The mobile phone operators have opposed the latest amendment to the broadband wireless access service guideline which allowed frequency mobility for the WiMAX operators.
They also said the amendment would create uneven licensing regime in the country.
In a letter to posts and telecommunications minister Shahara Khatun the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh on Sunday termed the amendment ‘discriminatory’ as it had made the WiMAX operators eligible to acquire spectrum of any band.
It said the mobile phone operators were investing huge amount of money in the 3G and 4G/Long Term Evaluation technology; but if the BWA operators
were allowed to use such spectrum at lower price, then market would be unstable.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in early October 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 if an ISP, alone or in partnership, wins a BWA licence, its ISP licence and the assigned frequency would be cancelled.
The AMTOB said according to the latest amendment, the BWA operators would be able to get any frequency band, including 700 MHz and 2600MHz, if they wished.
‘This seems to be a clear discrimination when mobile phone operators are restricted to certain spectrum,’ it said.
The association said that in the National Frequency Allocation Plan the 2600 MHZ was mainly marked for mobile telecommunications and reserved for mobile operators.
It also said the possible allocation of 700 MHz and 900 MHz, which are popular frequencies for the LTE technology, could be a constraint for the mobile industry.
The AMTOB also said that the process to determine the value of the spectrum for the BWA operators was not specified in the guideline.
The mobile operators are investing huge amount for 3G and LTE spectrum which the BWA operators will get in much lower price as the licence cost of the BWA operators is much lower than the mobile operators, it said.
The AMTOB also questioned the eligibility of the ISPs for holding the BWA licence as the latest amendment made it legal.
BTRC officials said the latest amended was initiated to facilitate an ISP operator, Bangladesh Internet Exchange Limited, which applied for the BWA licence recently.
The BIEL, a subsidiary of Russian company Multinet, is providing internet services in partnership with New Generation Graphics Limited under the brand name of Ollo.
The BTRC amendment to BWA guideline also mentioned the reference source of the amendment order as BTRC/LL/BWA(407)BIEL/Part-1/2013-996, which clearly indicates that the amendment was initiated in reference to a BIEL document, they said.
The BIEL took part in the 2008 auction held for allocating three WiMAX licences. The company became sixth in the auction.
When winning two companies refused to take the licences, the BTRC offered the BIEL to get licence but the company refused too.
-With New Age input
