BTRC to issue tower sharing licence to 4 firms today
BSS, dhaka
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is set to hand over licences to four firms to operate tower sharing companies in the countrys telecommunication sector.
The telecom regulator has picked up the four firms, out of eight applicants, as those fulfilled the criteria required for mobile network tower sharing company license, said officials.
BTRC Senior Assistant Director Zakir Hossain told the news agency yesterday that Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar is scheduled to hand over the licences today to the selected firms at a ceremony at BTRC.
He said the firms edotco Bangladesh Tower Company Limited, TASC Summit Tower, Kirtankhola Tower Bangladesh Limited and AB HiTech Consortium Limited are being given the licences.
Officials said, earlier on August 16 this year, the telecom regulator issued notification of award (NoA) for the licences to the four firms.
Before the NoA, BTRC in a special commission meeting had finalised the name of the four firms following the evaluation under beauty contest manner and forwarded those to the posts and telecommunications division (PTD) for the final approval.
The officials said the decision was finalised based on a report of the 15-member evaluation committee which scrutinised the applications as per the tower sharing licensing guidelines. Currently, there are 30,000 towers in the country.
The telecom regulator received eight applications for the licences, within the extended deadline of June 11 this year.
As per the guidelines, license acquisition fee has been set at Tk 25 crore while annual renewal fee Tk 5 crore. Besides, the licences will have to share 5.5 per cent of their revenue with the government and another 1 per cent with the social obligation fund from the second year of the licences.
