The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday rejected mobile operator Robi’s proposal to transfer 31.01 per cent share of mobile tower management company edotco Bangladesh back to the edotco group. The decision was taken by the telecom regulator during its commission meeting. Malaysia-based edotco group earlier wanted to buy back a major portion of its shares from the mobile operator as it was trying to get a full licence to run its operations in the country.
Under the draft tower company guidelines, an entity having a relationship with a mobile phone or WiMAX operator cannot apply for a full licence. In response, Robi, holding 51 per cent share in edotco, sent a letter to the BTRC stating that it wanted to sell 31 per cent share of edotco Bangladesh to edotco group. The commission meeting, however, did not pay heed to this proposal, even though the minutes of the meeting obtained by The Independent said that if edotco gets its licence as a tower management company, both local and foreign investment would increase, and Bangladesh would be able to enjoy the global-scale facilities of tower management. Despite this, the commission refused to approve the share transfer. Talking to The Independent, Md Sarwar Alam, secretary of the BTRC, said they are not considering the share transfer now. A senior official who preferred to remain unnamed said the commission decided to reject Robi’s proposal since it did not find the
transfer feasible at the moment. When contacted over the matter, a senior official of Robi-Axiata Ltd said he would not comment on this matter as they have no official information in this regard. The tower company edotco has been conducting its business in Bangladesh by obtaining a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the telecom regulator. Another official with the BTRC said that if it is conducting its business properly, then it would not face any problem in getting the licence.
The regulator, however, said as per the draft guidelines for tower companies, they have to take a new licence. The draft guidelines also say that foreign tower management companies must have a local partner and will not be allowed to operate on their own. The BTRC was informed about the ownership restructuring of edotco on July 20 in a letter signed by Supun Weerasinghe, chief executive officer of Robi. At present, edotco manages over 7,500 towers of the six mobile companies operating in Bangladesh on the basis of a no-objection certificate from the BTRC. With the proposed share transfer, edotco Group would have held 80.01 per cent shares of edotco Bangladesh and the remaining 19.99 per cent shares would have been held by Robi. The company edotco Bangladesh was established in June 2013 with the objective of providing communication infrastructure services to customers, according to its website. Its product offerings include a complete range of site portfolios from ground-based sites, rooftop towers, in-building solutions, cellular-on-wheel, custom-built sites and solar energy.