The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has postponed the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) auction since it is not prepared to arrange it on September 28, as scheduled earlier. The BRTC issued a notice in this regard yesterday evening.
Without mentioning any specific date, the telecoms regulator, however, said the auction will be held sometime in October. “BTRC chairman Sahjahan Mahmud is in the USA with the Prime Minister’s team. He will be back next week. But by then, the commission will be busy arranging the SATRC programme, which will be held from October 4 to 6,” a BTRC official told The Independent.
The auction has been postponed at least thrice. The government had earlier announced that mobile subscribers would enjoy MNP facilities from February 2016. However, a BTRC official told this correspondent that MNP would not be fully implemented before March or April next year. After the auction, the winning bidder will have six months to install the service.
The BTRC finalised the list of bidders recently. They are REVE Number Ltd, Greentech International Ltd, Infozillion BD Tecletech Consortium Ltd, Brazil-Bangladesh Consortium, and Roots Infotech Ltd. The government will choose the highest bidder for the services and it will be given a 15-year licence to run the MNP system.
The base price of the auction has been fixed at Tk. 1 crore, while the bank guarantee would be Tk. 1 crore. The annual licence renewal fee will be Tk. 20 lakh, while the company will have to share 5.5 per cent revenue with the BTRC.
Any company owned by a Bangladeshi or expatriate Bangladeshi and registered in the country will be eligible to bid in the auction. Foreign companies can also take part in the auction in partnership with a Bangladeshi firm.
The BTRC has instructed that foreign companies can hold as much as 51 per cent shares in the partnership, but they must invest in a foreign currency with no chance to mobilise funds from the Bangladeshi market.
MNP allows subscribers to switch operators within the country without changing their phone number. They can avail of the facility again after 40 days with a subscription fee of Tk. 30. The finance ministry approved the price.
Seventy-two countries, including the neighbouring India and Pakistan, have already adopted the system, while Singapore is the pioneer in the field.