even get a chance to take part through a third party,” said the minister.
He did not give any details over what changes are being made.
Any registered Bangladeshi company or entities owned by Non-Resident Bangladeshis can take part in the bidding.
Foreign companies interested to bid must have a Bangladeshi partner. In this case, the foreign partners can own maximum 51 percent stake and they have to arrange funds from overseas.
Owners, directors, partners, investors or shareholders of a mobile operator licensed in Bangladesh will not be able to bid.
The licence will be awarded for 15 years and from the second year of operations, the company will have to share 5.5 percent revenue with the government.
The MNP guidelines clear the mobile-phone operators to charge Tk 30 from the subscribers for the facility.
Apart from various countries of the Americas and Europe, the MNP facility is available in neighbouring India and Pakistan as well.