Public hearing on Robi-Airtel merger today
Staff Reporter
The public hearing on the merger of Robi-Airtel will be held at 10:30 am today.
SM Golam Sarwar, senior assistant director, legal and licensing division of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), have confirmed of sending e-mails to 168 selected people from different prowess to come and opine at the public hearing. The public hearing will start at ten thirty in the morning at the BTRC office in the capital.
BTRC head Shahjahan Mahmood have said that they will send the proposal to the post and telecommunication ministry after the public hearing and the impact study of the merger.
The hearing will be presided over by the BTRC chairman while commissioner ( Legal and licencing), commissioner (spectrum management), among others will be present.
This will be the countrys first ever merger of two mobile phone operators Robi and Airtel Bangladesh. Earlier, the regulator Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) set February 17 for the public hearing where government/semi-government/autonomous organizations, telecommunication service providing firms, mobile phone user, Bangladesh consumer association and related professionals as well as any person could take part, said a BTRC notification yesterday.
Interested person or organisation were requested to enlist themselves by filling up selected form available on www.btrc.gov.bd by February 8.
Moreover, if any organization/person has any observation regarding Robi and Airtel merger, they were requested to send it to the BTRC chairman by February 17, BTRC.
Bangladeshs third and fourth mobile phone operators Robi and Airtel initiated merger process and applied to BTRC for permission on September 9 last year. On the other hand, the parent companies of Robi and Airtel on January 28 signed a merger deal in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur that would make the combined entity the second largest operator in Bangladesh.
The merger is now awaiting the approval from the telecom regulator.
The public hearing is being held in line with the Telecom Act 2001, procedure 87.
According to Telelcom Act 2001, Public hearing and its procedure- (1), if the commission, on the basis of an application or other information, is of the opinion that in the public interest a public hearing on a matter relating to the exercise or proposed exercise of its power or on any other matter is necessary, it may hold public hearing.
But, about the merger, Telecom Act 2001 at its clause 37 said where the licensee is a company, society or partnership, the compulsory obligation of such licensee to take prior approval of the Commission in the following cases: any change in the ownership or share capital of the company, society or partnership, which has the effect of transferring the control over the activities under the license; or merger of the company, society or partnership with any other company or enterprise: Provided that, while giving such prior approval, the Commission shall consider whether or not the person, company or enterprise, who or which will acquire control over the licensed activities due to the proposed merger or change, is eligible for obtaining a license, and whether or not the change will affect the continuity of those activities.
