News Title : Auction for mobile number portability licence in Feb

News Date : 2015-12-09

-Star Business Report
The telecom regulator will arrange an auction in February to award a licence to an operator that will provide mobile number portability (MNP) service. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission received the guideline for the auction from the telecom division yesterday and it will issue a gadget notification soon, said Sarwar Alam, the spokesperson for the telecom watchdog. Another BTRC official said they will publish an advertisement in newspapers by next week, inviting bids for the open auction. Many companies have shown eagerness to take part in the auction, the official said. The MNP service will help subscribers switch from one operator to another without changing their current number. Users will be charged Tk 30 for the service, which could be taken in three ways -- via text, web application or retail service outlets. The MNP is a much-awaited issue in Bangladesh, with its discussions dating as far back as 2008. The parliamentary standing committee on the telecom ministry too recommended rollout of the service several times. According to the guideline, none of the existing mobile operators will be allowed to participate in the auction. Fully-owned foreign companies too are barred from the auction. ADVERTISEMENT The winning company will pay the government a one-time fee of Tk 3 crore and annual fees of Tk 50 lakh. The licence will have tenure of 15 years, and from the second year, 5.5 percent of the revenue will have to be shared with the government. At present, more than 70 countries have the MNP service.

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