BTRC changes MNP guidelines to shun delay

The Bangladesh telecommunication Regulatory Commission has changed the mobile number portability guidelines with a provision to award the job to second best applicant, if the first applicant fails to deliver, without floating new tender.
The change was made in a regular commission meeting last week presided over by BTRC chairman Shahjahan Mahmood.
The MNP is a service where a subscriber is allowed to switch mobile operator without changing his/her number.
‘The purpose of the change is to avoid any possible delay to implement the MNP. If the first company fails to deliver the work, then usually we have to run the tender process from the beginning which is time consuming,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age.
As the government is scheduled to introduce the service this year, such change was necessary, he said.
‘There are some minor changes also in the short listing process before the auction takes place,’ the official said.
He said the commission would soon send the revised guidelines for approval of the telecom ministry.
The telecom regulator is planning to hold the auction to award a licence in March with a base price of Tk 1 crore.
According to the MNP guidelines, a subscriber will be able to avail the service by paying Tk 30 and will have to continue with the obtained number for minimum 45 days.
The MNP licensee will have to have experience of handling at least 1 crore subscribers.
The MNP licence will be valid for 15 years and the licensed company will have to share revenue from second year of operation at the rate of 5.5 per cent.
Both local and foreign registered companies will be able to take part in the MNP auction, but a foreign company will have to apply in partnership with a local company and cannot hold more than 51 per cent stake, said the guidelines.
In June 2013, the telecom regulator asked the mobile phone operators to introduce the MNP service by January 2014.
But the operators expressed their inability arguing that it would be a short period of time for implementing such a service.
Later, the BTRC decided to appoint a third-party company to implement the MNP service.

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