Non-Payment Of Tk 24cr
Citycell denies it violated conditions
Mobile phone operator Citycell has denied any violation of conditions to pay Tk 246 crore dues on account of breach in licensing conditions. Citycell came up with the denial plea in reply to a notice of the telecom regulator asking the mobile operators to pay Tk 246 crore in outstanding dues for violating various licensing conditions. Officials of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said Citycell in a letter on Thursday claimed that it paid 49 per cent of the spectrum charges as received lower than the 10MHz spectrum allocated to the operator.
BTRC officials said the operator also demanded amendment of the licensing guideline to allow the operator to switch to GSM technology from the existing CDMA technology.
‘Citycell submitted its reply and denied any violation in payment as it received lower spectrum than it was allocated. It also said as far as other payments are concerned, the operator is trying to pay those,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age on Thursday.
He said Citycell also requested the BTRC to cooperate as the company is going through financial hardship.
‘We will place the reply to the commission for a decision,’ he said.
Citycell in its reply also said it was losing subscribers every month as the country’s mobile market is dominated by GSM technology.
The operators demanded amendment to the licensing guideline within six months so that it can switch to GSM technology.
BTRC officials said the major part of the dues that Citycell owes came from 2G spectrum and annual fess, which is around Tk 230 crore.
In total Citycell has Tk 246 crore in dues to the government, another BTRC official told New Age.
He also said BTRC had issued six letters since December, 2013 to Citycell for the payment of dues but did not receive any response from the operator.
As the first mobile telecom operator, Citycell started its operation in 1993 with CDMA technology.
The operator intended to move to the widely-used GSM technology, but the BTRC rejected the proposal on the ground that the company had huge amount in dues, said officials.
According to the company website, Singapore’s SingTel owns 44.54 per cent shares of Citycell, Pacific Motors Ltd 37.95 per cent and Far East Telecom owns 17.51 per cent stake in the company.
The latest data of BTRC showed the operator had 13.06 lakh active subscribers in November.
-With New Age input
