Supreme Court decides Citycell future Thursday

The Supreme Court's decision on whether to allow Citycell to continue its operation will be pronounced on Thursday.

An Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice SK Sinha scheduled the order after hearing a plea by Bangladesh's oldest mobile-phone operator on Tuesday.

Citycell, the country’s lone CDMA operator, owes the government Tk 4.77 billion, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

In July, the regulators BTRC made public the process to close down Citycell for its failure to pay the dues. The operator received an official notice on Aug 17.

The court asked the BTRC's lawyer Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh to get his client to present a roadmap for possible resolution of the conflict over dues.

"The amount due here is very specific. There is no scope for conflict over license fee or frequency fee. Mobile operators are paying us according to prescribed rates," the lawyer told the court on Tuesday.

The court then asked for details on payments by other operators.

"The earlier verdict by the Appellate Division said we have to pay two-thirds of the portion we agree is unpaid," Mostafizur Rahman, Citycell's lawyer, later said.

"We heeded the verdict and paid the two-thirds amount. Despite that, our frequency has been denied, operations closed down and we were told not to use the telecommunication equipment."

"We told the court that we have complied with the order. What the BTRC did is not right. The BTRC is saying that two-thirds means two-thirds of the dues claimed," said the Citycell's lawyer.

The lawyer said Citycell should be receiving frequency up to 10MHz but was being allotted 6Mhz in Dhaka and a little over 2 MHz outside the capital.

"This shows that we are not getting the frequency we were promised. The BTRC's rule stipulates that a portion of the licence and frequency fee must be paid upfront while the rest is paid in instalments from running business income.

"How will I do business if I don't get frequency? How will we pay up?"

"They therefore cannot impose fines and interests until our full frequency is provided. They can make a claim based on the frequency they are providing now. We accept that much."

The Appellate Division on Aug 9 allowed the struggling operator to pay back the dues in two instalments while continuing its operation.

Barrister Khandker Reza-e-Sakib, who is assisting Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, had then said Citycell will have to pay Tk 4.77 million, the due amount before Aug 17, in two parts.

After Aug 17, the dues will go up by Tk 1.8 million every day. The court ordered Citycell to immediately clear the daily dues and warned that failure to do that would leave the way open for BTRC to adopt measures.

BTRC officials, accompanied by police and RAB, entered Citycell's headquarters in Mohakhali on the evening of Aug 20 to implement the order about stopping its frequency.

State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim then said Citycell only paid Tk 1.3 billion of the Tk 3.18 billion dues meant to be paid in the first part.

Citycell then moved the Supreme Court for an order to stay the decision to cancel their frequency. The matter was sent to a full bench for a hearing on Oct 31.

Citycell claims the actual amount due is not Tk 4.77 billion but Tk 2.30 billion, two-thirds of which stand at Tk 1.44 billion, which it has paid in keeping with the court's order.