The country’s telecom regulator has decided to amend the broadband wireless access (BWA) service guideline to incorporate LTE service-related clauses for facilitating the WiMAX operators to launch the service, officials said. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission officials said that the commission last week decided to form two committees to finalise the possible changes in the BWA guideline.
BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose presided over the meeting.
They said the amendment would enable the WiMAX operators to launch Long Term Evaluation service, a faster data service than 3G, as it would assign the spectrum to WiMAX operators for the service.
Although the WiMAX operators failed to fulfil their rollout obligation under the existing BWA licensing condition, the commission decided not to impose any penalty for the failure, an official said.
Currently there are three WiMAX operators in the country, Banglalion, Qubee and the latest Ollo.
BTRC officials said Banglalion and Qubee failed to fulfil the rollout obligation for WiMAX service but applied for frequency to launch the LTE.
‘The legal department of BTRC has recently proposed to impose fine on Banglalion and Qubee as they failed to fulfil the rollout obligation. But the commission decided to set a new rollout benchmark for the WiMAX operators by incorporating the LTE standards,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age on Thursday.
The commission also decided to incorporate detailed LTE regulation in the BWA guideline as the WiMAX operators are keen to launch LTE service, he said.
‘We will finalise the proposal soon and send it to the ministry for approval,’ the official said.
The BTRC in October last year amended the BWA guideline where it said the BTRC would be authorised to allocate necessary frequency for the existing and new BWA operators in suitable band.
The amendment also removed a provision that barred ISP operators to hold BWA licence and assigned frequency for ISP business simultaneously.
The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh criticised the BTRC move saying it would make the business case vulnerable for the telcos as they invested huge money in 3G service last year.
They also said frequency mobility for only WiMAX operator would create uneven licensing regime in the country.
The BTRC’s last amendment to the BWA guideline also created controversy as the regulator changed the guideline only to facilitate a single ISP operator.
-With New Age input
